jerome8283

I would like to stain my stairs and would like some pointers. I'm just about finished removing the baby blue paint . I would like to stain them Red Cherry. The stairs get meduim traffic and I'd also want to know how to protect the finish.

The banister appears to have some sort of finish on it and I'd also like to know how to approach preparing it for staining as well. I attached pics.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Brushslingers

Nice wood, ya a cherry wouldn't look too bad but i'd prolly go with a medium oak, the grain is wrong for a cherry. Just brush it on (I like old masters for this type of thing btw) and rub with a cloth before it drys to get it consistant. I'd prolly go with a oil based gloss poly, once it's walked on for abit it will fade down to a normal look. The rail looks like it was replaced later with a different type of wood, which is why I wouldn't go cherry... looks like a natural stain on it so it won't be too hard to hand sand the finish off and stain the same way. Go with a semi-gloss poly on the rails to match the steps, the stain on the rails now will help the darker stain and lighter wood match the steps.. done.

But, thats just my opinion.

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Benn

jerome8283

Thanks! What does medium oak look like? I have other cherry wood in the house which why I wanted it. I would consider medium oak if it's close looking to cherry wood.

Brushslingers

Depends on the stain, most are somewhat reddish to get that red "feel", but cherry is REALLY red. Go visit your local paint store, they all have samples you can take home and sorta match up to what you have now. From the picture it looks like pine steps with maybe a birch handrail... hard to tell from three quick pictures, birch wood... if that is what you have there... and a red oak stain LOOKS like cherry.

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Benn

Peladu

I gotta say, it looks like you did an awesome job stripping those stairs!

I could have never done it...

jerome8283

http://www.harmonycedar.com/images/c...-grain-500.jpg

It might work.

jerome8283

Thanks. I thought I would never finish it. It took a lot of time. If you saw what it looked like before you would have found it in ya as well.

Brushslingers

Ya thats on pine... This is some doors I recently did, birch with old masters... provencial I think... anyhow, most people think they are cherry.

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Benn

jerome8283

[quote=jerome8283;141489]Thanks. I thought I would never finish it. It took a lot of time. If you saw what it looked like before you would have found it in ya as well. [/QUOTE

Here's the best pic I could find that show the baby blue stairs before I hit them with stain remover.

Excuse my nasty edit to remove the person from the pic.

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jerome8283

Nice doors!

Brushslingers

Heh, thanks... at that point they needed another coat of clear, but at least you get the picture. Wish I had a before.. GAWD they were ugly.

Oh and ya, that upright post marbling is certainly birchwood. Beauty grain. You may have to do the steps twice to get it red enough to match. Take your time sanding the handrails. If you are going to clearcoat the steps, you may want to think about sand strips too, little bit of water and someone will be hurtin.

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Benn

Teetorbilt

You will want to apply a conditioner on the pine for even a semi-uniform finish or the early wood will soak up the stain like a sponge.

Colors. If you like Cherry, go Cherry. I'll bet that most of the people that you know are not woodworkers and will never know the difference.

I rub in stain using cheese cloth and GLOVES. Try it and you'll understand why.

Final finish. I'd go oil, everybody here knows that it's my preference. I'm still not sold on water-based polys especially on flooring. The stuff is just too soft for my taste.

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Terrence

Teetor is spot-on.

Water based poly is easily
scratched and well, weak.

Oil finish is TOUGH.

Joewho

You must work on wood . Water based poly will harden, and it will hold up, even on floors. I never trusted it either, but have had to use it. The thing about wb poly is that it is very thin, you need 4 coats to equal one coat of oil. Also, wb poly bubbles and due to quick dry time....you know what i mean.

I'd use quick dry oil poly for the top coat. It will give the smoothest finish.
In addition to a conditioner, you can always make up your own with alcohol and shellac. You can adjust it then for different woods that aborb stains at different rates.
Or, you can just get shellac'd with alcohol and tell me to go to hell.

slickshift

Conditioner
Brush and wipe
Oil-based stain
Oil-based poly

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

jerome8283

I meant to ask this before, is it require that I do a lot of sanding before applying the conditioner?

Joewho

oops.

Joewho

As far as conditioner goes, no. As far as appearance, yes.
I can see in the picture that you need some significant sanding on the stringers and treads. I can see the old finish or stripper residue all over. That will be magnified when you stain and finish.

Once that is done, there are some light areas where you've sanded harder. The whole project needs to be sanded evenly to a uniform tone. That pine is aged and has it's patina. Sanding harder in some areas removes the patina (yellowing), to a whiter tone, like new wood.

Conditioner will only even out the dark/lighter grain contrasts to a point. It won't hide anything.

Just being honest and to the point.

Good news, canned conditoner is very user friendly. It's not like a coat of finish or stain. You can roll, brush or throw it on there. Just wipe off the excess.

I didn't follow the links to the stain, I'm assuming it's pure oil stain. Slow drying will allow you time to manipulate the stain. Don't get any stain with any kind of sealer or finish in it. Just straight pure stain.

Don't put conditoner on the handrails and spindles. They are harder wood and won't absorb the stain as much as the pine. With conditioner on the pine, it won't absorb as much, thus being darker than the rails and spindles. At least that's the goal. To make them look the same.

Teeter should pop in here to help.

Hope I've contributed.

ps. as a matter of fact, the spindles and rail look like oak, much harder than pine. You may need to stain them twice to achieve the same tone as the pine. I would go with one coat conditoner, one coat stain on the pine.
And two coats stain (no conditoner) on the oak. Pine is soft and you should start with maybe 150 grit and work your way to 220. You don't need to overdo it with all kinds of grits. Then clean the dust off with a tac cloth, thinner or something like that. At that point, if you're satisfied, stain away.

pps: as a novice, follow teeters advice and use a rag with gloves. reason being is if you use a brush, the stain will lap over the corners and when you go under the stairs to stain the bottoms, there will be an extra line of stain, if not runs and drips. You may want to get a couple of small white china brushes, like the bbq sauce brushes, to pull stain out of the corners. There are lots of little corners on this project to pay attention to.

ppps: I know this is a lot of info, but it's accurate and if you follow step by step, you'll wind up with a better looking job. Lots of experience condensed into a post.

jerome8283

Thanks guys! It will be a few weeks before I start but i will post pics when I'm done.

Brushslingers

Oh, one last thing... I would use a sanding sealer on the handrails to get them baby butt smooth before coating them with poly. Goes on just like the poly but you will be able to sand it after it dries, tack cloth it and poly from there... it turns white when you sand but remains clear under the poly coat. Don't need rough handrails/spindles...

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Benn