Lightening stairs

Re: Lightening stairs

Barry Irby

Do they have any scraps of the new floor? It looks like white oak to me from the picture. Some of it is labeled on the back. Traditionally, if it has red text on it, it's red oak. IF the text is black, it's white oak.

Don't have much experience with the bleach, but it's messy and has to stay on the wood as much as overnight. I doubt the client wants to live in the house while that is going on.

You could sand and stain or pickle the treads to lighten them. Won't match, but will be lighter.

Re: Lightening stairs

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

There are a lot of problems here.

1. The treads are not oak of any kind. I can't tell, maybe fir. Could be birch but unlikely.

2. The new floor is going to darken and yellow because that is what finish and wood does with age. Do they want to match today or 5 years from now?

3. The color of the treads is probably some combination of wood color and finish darkening color.

4. Bleach is unpredictable.

Bottom line, it is not possible to advise what to do to get a closer match. Paint the treads would be my advice. If fir there is no way to make fir look like white oak.

Re: Lightening stairs

Dick Coers

Bleach won’t work on top of clear finish, so it has to be stripped. That’s probably going to have to a mechanical process or the treads have to be removed. Chemical strippers applied in place will be a mess against the wall or risers. That’s one ugly job.

Re: Complete waste of time and money

C John Hebert

If ever there was a time to walk away...it would be this time. It would be a wicked mess and in the end, an unhappy customer without changing the treads and replace with new wood of the same species

I'm in agreement...

Jim Matthews

Applying bleach is best done in controlled settings (on a bench, where there's ventilation).

If the profile is a full round over, is it possible to flip the treads over?

They *might* be lighter, underneath.

Re: Complete waste of time and money

John McGaw

When I first read the post I thought "replace the treads and be done with it." That still looks like the best option as 5/4 oak treads can't be all that expensive to either buy or make.

I have to agree...

John in NM

We all have to learn this one, sometimes the easy way (advice from those who've learned it already), sometimes the hard way (accepting the job and ending up with unhappy customers and no profit), sometimes the really hard way (repeating #2 over and over).

I got lucky and learned it the really easy way, working for a guy who kept doing #3 without learning from the experience

Bottom line, the only way to give the customer what they want is to replace the stair treads with the same species and finish as the floor. It will match now, and it will age the same as the floor. Next best is to convince them that they want something else - like the painted tread that Bill suggested.

Carpet

Do you think your customer would be happy . . .

Yonak

. . . with stair treads painted the color of the walls ? That would be pretty easy. Put on several coats so it doesn't wear through soon. (Maybe in conjunction with Clint's idea of carpet.)

^This.

Jason Roehl

Staining to “match” one species of wood to another is a fool’s errand. Wood is so variable that if you were to get something that sort of looked like one piece of wood, the customer would want it to look like a different one, or the “average” (which you would NEVER attain).

I’d either replace the treads, or bow out gracefully from the job. Been there, done that, learned the unprofitable lesson.

Jason

A Fools Errand

David Yoho

You not only have the task to change the look of the stair treads but there's also a post and two hand rails to consider. Honestly, unless you're determined to go at this to prove something, your best bet is just walk away!

Some may want a new finish over a matching wood type or some may be looking for just the finish color to match the new flooring. Either way there's too many chances to screw up adjacent painted surfaces, which will add to the overall cost, and make more work. Sometimes you just have to know when to walk away. Not saying this job can't be done but at what cost and inconvenience to the customer?

Re: Complete waste of time and money

Tara Desmond

Thank you somuch! i was having the same concerns, and being only 2 months in to being self employed as a finisher i wasnt sure at all if this was going to work out!

Re: Complete waste of time and money

Jim Dillon

Tara, way, way late to the parade, but I agree with the other posters. Gracefully, suggest to your clients that paint, carpet, replacement treads (with the flooring wood) etc. might be a better option to blend the colors of the original treads with the new flooring. Those suggestions might seem counterintuitive to them, but what you are being asked to to do is difficult to achieve. LOTS of refinishing experimentation on the bottom side of the treads might eventually yield a satisfactory result, but at what cost to your bottom line. Anyway, good luck in your new endeavor and keep us posted. Jim