The Grand Staircase

I finally began renovating my staircase this week. I ripped up the carpet that was on them a year or so ago and have been putting off painting the woodwork and refinishing the treads. Our woodwork has many layers of paint on it and I have been putting off painting it as I decided how much effort I wanted to put into the project (ie., stripping it or just painting yet another layer on it). I have decided that some woodwork will get more attention than others.

I started with the newel post. It appears that at one time it had been stained and sealed, but when it was painted, it was painted with latex paint (which doesn't adhere well to oil-based finishes), so in many spots the paint came off in large pieces. In fact, I was using my shop vac to clean as I went, and often times the vac could pull the paint up itself. VERY COOL.

I'm going to paint the newel post and the balusters ultra white, but stain the handrail. I'd really like to replace the balusters with turned ones. Got a couple of building salvage places in nearby towns to check out in hopes that I can get used ones for a decent price. I need 30 of them.

Managed to get the newel post stripped in a day. The railing was done the following day. Making good progress!

I have started to focus on scraping my risers. There doesn't seem to be many layers of paint on them, so I'm just evening it out—sanding it down after some scraping—and going to prime over it. I also have a lot of hole filling to do from where I removed nails that held the carpet to the risers.

I am going to refinish the treads myself. I read that it can cost $45-65 A TREAD to hire someone to do them. I'm too cheap for that. I bought an orbital sander and plan on starting that project soon. I want to get my paint scraping done first though. After I've refinished the stairs, I'll assess how badly I want to refinish the other hardwood floors myself. To hire it out would cost about $1-3 a square foot. I am sure I can do it myself, just a matter of how badly do I want to? We'll see...

Prepping the skirting for paint will take me some time to do. There used to be a phone line tacked to the board that was then painted over many times. Consequently, the woodwork looks terrible where the phone line was. This part is going to be tedious! But it will be well worth it.

Also, a couple of the treads have cracks along the grain. I've been doing some research on how to address that issue. It will take some time for me to do, I think. Also, virtually every one of my steps is noisy as can be so I am planning on screwing/countersinking them down to the risers so the wood won't rub on the nails. Lots of prep work to do! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project!