Refinishing Hardwood Stairs and Treads

Stairs are the first thing people see walking into most homes, and they take more abuse per square foot than any floor in the house. They are also the part of a wood project most often done poorly, because stair work is carpentry rather than flooring.

Here is what to know about refinishing or replacing hardwood stairs in a DMV home.

Why stairs are priced differently

Homeowners are often surprised that a staircase can cost as much as a whole room of flooring despite being a fraction of the square footage. The reason is that stairs are not measured in square feet — they are measured in pieces, and every piece is custom.

Each tread has to be cut to fit its own opening, because stairs in real houses are rarely identical to one another, particularly in the older homes common across DC and inside the Beltway. Treads get notched around skirt boards, fitted around balusters, and given a finished nosing on the front edge. There is no rolling a machine across it. It is individual measuring, cutting, fitting and fastening, one step at a time, and then finishing every exposed surface including the vertical risers.

Refinishing an existing staircase

If you already have wood stairs that have gone dull, worn through in the middle of each tread, or been painted over, refinishing is usually straightforward.

The wear pattern on stairs is very concentrated. The center of each tread and the nosing take nearly all the traffic while the edges stay almost pristine, which means sanding has to even out a floor that is worn in stripes. It is hand work in tight quarters rather than machine work across an open field.

Nosings deserve special attention. The front edge of a tread is the most worn and the most structurally important part of the step, and a rounded, worn nosing is both a look problem and a safety one. Badly worn nosings can often be repaired or replaced individually rather than replacing the whole tread.

Replacing carpeted stairs with wood

This is the most common stair request we get, and it changes the feel of an entryway more than almost any other single project. The process runs like this:

• Pull the carpet and padding along with every staple and tack strip. This is tedious and it matters, because a single missed staple telegraphs through a finished tread.
• Inspect what is underneath. Stairs built to be carpeted were often made from construction-grade lumber never meant to be seen, and the treads may be too shallow, unfinished, or squeaky. This is the moment you find out whether you are refinishing existing treads or installing new ones.
• Fix squeaks and structure while everything is exposed. This is the only easy opportunity you will get.
• Install treads and risers, each cut to its own opening. Risers are typically painted and treads stained, though matching both to the floor is also common.
• Sand and finish, by hand and in far tighter quarters than a floor.

Matching stairs to your floors

The most common mistake is treating the staircase as a separate project from the floors. When stairs and floors get finished at different times with different stain batches, the mismatch is obvious precisely because they meet at the landing where everyone looks.

If you are refinishing floors and redoing stairs, do them together. Same stain, same finish, same crew, same week. If the stairs have to happen separately, we take the color from the existing floor and test samples directly against it rather than working from a number in a catalog.

One nuance worth knowing: treads are usually a different thickness and often a slightly different cut of wood than floor boards, so they can take stain a little differently even when the species matches. Testing on the actual tread material is the only way to be sure.

Living around the work

The practical question everyone asks is how to get up and down while the stairs are being finished. If the house has a second staircase, it is simple. If not, the work gets sequenced so the stairs stay passable, often by finishing alternating treads so there is always a usable path, at the cost of a longer schedule.

We plan this with you in advance rather than surprising you on day one. Our refinishing timeline guide covers how cure times affect the schedule.

Railings and balusters

Stair work often expands once the treads are exposed, because the railing system is right there. Refinishing a handrail to match new treads, or swapping wood balusters for iron, are both common additions and both are considerably easier to do while the staircase is already apart than to come back for later.

Frequently asked questions

Planning stairs, floors, or both? Request a free in-home estimate and we will look at the staircase and tell you whether you are refinishing, re-treading, or rebuilding.