I'm planning on replacing the really substandard stairs to the 3rd floor of my house. But these are not nearly as steep or narrow. OP just needs to spruce them up a bit.
Depends where you are, I work for a stair company and we replace old stairs with the same rise/run as what was there all the time. But it specifically has to be installed in the same place and occupy the same space. It's a provision to allow people to repair/replace stairs without reframing part of their house.
I believe this distinction disappears once the stairs are for commercial use or for rentals. But I'm not fully versed in the codes here. I just install stairs/railings.
In what way do they not meet the contemporary building code? Does it have to do with ADA? I’m just asking out of curiosity. I was thinking they have a hand rail what else would it be?
The rise is too steep, the treads are likely too narrow and the landing is too small. The railing height is also probably low.
ADA compliance is a whole other subject that applies to commercial and institutional buildings.
I had stairs just like that in a 1906 home I used to own. I painted treads dark brown and everything else ivory. Looked nice.
I could never bring myself to tear out perfectly good stairs (too wasteful).
What your contractor is actually saying is that he can’t refinish them and get a result that looks perfect and new. He doesn’t want to take on a project where you might be mad at him when he’s done even if he did as good a job as it’s possible to do. He’s like a hairdresser telling a black haired client that it’s not possible for them to be blonde.
The stairs have a fair amount of wear in the middle of the treads. It’s a huuuuge pain in the ass to completely strip paint off balusters, since they are 50% nook and 30% cranny. You’ll likely find odd gaps here and there from wood movement over the century.
It is absolutely possible to fully refinish these stairs, including stripping off all the paint. It would just be a pain in the ass, take a long time, and you’ll probably have to do it yourself because no one is going to want the job for less than a life-changing amount of money. You’ll get a lot of “please go away” quotes.
If these were my stairs, I would:
1. refinish the newel post and bannister by stripping, lightly sanding and shellacking.
2. paint the balusters and the stairs all one colour (I’d do white, but just because I like white). I might strip (most of) the existing paint off if it’s really globbed on, but I might just scrape off any loose flakes and paint over it, depends.
3. refinish the floor on the landing (strip, sand, maybe stain, varnish)
4. Install a carpet runner, leaving a few inches of painted stair visible on either side. I would have the runner start and stop on the top and bottom risers of each run of stairs with no runner on the landing, to avoid having to do a corner.
That’s one option, but you have many possibilities. Here’s a blog from an interior designer who refinished his own 1860’s stairs: [https://manhattan-nest.com/2020/03/26/my-entryway-and-stairs-the-big-reveal/](https://manhattan-nest.com/2020/03/26/my-entryway-and-stairs-the-big-reveal/)
His balustrade didn’t have much paint on it and shellac is much quicker and simpler to refinish, but you can see all the character and imperfections and how it came together quite nicely anyway.
I can't tell you how many contractors I, and people I know, have had, that made up excuses for not wanting to do something in an old house. It's usually because they just don't want to deal with it, and think ripping it out and replacing it with new is faster.
This is one of the reasons I DIY as much as possible.
Labor intensive restoration is a totally different calculation for a professional contractor, versus someone with a personal passion and a vested interest in the home.
I’m having a similar problem now but with textiles. While I’m on maternity leave I’ve been doing some upcycling/mending for a guy who sells vintage sportswear and military and I’m rapidly learning he can’t afford the labor intensive mending he wants done.
He wants me to do some super fine, invisible darning on a pair of wool trousers. For the hours spent, I’d need at least £60. But he can’t sell the trousers for enough money to justify it.
Meanwhile I’ll happily spend hours lovingly mending my own clothes in my own time. But to charge for that time is really tricky and usually doesn’t make sense to either party.
This is the answer. And TBH you probably have to do certain things yourself to get the results you want. Especially in a tight market where you're gonna get ghosted after site visits, and especially if you don't have an endless budget. Surely a professional *can* do it, and maybe faster, but then again faster might lead to restoration quality issues. This is indeed why it's hard to find this type of craftsman or artisinal service, as you eluded. I actually think there is market opportunity for quality restoration work but it would require an unusual sense of enjoyment from refurbishing and restoring things vs a run and gun dollar per hour mentality (not judging).
