# Hardwood Floors - Steps



## Road Guy (May 4, 2009)

Okay so I finished doing my upstaris floor in hardwood (3/4" Oak)

I am about to tackle the stairs, What do you think looks better, Do all of the stairs "hardwood" and stain the step and the riser the same color or do the riser white?

Anyone seen either done and which do you think looks better?


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## Supe (May 4, 2009)

What's the rest of the room look like? Light colored walls? Is it a free-standing staircase, or is it adjacent to a wall? How dark a stain?


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## Sschell (May 4, 2009)

I think it depends on the style of the rest of your house... but probably stain both the same color.


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## snickerd3 (May 4, 2009)

if you want a nautical look or the country cottage feel then paint the riser white, but if those aren't the atmospheres you are trying to create, then stain step/raiser the same color.


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## Sschell (May 4, 2009)

^exactly what I was thinking... but phrased much better than anything I could come up with.


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## IlPadrino (May 4, 2009)

Wood-stained treads and risers seem more "traditional" (aka older) than just stained treads, while painting the risers and skirts seems more contemporary, especially when the color (e.g. white) is different than that walls along the staircase.

You might consider decorative risers (here's one) which can be really unique.


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## Chucktown PE (May 4, 2009)

I have the risers painted the same color as the trim/mouldings. IMHO, it looks funny to have the risers stained the same color as the tread.


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## FLBuff PE (May 4, 2009)

snickerd3 said:


> if you want a *nautical look* or the country cottage feel then paint the riser white, but if those aren't the atmospheres you are trying to create, then stain step/raiser the same color.


Yar!


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## EM_PS (May 4, 2009)

Road Guy said:


> Okay so I finished doing my upstaris floor in hardwood (3/4" Oak)
> I am about to tackle the stairs, What do you think looks better, Do all of the stairs "hardwood" and stain the step and the riser the same color or do the riser white?
> 
> Anyone seen either done and which do you think looks better?


Yeah, i don't know about making the riser diff from the tread unless going for a cottage-y look. Hardwood stairs can be very grand; but if i was to put carpet anywhere (even if just a center runner), it would be on staircases. its amazing how much easier on your feet, and often-times quieter, a carpeted staircase is over just bare hardwood.


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## Road Guy (May 4, 2009)

the moulding along the stairs is white, I think the white riser will look good, but its just going to be a little more work..

I guess what I need to do is pre-paint the riser and nail in with finish nail gun and then tape when I stain the tread?

Were getting all the carpet out of the house, "the boss" wants no carpet so I am forced to go forward with that vision...

the bad part is that the oak stair treads are about $40/ each!


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## MA_PE (May 4, 2009)

Road Guy said:


> Were getting all the carpet out of the house, "the boss" wants no carpet so I am forced to go forward with that vision...



As EM said bare hardwood is sure to be noisy. When you say all carpet out, I'm assuming that means no w/w carpet but area rugs instead. Thus you get the expense of the hardwood floors AND the expenso of rugs/carpet but dang it looks nice!


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## Capt Worley PE (May 4, 2009)

Rugs will slide like an SOB too.


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## Road Guy (May 4, 2009)

^-- thats pretty much it..

Our carpet has had it, I am basically putting in hardwood for about the same cost as paying someone to put carpet down, I am dreading the cost of the rugs.

Right now I did my daughters room upstaris and the hallway, when I get finished with the stairs were doing our bedroom and then I will wait until after the summer to do the two boys rooms.

It has really been pretty smooth, but to do it you really need , of course the flooring nail gun, a table saw, and a 2" finish nailer for the pieces next to the wall where the floor nail gun wont fit..

I also picked up this little tool for cutting off the door casing / moulding, it has been a huge time saver (of course my previous method was cutting these with a dremel tool and that was slow going)


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## TouchDown (May 4, 2009)

OMG - doing the same project in 2 weeks.

Picked up a flooring nailer from Harbor Freight - hope it lasts through the project - it's el cheapo.

As for the steps, I'm considering doing the following - tell me if you think it makes sense. I am doing brazillian cherry in all the upstairs and the grain in that is a little finer than oak - so instead of doing full treads, I was considering just capping the existing carpeted stairs with a 3/4" cap that's prefinished. I was planning on doing the white riser since I think it'll match existing house trims and there's not a lot of natural light in this stairway - so it'll lighten it a little (needed with very dark treads)...

