With pets in the Uncle Atom crib, we have been in the anti-carpet camp for years. The only carpet left has been the old beige stuff covering our basement steps.
So the other day I took some time to finally rip the stuff out and expose the wood.
I pulled all the tack strips and nails, and it looks like the stairs had some kind of non-skid treads based on the faded areas.
Now I need to see if I can eliminate some of the worst squeaks, and figure out how to best refinish the treads. It has been an adjustment, we're all having to get used to stepping down an extra inch or so.
(BTW, I'm testing the Blogger iPhone app here, so please excuse any formatting differences. I have to see if this will let me do some posts this week from the Worlds Longest Yard sale - three more days to go!)
Well, I guess this Blogger app thinks all my pics should be st the end of the post and not in the order I wanted. I guess you'll get the idea. That's our cat Tommy enjoying the carpet one last time. Bye bye carpet.
ReplyDeleteUncle,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you have old. close grained pine treads that were originally stained and then sealed with a polyurethane or similar. That's good news - with a goos dusting, and a light sanding with a fine grit sandpaper, you should be able to get them restored in no time. Bona makes a good water based floor poly that you might want to try.
As to squeaks, it usually means the fasteners are no longer holding. My uses is you have 8D or 10D nails holding the tread down. Given the wood composition and age, your best bet is to get one nail out of the wood somewhere, take it to the hardware store and go one size up. The identify your noisy treads, and nail them down AFTER drilling pilot holes where the nails should go with a small diameter bit. That way the nail goes in and holds, but you don't damage the tread. nail it jut proud of the tread then use a nail set to drive it home.
Thanks for the tips Philip, I'll give that a try.
Delete