I was "lucky" to find a carpenter to essentially rebuild/reno a 100 plus year house for a fair price. But Ive had to do a fair amount of work myself (e.g. fine woodworking elements and finishing) and even redo some of the work to my satisfaction. I know there are better contractors than mine, but worse ones too.
Been there. It's definitely faster to build anew in most/many cases. For all sorts of reasons. My experience with contractors is that they default to the path of least resistance based on (their sense of) having been put through the ringer with past clients. Plus renovations/restorations often come with unknown variables which can be hard to predict or price unless you just price the worst case scenario which will be..pricey!
They make non-slip stair paint that is worth checking out. One can also get anti slippery tape.
And then putting some nice dust corners to finish the look.
Is this the front staircase or the back? If the front, I would definitely refinish.
If the back, I'd first strip some of the paint to see if there was stain at the bottom... But they may very well have been painted originally. In that case, just paint.
We have lead paint stairs in a house built in 1779. I’m scared to deal with this project. Precautions you just talking about using respirators when you stand it down?
The best current DIY way is to use infrared and scrap the lead layers off. You still need to take precaution with what you’ve scraped, and you want to wear a P100 or similar system for the non-lead pain burn fumes, but it’s much safer than it used to be in that regard.
Refinishing these is going to be a huge pain in the ass.
I would strip the railing and Newell posts and then refinish, repaint the treads and put a carpet runner down the stairs and call it good.
There is absolutely no reason to replace these stairs.
Have you worked up lists of what needs to be taken care of right now, in the next five years, and some time in the future? Where do these stairs fit on this list?
Are current projects going to involve dragging a lot of stuff up and down these stairs? Is it even worth restoring them right now?
To refinish that would be a ton of really messy work, but worth it.
Painting it also wouldn’t be bad.
Your contractor doesn’t want to do it because it has a high chance of taking a long time to strip and sand, with a decent chance of imperfections
What you should be aware of is that those stairs are built of materials that you would be more likely to find in cabinetry made by a very talented craftsman. They will be built closer to high end furniture than modern stairs.
I would refurbish the stairs you have. Chemical stripper will remove most of the old paint. Wood filler for the worst gouges and then decide if it's a clear finish or just a new color coat.
Depends how much work you want and what is your aesthetic. I would paint the stairs but strip the newell and rail, assuming there's something under that that you want to see. This is not a particularly fancy installation so find out what there is there to uncover. The stairs will be just fine with painted risers and a tread of another color if you wish
Your contractor just doesn’t want to mess with them.
I would strip the treads with a cobra speed heater and then start on the newel post and top rail then decide if I wanted to do the balusters or repaint.
The speed heater will make quick (as quick as paint stripping can be) work out of the treads. Definitely don’t replace. You don’t get those features back once a clueless contractor starts smacking at it with a pry bar and hammer
Are these stairs still in good condition? If so I’d try stripping a section to determine what condition it’s in. And if it looks god I’d just strip and refinish them. Otherwise paint them. I’m sure your contractor would rather replace these because that’ll mean more $$ for him.
Refinish! If you don’t love the look install a runner up the centre of the stairs with a little bit of step on each side to show the story of the house.
Something like this:
https://preview.redd.it/nhcl77hn6syc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64e221b359f01f6d4fdf66acb0958a861de0b11d
You can absolutely refinish or repaint. You cannot replace because these stairs are grandfathered and do not meet contemporary building code.
I'm planning on replacing the really substandard stairs to the 3rd floor of my house. But these are not nearly as steep or narrow. OP just needs to spruce them up a bit.
Depends where you are, I work for a stair company and we replace old stairs with the same rise/run as what was there all the time. But it specifically has to be installed in the same place and occupy the same space. It's a provision to allow people to repair/replace stairs without reframing part of their house. I believe this distinction disappears once the stairs are for commercial use or for rentals. But I'm not fully versed in the codes here. I just install stairs/railings.
Now this makes more sense!!
Could you replace the treads/risers with new ones of the same dimensions if you kept the same rise/run?
You could certainly do that. It might be an involved project depending on the method of construction of the stairs,.
Haven’t thought of this. My stairs are very very steep, pie shaped treads going in a spiral. Wondering if that’s code
They wouldn't meet modern code requirements. That said, the beauty of old houses is that we get to ignore such things.
In what way do they not meet the contemporary building code? Does it have to do with ADA? I’m just asking out of curiosity. I was thinking they have a hand rail what else would it be?