Do you think capping stairs is OK - or should I look at replacing the whole tread and staining to match (even if the grain is a little different)???

PS - RG - let me know how your back / knees are doing - I'm a little worried that it's going to kill me when I start... Do you think 2 weeks is enough time to do ~1200 sqft? - including all trimwork?


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## TouchDown (May 4, 2009)

PS - what is that saw you picked up to cut the trim called? I've heard from a couple other people that being able to cut the trim quickly is a definite must when doing floors...


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## snickerd3 (May 4, 2009)

TouchDown said:


> PS - what is that saw you picked up to cut the trim called? I've heard from a couple other people that being able to cut the trim quickly is a definite must when doing floors...


my guess is a mitor saw.


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## OSUguy98 (May 4, 2009)

TouchDown said:


> PS - what is that saw you picked up to cut the trim called? I've heard from a couple other people that being able to cut the trim quickly is a definite must when doing floors...



I'd call it an undercut saw or a jamb saw... but I've heard the "hand powered" version called anything from a back saw to a Japanese back saw to and undercut saw...

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&amp;node=552932


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## Road Guy (May 4, 2009)

TD, 1200 SF, usually there is 20 SF in a bundle so 60 bundles, for me I couldnt do that in 2 weeks unless I took 2 weeks off of work! I put down 6 bundles yesterday and I was serioulsy ready to quit and start drinking beer...

Back &amp; Knees are feeling the abuse but its not been that bad, I tried wearing knee pads but you move around to much and then they just get out of place and become annoying.

I will look on the box to see what the official name is of the saw, I got it from Home Depot, it was about 100 bucks, but has been very worthwhile. I think Lowes also sells something similar.

You can get the prefinished "bull nose cape" for the stairs, just be careful when you cut the carpet. Our carpet was in bad shape or else I might have tried the same thing..


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## TouchDown (May 4, 2009)

Yeah, they are "forcing" us to take off time at work, so I'm planning on taking the last 2 weeks of May off of work. Wood is sitting in the garage (53 cases for me - like 21sqft per case). It's going to be a whirlwind few weeks.

We're tearing out all our cabinets and I'm having them professionally painted while I do the floors - a Granite countertop to go back on it when it's reinstalled. I'm ripping out all the 'soffits' above the cabinets and replacing a few can lights with pendants above a bar area. Scraping all the popcorn and then having someone else do the mud work while I start to lay the floor... rip out the carpet and install the prefinished hardwood in the kitchen, diningroom, livingroom, hallway, coat closet, etc... leave the master bedroom / closet until the rest of the house is liveable again. Then I've got to reinstall all cabinets, add a crown molding across top, tile backsplash, reinstall all appliances and reinstall the baseboard.

I think 2 weeks is pushing it a LOT, but I'll get done what I get done.

Once that's complete, then go back and install hardwood inthe master / closet, and tile the master and spare bathroom floors. Then I'll get to the steps.

As for the steps, I want full hardwood tread - no carpet runner. So, here's what I'm looking at installing:

Stair Tread Cap (3/4" thick)...


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## EM_PS (May 4, 2009)

Road Guy said:


> Were getting all the carpet out of the house, "the boss" wants no carpet so I am forced to go forward with that vision...
> the bad part is that the oak stair treads are about $40/ each!





MA_PE said:


> As EM said bare hardwood is sure to be noisy. When you say all carpet out, I'm assuming that means no w/w carpet but area rugs instead. Thus you get the expense of the hardwood floors AND the expenso of rugs/carpet but dang it looks nice!


We have all hardwood (Pergo) on our main floor, with two area rugs (btw, Lowes has pretty decent rugs &amp; prices) and two smaller throw rugs. I really like it, and its great for the kids &amp; any 'rolling' toys. Our dog, ~50lb aussie shepard, doesnt always negotiate the hardwood so good, even just standing, his paws will sometimes start to slip &amp; splay out - just take into consideration any pets like that, hardwood (pergo) is quite slippery for them.

Our upstairs, basement, and staircases, are all fully carpeted, however, and I really like that too! don't think i could go full hardwood thruout the house. . .and its quite a bit more upkeep (sweep / vacuum, mop) vs. just carpet (vacuum). And def with young kiddos, no way i could live with the noise. Good luck!


