stairs - to varnish or not?
 

Does anyone have any idea as to whether you can varnish the steps on the stairs, without breaking your neck afterwards, by slipping on them?

Varnish on steps
 

Yes you can, personally I wouldn't use a high gloss varnish and don't sand the steps to a glass smooth finish.

Dee ,
Give them a good sanding and cleaning off , then put a clear satin varnish on them . They should come up looking well smart!
Dont however put a coloured stain on firstly cos if you dont like it believe me its the worst job in the world to remove it again!

Definitely Varnish!
 

It helps keep the dirt down, and not ingrained in the wood! I took ages to stain my stairs and had to sand it a lot to get it back to its natural state & it looked so much better once the job is done!

Natural is nice but if you get the pine stain & add a tiny bit of teak stain you get a gorgeous warmer tone, of course test the colour on a spare piece of timber as over doing it is a killer to remove! :)

do...
 

my fella did mine years ago,gave them a good sanding and varnished them with yacht varnish...its for boats and very durable...theyr still good and so easy to keep clean...its cheapest in the long run.....

stairs
 

We used two coats of satin finish yacht varnish. Looks great and not slippy. Cheers, Eibh.

yacht varnish
 

Have been reading thread with interest. where would i buy yacht varnish????

hardware llike B&Q or a specialist shop???

cheers anne

stairs
 

Thank you to all who replied.
Now all I need to know is,do i varnish one step at a time while the children are at school ??? Or do I do it last thing at night before I go to bed ???
Will one coat do or will I need two,??? due to heavy traffic on stairs..

Hi, I varnished mine and they are lovely and bright. Everyone who comes into the house admires them. I wouold recommend doing them at night before bed, just one coat at a time, (as you cant walk on it until it is completely dry), and I would recommend giving them 3 coats especially if they get alot of traffic, and if you have corner steps I would even give those ones 5. It sounds alot but everyone tends to turn their foot on the spot on those ones.

One word of warning though, you will have to train the kids not to run on the stairs in their socks!!! We have had no trouble in shoes, but my son has come sliding down on his back quite a few times and was lucky not to break his ankle!! ( or god forbid...his neck for that matter).

If not in shoes, bare feet are the way to go!

Best of luck and enjoy your lovely new stairs!!

varnishing stairs
 

A very good tip for painting stairs is to do every second step, so that you can still use them. You will probably have to put some sort of marker to indicate which are varnished and which are not, and when you have the first lot done to your satisfaction, you then use them and varnish the rest.
As far as slipping is concerned that is a very real possibility particularly with children. However you can buy a roll of tape for that very purpose in IKEA, you just cut strips off and stick them to the edge of the steps. LIDL also sometimes do edging for steps of stairs.

varnishing stairs
 

Edging pads for stairs available in LIDL on April 8th

stairs
 

Use Matt varnish for the steps . Better than satin even . Sand , dust off and wipe with a damp cloth , begin at the top of the stairs and work your way down .
Dulux diamond coat is great , water based (wash out brush in water ) , no fumes and you can walk on it ( in socks) to second coat it after an hour or two , dries in about half an hour . So get stuck in in the morning and they can run upstairs wwhen they get home .

Stairs Varnishing
 

Have a look at a product called Diamond Glaze.After you colour the steps with whichever stain you choose,use this to seal and follow the instructions giving the steps as many coats as you can.It dries pretty quick and gives a safe and extremely durable surface to walk on.Good luck

stairs
 

To all who have taken time to respond thank you, I will take all advise on board, and hope to eventually get to post some photos,of my work to date.
Again thank you all.

painting stairs a colour
 

my twin is mad to paint her stairs a quirky colour, the wood is dire anyway, but the house itself could in years to come be sold, if the economy ever gets back on its feet, does doing something as bold as this devalue a small house?
she is thinking of purple!!!! and a footprint on each step!
palminnie1

Painting a stairs purple!
 

Well to be honest if i viewed a house with a purple stairs i'd not be one bit keen to buy as... i'd be thinking how the heck am i going to get that off, as i prefer natural wood than carpet on a stairs! I'm sure your sister's idea is nice but i'd only do that on a stairs to an attic or something so you can hide if you need to! Each to their own on the other hand, it does sound unique.

stairs painting
 

Will attempt to show a stairs I painted recently ..See what can be done !!

WOW!!!!!!

WOW WOW..Thats absolutely gorgeous. Well done for being brave!!

Yikes!!!! Bril!
 

right, compettition is up and running on this one for sure...that is absolutely fantastic, wait til the sis sees this one, or two. or three!
xpalminnie1
i think if you google you will find that painting stairs is an art form, we googled and you wouldnt believe what we saw.
x

The lady showed me a Magazine pic of a striped stairs carpet and asked could I imitate it with paint and then the walls . Prime the steps . paint on the stripes with MATT (only)(sample testers are ideal ) emulsion and apply 5 or 6 coats of water based Diamond Glaze eggshell or satin varnish......

Well its stunning..I cant think of any other way to say it!
I can see me pulling up the old boring carpet now!!!!
Thanks for sharing that.

wow.
 

FANTASTIC. was going down the varnish root myself for our stairs, would love to try out stripe effect. well well done.
regards
anne

twins stairs again!...
 

I love these pinkie stripe stairs, but for the sedate small cul de sac and with a view to sell when market rises, twin and i putting heads together.
my twin also has parkinsons so we are thinking of cleaning and non slip and step awareness.
in the bathroom and small corridor outside. linoleum with small black and white squares - cut on the diagonal to make look bigger - good for keeping clean with a dog.
then like the pinkie steps, a black and white stripe/strip down the side but of diff widths. THEN for twin to watch the change for footstep, at the lip a horizontal RED strip on each step.
finally, the banisters painted black or white, with a red handrail.
the banisters are actually wonderful carved and turned wood so wonder if ruining.
the small town house defo needs modernising but not so much as to 'put off',
finally we decided on a reddish/pink tinge on lower wall, the beading (sure there is another word for that) half way up, in white, as above again its cream.
what think ye?
the hall floor can be covered eventually in a red luxurious carpet, that leads into a beautiful floored sitting room and fab mod floral curtains in reds and green to frame a fantastic garden twin is creating, seen through patio doors, hey presto design extradinaire!!!

Wow!!!!!
 

LOVE LOVE, LOVE those striped stairs :)

varnishing stairs
 

use a water based mat varnish, not a solvent based one, there will be a bit of shine if you put layers of it on it, but it will bring out the grains in the timber and can be used over wood stain,
Hope this helps you.

Regards
jude1

update on the twin/stairs et al!
 

right, colours are chosen and it will be stripy.
I managed to tone em down from purple! but boyo the colours are great. we were sitting there and she spied a vase with coloured flowers, gentle colours and perfect.
Now, as she does the stripes, does she use masking tape?
i find they leave a none too sharp edge, but i may be wrong, if she uses emulsion?
Will post when its done, sure it will be brill actually.
lots of tips on these pages, we shall follow, well she shall follow, i will inform!!!