Our Step’s Redo

When we started our renovation, we were going to just replace the carpet on the steps with the carpet we were taking taking out of the family room or living room. They were still in good condition. We did that in our old house. We used the carpet from under the couches and other areas that did not get much wear, to replace the carpet on the stairs, which then still matched the carpet upstairs.
You could see Part 1 and Part 2 of our Main floor renovation. 
Here we started to remove the carpet.

We found that several of the steps had Liquid Nails and screws on them. We think it was an attempt to try and remove the squeaks. It didn’t work. You could also see there was a pile of dirt, it was so GROSS.

Once we removed the padding we found LOTS of staples.

We used a screwdriver to remove the staples that held the padding down.
  
We tried to remove the Liquid Nails with a scraper and hammer.
 
This was the worst step, which had the most screws in it.
  
This is what they looked like, not very pretty!
  
To try and remove the paint on the steps we used this Citristrip. It is a safer stripper than the other strippers on the market. We bought it at Home Depot.
 
We brushed it on relatively thick, and let it sit for an hour or two. We stripped half of the steps at a time so we could still use the steps.
 
This is a picture of the stripper at work.

We then used a putty knife to scrap off the bulk of the softened paint.

We then used a green scrubby pad with water and Basic H in a bucket, and then wiped down the step with a dry rag.

This is what it looked like, after it was wiped down. It came off way easier that I thought, but we were still left with all these screws. Ugh!
 
Here are the steps half stripped.
   
This is the view looking down.

Some of the steps had ink stamps marks on them that needed to be sand off.
 
We used a Multi-tool to sand the steps to remove the ink. We bought this tool a few months ago and already have used it for several projects. We really like it!!!

Here we are sanding some of the remaining liquid nails.

This is the step with the most screws.

We drilled the screws in a little farther and then filled the holes with a Elmer’s wood filler, and let it dry. 
 
This is where the crews were patched before we sanded the wood filler. The bottom of the picture shows the gap by the bottom step we put some shims in it to try and eliminate the squeaky steps, which only helped a little.

These are the screw holes that were filled and then sanded. Much better!
 
Here are the steps after the stain, before the polyurethane. Still not so good, but better than the carpet.
 
Here are the steps with the poly. and then we taped it off so we could paint the rest of the steps.
 
After we painted we removed the tape, shortly afterwards, so we could remove any paint that seeped under the tape.
   
While scraping the paint with a cloth and my fingernail, I scraped off some of the paint that was on the riser, which then needed to be touched up.

We put hardwood flooring on the landing.

After we put the hardwood floor on the landing there was this gap that we put quarter round on and caulked. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it after it was done, and I don’t feel like doing it now.

Here is a picture of the corner round on the bottom gap. The top step is the step with the most screws and glue on it. It turned out not too bad.

This is a picture of the gap before, and all the patching.

Here are the bottom steps done.
  
These are the top half of the steps.

The steps are pine, the landing is oak, and the bottom step is plywood, but they all look good together. None of them are perfect, but we like them.

This is another picture of the steps before we stripped them.

My husband did an awesome job of cutting the hardwood flooring around the steps.

So what do you think?
Thank you for stopping by,
Parents of a Dozen