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## klk (May 4, 2009)

We (and when I say "we" I mean my dear hubby) did this project last summer. He installed about 600 sqft of hardwood in the living room, dining room and family room to match existing floors in kitchen and hallway and then refinished it all to match (about 900sf). In all of the home improvements "we" have done, the only one I wish we had hired someone to do was the refinishing. Prefinished wood is so much easier.



error_matrix said:


> Hardwood stairs can be very grand; but if i was to put carpet anywhere (even if just a center runner), it would be on staircases. its amazing how much easier on your feet, and often-times quieter, a carpeted staircase is over just bare hardwood.


We stayed in a rental house that had hardwood stairs. They were kind of slick when walking down them in socks. I love having hardwoods throughout the lower level but they do end up hurting my feet for a while.



TouchDown said:


> OMG - doing the same project in 2 weeks.Picked up a flooring nailer from Harbor Freight - hope it lasts through the project - it's el cheapo.
> 
> PS - RG - let me know how your back / knees are doing - I'm a little worried that it's going to kill me when I start... Do you think 2 weeks is enough time to do ~1200 sqft? - including all trimwork?


I'm pretty sure we used the same flooring nailer from HF. Love that place. The tile saw we got from there is still working great after 1000 SF brick patio and bathroom remodel #1.

I think my hubby took 1 week off from work to install the HW and refinish it all. If I recall correctly, he was able to get the hardwood installed and refinished, but he didn't have the trim work done by then. he just finished it up during the evenings and weekends. He lost a lot of weight during that week. The refinishing took the longest because we had to wait 24 hours between each coat. If its prefinished, you get to eliminate that step. Good luck!


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## Chucktown PE (May 4, 2009)

I hate prefinished hardwoods. We have them in our rental house and I will not buy a house with them. The problem is that since there is no urethane in the joints, if any water gets on them they warp very badly. For instance, in front of our refrigerator, there are 1/8 inch gaps in between the boards. In our old house we had traditional tongue and groove hardwoods that we refinished. You could drop a pitcher of water on the floor and since there was essentially a urethane membrae over the wood you never had to worry about warping. It's worth it to do it the old fashioned way IMHO.


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## Katiebug (May 4, 2009)

Chucktown PE said:


> I have the risers painted the same color as the trim/mouldings. IMHO, it looks funny to have the risers stained the same color as the tread.


That's the look I prefer as well. Right now my project for the spring and summer is painting all of the windows and trim in our house white. It's currently crap-tastic cheap pine trim that was stained a dark color, and IMO it really makes a room look smaller than it is. Since our trim is going to be white, I'm painting the stair risers white as well. That's going to be TONS of fun to mask off.



error_matrix said:


> Our upstairs, basement, and staircases, are all fully carpeted, however, and I really like that too! don't think i could go full hardwood thruout the house. . .and its quite a bit more upkeep (sweep / vacuum, mop) vs. just carpet (vacuum). And def with young kiddos, no way i could live with the noise. Good luck!


We're trying to get away from carpeted floors. As it is, I steam-clean the carpets quarterly and it inevitably disgusts me that I suck up so much dirt, even though the carpets _look_ clean. I think solid surface floors are easier to keep clean and reasonably hygienic than carpet. As a bonus, I have asthma and allergies that I believe are exacerbated by dust, so solid floors will help a lot.

I'd much prefer Swiffering daily (for pet fur) and damp-mopping weekly on laminate instead of every-other-day vacuuming and quarterly steam cleaning on carpet. Laminate flooring is going in all three bedrooms this year, and then next year we'll either go with laminate or hardwood in the dining and living rooms.


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## snickerd3 (May 4, 2009)

Katiebug said:


> That's the look I prefer as well. Right now my project for the spring and summer is painting all of the windows and trim in our house white. It's currently crap-tastic cheap pine trim that was stained a dark color, and IMO it really makes a room look smaller than it is. Since our trim is going to be white, I'm painting the stair risers white as well. That's going to be TONS of fun to mask off.


Good luck with that. We attempted to do that after we bought the house, but the people put such a thick coat of poly on top the super dark stain, that primer just flowed off the trim. Even after 5 minutes of sanding the poly just wouldn't go away. We ended up having to replace all the trim and doorframes on the main and upper levels so we could go white.


