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basement pine wood steps
I have a house that is almost 8 years old. My basement steps are made of pine. They were stained by the builder and looked real good for about 4-5 years. Recently they are showing alot of wear(of the stain/color not material) and fading. I plan to re finish them. I am pretty sure (almost 100%) they never had poly or anything like that on them. If this is the case, do you think they were left just stained because poly or anything like that may get slippery when wet? This is my thinking anyway along with the floor type polyurethane may wear off and really look like shit then.
Anyone here have an opinion or method for what I am planning here? I was just going to stain them twice and leave that way. I am open for suggestions?
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basement pine wood steps
This was the first thing I did to our new house when we moved in 5 1/2 yrs ago. I sanded off all the over spray and stained it a medium oak. I finished with a water based polyurethane that I don't remember the name of, but it was good quality. We've had no problem with anybody slipping, and we have a 5yr old and a 3yr old. It still looks great if I do say so myself.
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basement pine wood steps
Minwax makes a water based "polyurethane" called Polyacrylic
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basement pine wood steps
Broken; I'll have to chime in with AnnBrush, Minwax makes top quality products. The last few years I was in the shop we used them exclusively. I don't remember for sure their web address, it may be on a can, but they will help you any tech questions you have about their products. Frank.
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basement pine wood steps
I would lightly sand the steps and rub in a stain that matches and cover it with polyurethane. It will look like new. I don't like the water base products but it is up to everyones preference. I always glue and tack down the rubber tread mats. I feel the chances of slipping with wet feet on polyurethane is all to likely to happen.
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basement pine wood steps
I don't like the water based products either. They seem to be harder when cured than regular poly but they don't have the oils in them to bring out the wood grain that I like. High contrast grain might not be an issue with your basement steps so in that case the waterbased should work well.
Dave
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basement pine wood steps
Great! So I take it that the consensus here is that I should use a poly. The builders more than likely did not do that because.. Hmmm They did not have too, its not their house, it was cheaper and faster not to. Will do on that poly. I have used minwax many many times. The polyacrylic I believe is the best for light color soft woods with no stain base to it. The oil base will tend to yellow or amber it. (hint: The whole interior of my second house is pine and much of it was left natural color) . My concern was with the steps being used all the time. I guess I should look into what is used on wood floors and go with that. Thanks alot guys/gals although you all just talked me into anouther 2 days of work I really do appreciate the input!
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basement pine wood steps
I built a mahoghany interior ladder (sort of a nautical style) for my kids' playhouse and added these adhesive backed grip strips to the treads, which work great. I can't remember the brand but I bought them at Lowe's or Home Depot. They are precut strips that come in various lengths, are about one inch wide and have rounded ends. They are black in color and made out of a sort of rough grit, very durable kind of sandpaper and are peel-and stick. Not only do they virtually eliminate slippage, but they have served to protect the finish on the treads from any discernable wear and tear. I put them very near (but not exactly on) the front edge of the treads, where it seemed to me that the most natural foot trafic would bear. You may have to use more than one per tread for stairs. My treads don't have polyurethane but were nonetheless quite slick from the fine sanding and tung oil finish that I applied. Your pine stairs would probably benefit greatly from a good coat of poly. Good luck.
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basement pine wood steps
Ardician
I know exactly what your talking about. My father was a big fan of this product. When I was cleaning his bathtub (which he had resurfaced with that porcilan coating) Do not use it on your bath tub surface. He put it on the top of the entry side. WOW, it took me 40 min. to get it off. you know what it did too. So I wound up buying anouther strip of it and put it where the mark was left. He put it on his treads from his living room down to his patio outside on the steps I built for him It has been there for 2-3 years now and still sticking great! Dont know what adheisive they use but it sire is good!
I wont be using it on the steps in my basement though. 2 reasons. 1. my wife is a clean freak and wipes and vacumes the steps weekly if not more. Anything that would hold dust and dirt would be inhibative of her doing her thing. The other is that I feel they shed that grit little by little and would add to the mess. 2. Plain and simple, these steps actually lead to anouther room I built in the basement, I want them to look like living quarters quality for the rest is all finished also.
But that is great info for people to consider in other applications. (Now watch when I am done I slip on the darn steps and wish I took your advice!)
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basement pine wood steps
Annbrush
I think no matter what product you use for a topcoat, they should be sealed first. If you are going to restain do that first. Then I apply a sanding/sealer product before topcoat.
You can apply waterbase over oil but not the other way around.
Oil base products will last longer.
If you are not opposed to paint, then a good quality porch deck paint over an oil primer will last for many years.
I put a little fine sand on the treads between coats,
on stairs that may be dangerous.
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