Replies

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Mar 15, 2003 03:18pm | #1

   the only way all of the scratches will come out is to sand it down to bare wood,  then restain & refinish.. long process..

    how do they get around the stairs while this is being done ?

   quick and dirty.. get a bunch of the smallest cans of Minwax polyshades.. all ABOUT the same as the treads..  you have to experiment with matching, then you have to spot sand and stain finish..I would then give it one coat of teh same stain finish polyshade you used to match the scratches..

   then lightly sand the entire tread, and build the finish up with a sanding sealer (fast dry poly).. when you start to like it, give it two coats of regular poly..

   how long will this take ?... three days ? four days ? who knows .. gotta dry between coats , hard enough to sand.. you  MIGHT get 3 coats of sanding sealer on in a day... the poly needs about 8 hours between coats and a day after the final coat..

   how much should you charge for this ?..... hah, hah, hah..tell her to take acruise and finish all her floors while she's gone ... if there is no one in the house except you... then you can figure on one to three days, depending on dry times

   doing every other tread is possible, but the traffic will dump a lot of dirt in your wet finish and make the job MORE than twice as long...

   you can get by with two coats.. but it won't last longer than it takes for the check to clear...

   but hey, whadda i no ?

   Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

2. 
   dtaylor137 | Mar 15, 2003 07:19pm | #2

   I've had some success blending as suggested. A total strip down is time consuming as you do need to sand and scrape down to bare wood. The benefit is a better over all finish. With the right tool you should be able to strip each tread in 20 - 30 minutes. When finishing you could do every other one and wait a few days so they could still use the stairs. (if they are physically able to do 2 stairs at a time, not all my clients are able to.) The thing with pine treads is that they'll see scratches again in the not to distant future as the wood is so soft. My folks had a house with wide plank flooring (12 -18") which was square nailed down. The lady who owned the place previously apparently loved to wear high heels, needles really. The floor looked like the moon's cratered surface.

3. 
   UncleDunc | Mar 15, 2003 09:09pm | #3

   My first reaction was a line from the Monty Python movie, The Holy Grail. "Brave Sir Robin ran away. Bravely, bravely ran away."

   Then I the thread about replacing door jambs. I'd say prepare two estimates, one for refinishing the pine stairs, one for replacing them with a more appropriate flooring wood.

   http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages/?msg=28557.1

1. 
   dlb | Mar 15, 2003 11:17pm | #4

   You are too funny!! That thought entered my mind but when you need work you need work.  I appreciate all of the input received so far and look forward to other suggestions.

   Thanks again,

   dlb