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## wilheldp_PE (May 4, 2009)

TouchDown said:


> Yeah, they are "forcing" us to take off time at work, so I'm planning on taking the last 2 weeks of May off of work. Wood is sitting in the garage (53 cases for me - like 21sqft per case). It's going to be a whirlwind few weeks.
> We're tearing out all our cabinets and I'm having them professionally painted while I do the floors - a Granite countertop to go back on it when it's reinstalled. I'm ripping out all the 'soffits' above the cabinets and replacing a few can lights with pendants above a bar area. Scraping all the popcorn and then having someone else do the mud work while I start to lay the floor... rip out the carpet and install the prefinished hardwood in the kitchen, diningroom, livingroom, hallway, coat closet, etc... leave the master bedroom / closet until the rest of the house is liveable again. Then I've got to reinstall all cabinets, add a crown molding across top, tile backsplash, reinstall all appliances and reinstall the baseboard.
> 
> I think 2 weeks is pushing it a LOT, but I'll get done what I get done.
> ...


There is a show on DIY Network that is rebroadcast on HGTV called Renovation Realities that shows people with minimal to moderate building skills tackling huge projects with very unrealistic deadlines and budgets. It is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I think your project would be a 2-parter on that show. You should contact them...maybe they'll pay for it all.

I'm in the process of designing a house to be built for me. I think I'm going to go with bamboo flooring in the kitchen and dining room. It looks awesome.

Hey TD, if you don't mind me asking, how much are you paying per square foot for your granite countertops? I'm about to start pricing those for my house, and would like a good starting point.


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## Road Guy (May 4, 2009)

The pre-finished hardwood floors seem easier than finishing them, but I tried the first room I did, man if you dont hit that nail gun just right it totally ruins the board you just nailed (and that was using the special plate for prefinished floors that came with the nail gun!)

I had to lug about 12 bundles back to the home depot and return them for the unstained version.

As I have been pulling up the carpet room by room (10 year old carpet put in when the house was built) I have joked to the wife that with all the dirt and debris, razor blades, etc, that vacumming is a waste of time because there is enough dirt under the carpet and pad to build a pretty decent dirt castle...

Our kids are 10, 8, and 6, still noisy (but getting alittle better each day) but there is like a trail in all the hallways where the kids walk on the carpet. I figure it will take me at least 2 years to finish up our bedroom and the two boys bedroom and by then they will be in that stage where they all come home from school and go to there room to talk on facebook all afternoon.....


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## Katiebug (May 5, 2009)

snickerd3 said:


> Good luck with that. We attempted to do that after we bought the house, but the people put such a thick coat of poly on top the super dark stain, that primer just flowed off the trim. Even after 5 minutes of sanding the poly just wouldn't go away. We ended up having to replace all the trim and doorframes on the main and upper levels so we could go white.


I've gone through two rooms already without too much trouble. In most of the house, the baseboards were just stained, not even sealed, so they covered fine with a coat of Kilz, followed by latex enamel. The door and window trim is a bit tougher but my approach is to lightly sand to get the gloss off, then primer and two coats of the enamel. The doors are the tough part (cheap hollow core, dark wood) - I take them off the hinges and down to the basement, then spray paint with two coats of primer and brush on the enamel as a top coat. Very time consuming, but paint and time is still cheaper than new interior doors throughout.

I've come to loathe stained pine trim! If we had the money we'd just replace the molding with pre-primed trim, slap a top coat on, and be done with it.

Painting those stair risers is going to be a b*tch. That's the absolute last step in the process because the prospect of doing it makes me cringe.


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## TouchDown (May 6, 2009)

wilheldp_PE said:


> Hey TD, if you don't mind me asking, how much are you paying per square foot for your granite countertops? I'm about to start pricing those for my house, and would like a good starting point.


You can go to Lowes/Menards/Home Depot and they typically throw in a free sink, but per sq foot... you should just estimate a little under $100/sq ft once you add in all your edge finishing and if you need a backsplash. Islands are expensive since they have to have the edge all the way around. I'd say on average from those places, once you add everything up - it was going to be around $85/sq ft. (there are price gradients based on color as well - depending on color you desire - it can go up and down from here - we were looking at a mid color tan with lots of black specs/yellow swirls)

We are however looking local at some countertop guys who we think will be 25-50% less than the big box home improvement places... We have to purchase the sink ($300) but we'd still come out much better. Awaiting their bid as we speak and hope to hear from them today. Only reason we're looking at doing all this now (with economy this way...) is that you can get unbelievable deals on stuff.

