Refinishing Birch Staircase

[Brian Livingstone]

Hi,

I am about to refinish a 20 year old birch staircase.  I removed the balusters and hand rail to make sanding and staining the treads easier.  All natural birch now.  Plan to stain the treads and paint the risers and balusters white.  Will strip the hand rail and stain as well.

I sanded the treads with my Ro90 worked great.  Used my rts400 to scuff sand the risers.

Using GF java gel stain.  So primer and pre cat epoxy.  I will spray the balusters.

Thinking about the ls130 to sand the radius of the treads.

Any advice ?  Paint first then stain ?  Looking for Bona for the finish.  Hard to find in Nova Scotia.

Thanks.

Brian

 

[Cheese]

If you're going to use Bona on the stairs, make sure you use their AS (anti-slip) version. I finished the stairs with the regular Bona and the wife, 2 dogs and a friend all slipped on the stairs. I then recoated with Bona AS...great stuff.

The LS 130 will work nice on the front radius, just be careful because it can leave a slight depression on the top of the tread if you get too aggressive with it. I'd sand the radius first and then sand the tread to blend in any differences.

 

[tiralie]

Using GF java gel stain. 

Check to make sure they are using the chemical pigments that are color fast.

So primer and pre cat epoxy.

...on what?

Thinking about the ls130 to sand the radius of the treads.

Good machine for this but unless the paint is really tough you could use a soft pad on a ets or RO 90.

Any advice ?  Paint first then stain ?  Looking for Bona for the finish.  Hard to find in Nova Scotia.

I would probably choose Loba over Bona but haven't used either. Check out some of the floor floor guys on Instagram. and the #floortalk hashtag for some discussions about applications etc. Outstanding work.
Tim