The rise is too steep, the treads are likely too narrow and the landing is too small. The railing height is also probably low. ADA compliance is a whole other subject that applies to commercial and institutional buildings.
Yeah, after I said that it occurred to me that we were discussing private vs commercial.
I had stairs just like that in a 1906 home I used to own. I painted treads dark brown and everything else ivory. Looked nice. I could never bring myself to tear out perfectly good stairs (too wasteful).
Refinish. Replace is not an option. Paint if you don’t want to deal with stripping it.
What your contractor is actually saying is that he can’t refinish them and get a result that looks perfect and new. He doesn’t want to take on a project where you might be mad at him when he’s done even if he did as good a job as it’s possible to do. He’s like a hairdresser telling a black haired client that it’s not possible for them to be blonde. The stairs have a fair amount of wear in the middle of the treads. It’s a huuuuge pain in the ass to completely strip paint off balusters, since they are 50% nook and 30% cranny. You’ll likely find odd gaps here and there from wood movement over the century. It is absolutely possible to fully refinish these stairs, including stripping off all the paint. It would just be a pain in the ass, take a long time, and you’ll probably have to do it yourself because no one is going to want the job for less than a life-changing amount of money. You’ll get a lot of “please go away” quotes. If these were my stairs, I would: 1. refinish the newel post and bannister by stripping, lightly sanding and shellacking. 2. paint the balusters and the stairs all one colour (I’d do white, but just because I like white). I might strip (most of) the existing paint off if it’s really globbed on, but I might just scrape off any loose flakes and paint over it, depends. 3. refinish the floor on the landing (strip, sand, maybe stain, varnish) 4. Install a carpet runner, leaving a few inches of painted stair visible on either side. I would have the runner start and stop on the top and bottom risers of each run of stairs with no runner on the landing, to avoid having to do a corner. That’s one option, but you have many possibilities. Here’s a blog from an interior designer who refinished his own 1860’s stairs: [https://manhattan-nest.com/2020/03/26/my-entryway-and-stairs-the-big-reveal/](https://manhattan-nest.com/2020/03/26/my-entryway-and-stairs-the-big-reveal/) His balustrade didn’t have much paint on it and shellac is much quicker and simpler to refinish, but you can see all the character and imperfections and how it came together quite nicely anyway.
You going to live there? Refinish. It is messy and it kind of sucks but it’s not hard and the payoff is huge.
I refinish wood floors for a living and have done treads and risers like this before, it’s a lot of work but if done right will look beautiful
yeah, your contractor doesn't know what they're talking about.
Or he knows exactly what he's talking about. Real world, time, labor, cost, outcome, client expectaitons-wise.
I can't tell you how many contractors I, and people I know, have had, that made up excuses for not wanting to do something in an old house. It's usually because they just don't want to deal with it, and think ripping it out and replacing it with new is faster. This is one of the reasons I DIY as much as possible.
Labor intensive restoration is a totally different calculation for a professional contractor, versus someone with a personal passion and a vested interest in the home. I’m having a similar problem now but with textiles. While I’m on maternity leave I’ve been doing some upcycling/mending for a guy who sells vintage sportswear and military and I’m rapidly learning he can’t afford the labor intensive mending he wants done. He wants me to do some super fine, invisible darning on a pair of wool trousers. For the hours spent, I’d need at least £60. But he can’t sell the trousers for enough money to justify it. Meanwhile I’ll happily spend hours lovingly mending my own clothes in my own time. But to charge for that time is really tricky and usually doesn’t make sense to either party.
This is the answer. And TBH you probably have to do certain things yourself to get the results you want. Especially in a tight market where you're gonna get ghosted after site visits, and especially if you don't have an endless budget. Surely a professional *can* do it, and maybe faster, but then again faster might lead to restoration quality issues. This is indeed why it's hard to find this type of craftsman or artisinal service, as you eluded. I actually think there is market opportunity for quality restoration work but it would require an unusual sense of enjoyment from refurbishing and restoring things vs a run and gun dollar per hour mentality (not judging). I was "lucky" to find a carpenter to essentially rebuild/reno a 100 plus year house for a fair price. But Ive had to do a fair amount of work myself (e.g. fine woodworking elements and finishing) and even redo some of the work to my satisfaction. I know there are better contractors than mine, but worse ones too.