Chucktown - as for prefinished and water... No hardwood likes water, you are more susceptible for issues with the prefinished, but if you had 1/8" gaps, I'd be concerned that you didn't have the proper nailing (ie. they were possibly skip nailing? - every other row?) or you had a major water issue? We've had pergo that is susceptible to water at the seams just like hardwood in our kitchen for 7 years, and we wet mop. We won't wet mop with the prefinished stuff, but I'm just not that concerned.


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## snickerd3 (May 6, 2009)

TouchDown said:


> Chucktown - as for prefinished and water... No hardwood likes water, you are more susceptible for issues with the prefinished, but if you had 1/8" gaps, I'd be concerned that you didn't have the proper nailing (ie. they were possibly skip nailing? - every other row?) or you had a major water issue? We've had pergo that is susceptible to water at the seams just like hardwood in our kitchen for 7 years, and we wet mop. We won't wet mop with the prefinished stuff, but I'm just not that concerned.


My parents have had Pergo in their kitchen for at least 10 years, maybe closer to 15. My mom wet mops all the time and they have had no problems. That stuff is indestructable too. My dad had dropped cast iron pans several times in the same spot near the stove and not even a scratch. Their dogs nails also haven't made a scratch, but it is a little slick for the dog.


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## Capt Worley PE (May 6, 2009)

Man, you guys are killing me with all this talk of painting over wood!

I grew up in a house that was all wood paneling and floors. The wife and I both love the look of wood. Our house's den had nice knotty plank paneling that has been painted over. We're trying to figure out a good way to get paint off.


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## TouchDown (May 8, 2009)

RG - you should post some pics of your hard work - Wanna see how it's coming! That might help me get through the transition of living in chaos for a couple weeks to know what it might look like when finished!!!


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## bigray76 (May 8, 2009)

Capt Worley PE said:


> Man, you guys are killing me with all this talk of painting over wood!
> I grew up in a house that was all wood paneling and floors. The wife and I both love the look of wood. Our house's den had nice knotty plank paneling that has been painted over. We're trying to figure out a good way to get paint off.


Capt... I refinished most of the wood in my house (base, doors frames, paneling)... I used Zip-Strip, peeled off the paint with a putty knife, then used steel wool dipped in zip strip to get the rest of it out, and then sanded the hell out of it before refinishing it. It was very time consuming, but we are much happier with the look of natural wood. I had in most cases 4 - 6 coats of various types of paint to remove.

I ended up losing my fingerprints for a while and had really dry and cracking skin, but a wise man would wear gloves.


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## Road Guy (May 8, 2009)

I will get some pics, I have the hallway done, and did the first step, I think it will go in a lot easier than I thought


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## OSUguy98 (May 8, 2009)

Road Guy said:


> ...I think it will go in a lot easier than I thought


famous last words of a DIY'er....

others famous words:

"This should go quick..."

or

"I'll be done in about an hour"

or...

or...

or...


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## Katiebug (May 9, 2009)

Capt Worley PE said:


> Man, you guys are killing me with all this talk of painting over wood!
> I grew up in a house that was all wood paneling and floors. The wife and I both love the look of wood. Our house's den had nice knotty plank paneling that has been painted over. We're trying to figure out a good way to get paint off.


If it was nice wood underneath, we wouldn't be painting. However, it's cheap craptastic pine trim so I don't feel too guilty about painting it. That, and wood trim makes our already-small rooms look smaller (IMO). Light colored/white trim opens a room up a lot.

This weekend's project is the dining room windows and trim. The first coat of Kilz went on last night (and by the way, the "Odorless" Kilz still has quite an odor to it!), and I sanded this morning. The windows will need another primer coat to be on the safe side due to some old water damage, but the trim will get the first top coat today. 1st/2nd topcoat on tomorrow, and the dining room will be done. Unfortunately it's the easiest room to work in for trim/window painting.



OSUguy98 said:


> famous last words of a DIY'er....
> others famous words:
> 
> "This should go quick..."
> ...


