who does Furniture restoring?.. I need some advice..

[Dar]

my house is 150+ years old... however there was a fire in 1942 that gutted the whole house but they outside walls were saved... they (the original owners) bought a house up the road that was slated to be demolished and used the wood and stairs from that house to rebuild mine.

my best guess is the stairs were built in about 1900 - 1920's (why else would they be demoing a house that was in good shape?)

I have a runner carpet on the stairs now that was here when we moved in 5 years ago... but under the runner its a wonderful mustard yellow.. its pretty (insert sarcasm here) some of the yellow id starting to peel off revealing a wonderful brown thats the colour of a cardboard box... (again insert sarcasm)

I am figuring that these stairs are most likely a mahogany or oak under the many many layers of paint. Giving the fact that many moons ago there was led in the paint I know I have to be really careful so I dont want to sand it off.. I am thinking of a chemical stripper but I dont know whats best...

any suggestions would be great.

as you go up the stairs

around the top of the stairs.. all this carpet will need to come up and floor under stripped.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

That will be a tough job. I sure wouldn't want to tackle it myself, but if you are going to strip it in place I'd suggest "Dad's" brand striper. You can get a spray bottle to apply it, it seems to run less and "stick" better than any other brands I've tried. We use it alot on upright furniture such as wardrobes and pier mirrors. It isn't as strong as some others, so might take a few applications, depending on how many coats of paint you are dealing with.

It also doesn't smell as bad as most.


Good luck!

 

[Dar]

thanks... yeah I am lucky that its on the steps and not the railing and spindles.. i plan on doing little bits over the winter.. break it into small jobs

 

[Spookwriter]

Beautiful staircase.

Does it Y a the top?

 

[Dar]

Quote:
kinda... I have never seen a staircase like this...

if you are standing on the top stair... look to the right you have 2 steps to my daughters room.... then if you were to look to the left the bathroom is there but its on a landing thats about 3' X 5".. then there is 2 more stairs you have the office... stand on the landing you have 2 more stairs and it goes to the hall... so its like a 3 tined fork

 

[Dar]

this is standing in my daughters door...if you look to the right you can see the bathroom... the office is straight ahead... and the curved railing leads to the my room the spare room and my sons room

 

[Braclin]

For several coats of paint you can try a marine stripper. Works really well. You can pick it up where they sell boats.

 

[Dar]

Quote:
thanks

 

[bluesub]

Good luck. We have a house from 1863 and our stairs were carpeted. Under the carpet was plywood, under the plywood was linoleum, under the linoleum was plywood, under the plywood was pine (unpainted). We hired someone, they are gorgeous now...

 

[Dar]

Quote:
I am hoping because we only have a runner... we can see the true form of the stairs...we wont have the layered affect... just paint... there are a lot of curves in my stairs so to do all that would be hard...

a few years ago the women who lived in this house in the 40's stopped by.. they were on a trip down memory lane... their great grandfather (maybe 2nd great) built this house.. my house is called named the Watson house in the county archives... well these women are Watson's... anyway they remembered when they were young Granny painted the stairs cause she was tired of pop scratching the stairs with his work boots... so I am thinking i may have about at max 5 coats of paint... but its OLD thick paint...