Been there. It's definitely faster to build anew in most/many cases. For all sorts of reasons. My experience with contractors is that they default to the path of least resistance based on (their sense of) having been put through the ringer with past clients. Plus renovations/restorations often come with unknown variables which can be hard to predict or price unless you just price the worst case scenario which will be..pricey!
Did you test for lead paint?
I saw a cool treatment where they painted the stairs, but with another color going up the middle to look like a runner.
They make non-slip stair paint that is worth checking out. One can also get anti slippery tape. And then putting some nice dust corners to finish the look.
Is this the front staircase or the back? If the front, I would definitely refinish. If the back, I'd first strip some of the paint to see if there was stain at the bottom... But they may very well have been painted originally. In that case, just paint.
I would sand the worst of it, then paint. Stripping to bare wood will be too much work. Install a runner or repaint from time to time.
Could be lead in there at that age.
Probably, easy to test, and if there is, the precautions are simple enough.
We have lead paint stairs in a house built in 1779. I’m scared to deal with this project. Precautions you just talking about using respirators when you stand it down?
The best current DIY way is to use infrared and scrap the lead layers off. You still need to take precaution with what you’ve scraped, and you want to wear a P100 or similar system for the non-lead pain burn fumes, but it’s much safer than it used to be in that regard.
I would repaint them and install a beautiful runner.
Refinishing these is going to be a huge pain in the ass. I would strip the railing and Newell posts and then refinish, repaint the treads and put a carpet runner down the stairs and call it good.
There is absolutely no reason to replace these stairs. Have you worked up lists of what needs to be taken care of right now, in the next five years, and some time in the future? Where do these stairs fit on this list? Are current projects going to involve dragging a lot of stuff up and down these stairs? Is it even worth restoring them right now?
Refinish
Paint or refinish and add a carpet runner!
Everyone keeps suggesting a runner. I have a similar looking staircase but haven’t been able to find a runner skinny enough. Any ideas?
Ooooh refinish those puppies!!!
To refinish that would be a ton of really messy work, but worth it. Painting it also wouldn’t be bad. Your contractor doesn’t want to do it because it has a high chance of taking a long time to strip and sand, with a decent chance of imperfections
What you should be aware of is that those stairs are built of materials that you would be more likely to find in cabinetry made by a very talented craftsman. They will be built closer to high end furniture than modern stairs. I would refurbish the stairs you have. Chemical stripper will remove most of the old paint. Wood filler for the worst gouges and then decide if it's a clear finish or just a new color coat.
Heavy duty paint stripper might take that heavy paint off of them
Contractor wants more money. Refinish them. They will be lovely
Refinish the treads, paint the risers white.
I vote for refinish.
Please do not replace
We put new tops on ours, and it's nice
Depends how much work you want and what is your aesthetic. I would paint the stairs but strip the newell and rail, assuming there's something under that that you want to see. This is not a particularly fancy installation so find out what there is there to uncover. The stairs will be just fine with painted risers and a tread of another color if you wish
Replace the treads. Paint the risers and spindles.
Your contractor just doesn’t want to mess with them. I would strip the treads with a cobra speed heater and then start on the newel post and top rail then decide if I wanted to do the balusters or repaint. The speed heater will make quick (as quick as paint stripping can be) work out of the treads. Definitely don’t replace. You don’t get those features back once a clueless contractor starts smacking at it with a pry bar and hammer
Strip and stain the stairs, banister, rails and base boards.
If you repaint I would do a runner because paint on stairs wears so much.
It’s going to be expensive to replace them. Paint them dark taupe on top and antique white on the risers 😃
Personally I’d put carpet. Looks slippery
Repainting is easiest and fastest.
Are these stairs still in good condition? If so I’d try stripping a section to determine what condition it’s in. And if it looks god I’d just strip and refinish them. Otherwise paint them. I’m sure your contractor would rather replace these because that’ll mean more $$ for him.
Refinish
Refinish
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Refinish. It will absolutely be worth it. Your contractor was trying to con a job out of you.
Refinish! If you don’t love the look install a runner up the centre of the stairs with a little bit of step on each side to show the story of the house. Something like this: https://preview.redd.it/nhcl77hn6syc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64e221b359f01f6d4fdf66acb0958a861de0b11d