Stairs

[fptahoe]

Need some advice please.  I pulled up the carpeting on the basement steps and they are all pine.  My wife wants to put a carpet runner on the steps leaving the sides of the treads exposed, and so now I need to stain the treads and paint the risers.  On staining and finishing the treads, a couple of questions:

Should I use some type of sealer before staining to make sure the stain goes into the pine evenly - the color of the stain is espresso, so a dark stain.  The pine does not have any stain or paint on them and is bare wood.

After the stain, I wanted to use a water based product like Arm-R-Seal or Enduro-Var as a finish, but am wondering if I need an oil based poly.  Since there is a runner, the stained and finished part of the tread will get very little traffic on top, but still needs to be somewhat durable.

Any other advice on this project would be appreciated.  Thank you as always...FPT

[Splinter Puller]

Need some advice please.  I pulled up the carpeting on the basement steps and they are all pine.  My wife wants to put a carpet runner on the steps leaving the sides of the treads exposed, and so now I need to stain the treads and paint the risers.  On staining and finishing the treads, a couple of questions:

Should I use some type of sealer before staining to make sure the stain goes into the pine evenly - the color of the stain is espresso, so a dark stain.  The pine does not have any stain or paint on them and is bare wood.

After the stain, I wanted to use a water based product like Arm-R-Seal or Enduro-Var as a finish, but am wondering if I need an oil based poly.  Since there is a runner, the stained and finished part of the tread will get very little traffic on top, but still needs to be somewhat durable.

Any other advice on this project would be appreciated.  Thank you as always...FPT

Yes to the pre treatment before staining.  Water bourne poly is just as durable as oil based.

[MsNomer]

If you stain pine darker than the hard grain, you will get reverse grain, which is what gives pine it’s bad rep. Be sure to test first and absolutely pretreat.

[jteneyck]

Arm-R-Seal is oil based.  EnduroVar is a waterborne.  Both will work fine but I'd go with EnduroVar just because it's easier to use and dries very quickly.  If you decide to put it over an oil based stain let the stain dry for at least 3 days first.  

John

[Wipedout]

We did our oak stairs with Waterlox

[jteneyck]

We did our oak stairs with Waterlox

Did you do every other tread so you could still walk upstairs on the others, then do the remaining ones after the first set was done?

John

[Wipedout]

Yes. And I put a big piece of painters tape on the ones that haven't been done so no one forgets

[Cooler]

Despite the labels saying that a poly finish dries in 24 hours or 48 hours, generally a "full cure" is 200 hours (about 7 days).  And even that is not a full cure.  The finish continues to cure for probably months. 

I have a poly finished piece that is 22 years old and the finish is harder than the identical finish that is 6 months old.  This is even more so if you lay down several coats. 

In any event I would try to minimize traffic for the first week.  If you are putting down carpet runners then it becomes a non-issue, but rushing the carpet installation could cause the backer to adhere to the finish. 

I put a clear desk blotter on a table top I finished with oil based poly.  I waited two days before putting down the plastic sheet.  I am quite certain that if I attempted to remove the blotter now, it would tear up at least half of the finish.