A-freaking-men. The horror of painting windows is no longer fresh in my mind, so last night when I sat down with my primer to prime 3 windows and a room full of baseboard and trim molding, I figured I'd be done in an hour. Three and a half hours later, I finished.

Even funnier, the Home Depot 1-2-3 DIY book (a good resource) said that it would take 1 hour for an "experienced" DIYer to prep, prime, and paint a single window. Baloney - I spent an hour on Thursday prepping, 3.5 hours on Friday priming, and I expect the two top coats will take just as long or longer than the primer coat did. Yes, there's a room full of baseboard, but that's super quick to paint.

Home Depot _lies_. I think it's part of their business model to encourage DIYers that their project will be quick and easy - otherwise no one would DIY.


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## klk (May 9, 2009)

Katiebug said:


> If it was nice wood underneath, we wouldn't be painting. However, it's cheap craptastic pine trim so I don't feel too guilty about painting it. That, and wood trim makes our already-small rooms look smaller (IMO). Light colored/white trim opens a room up a lot.


We have the same awful pine trim throughout our house. So we also went through the process of painting all of the trim in our house bright white. Our doors were already white so we thought it was only the trim we'd have to paint. After painting all the trim around the doors upstairs, hubby goes to rehang the first door and we finally realize our doors are painted "off-white" :smileyballs: Thus, we had to paint all of the doors too.

Our house is relatively new (it's one of those cookie-cutter homes where the owners get to choose what colors and trim gets installed) and the previous owners chose the natural ugly pine for the trim. Our house looks a lot nicer and newer with the white trim.


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## cement (May 11, 2009)

Capt Worley PE said:


> Man, you guys are killing me with all this talk of painting over wood!
> I grew up in a house that was all wood paneling and floors. The wife and I both love the look of wood. Our house's den had nice knotty plank paneling that has been painted over. We're trying to figure out a good way to get paint off.


nice wood strips pretty easily because it has a tight grain that you want to see. now for knotty pine...

:joke:


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## Capt Worley PE (May 12, 2009)

bigray76 said:


> Capt... I refinished most of the wood in my house (base, doors frames, paneling)... I used Zip-Strip, peeled off the paint with a putty knife, then used steel wool dipped in zip strip to get the rest of it out, and then sanded the hell out of it before refinishing it. It was very time consuming, but we are much happier with the look of natural wood. I had in most cases 4 - 6 coats of various types of paint to remove.
> I ended up losing my fingerprints for a while and had really dry and cracking skin, but a wise man would wear gloves.


I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!



Katiebug said:


> If it was nice wood underneath, we wouldn't be painting. However, it's cheap craptastic pine trim so I don't feel too guilty about painting it.


Hey! I love pine!



cement said:


> nice wood strips pretty easily because it has a tight grain that you want to see. now for knotty pine...


Yeah, that's what's really holding me back it trying to get the paint out of the knots. I think once you paint knotty pine planks, you're pretty much committed.


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## TouchDown (May 27, 2009)

And I'm in day 2 of my 2 week project. I have officially reached the "what did I get myself into?????" Phase.

Help me.


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## Paul S (May 27, 2009)

A little late, but here was my trim saw of choice for flooring, a Bosch Power Handsaw, it can lay flat on the floor and cut flush.


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## TouchDown (Jul 18, 2009)

Paul - I got something like that from Harbor Freight - VERY cheap, but worked.

Here's a few update pictures / before and after...

This is upper cabinets and soffit above cabinets as I prep wiring for the pendant lights.






Before Kitchen - pergo and dark oak with laminate countertop.






Cabinets out, soffit down, and mudded and taped.






Carpet ripped up in the livingroom, and the wife is still "excited" about the project at this point...






First few rows down. Taking longer than expected... Ut oh.






FIL helping to lay out / sort the wood and I'm slaving away!!!






Made it around the Fireplace, this was my biggest worry before the job, but it turned out OK.






Pendant light boxes installed, drywall finished, floor finished, cabinets have bene painted and installed and new countertop installed. 5 days past planned, but I still have my sanity - sort of.






Most of the doors on. Wife is feeling much better at this point in getting "her" kitchen back. Living in the basement for 2 weeks has been... um stressful.






I took this to compare against one of the first photos for comparison.






A new office area we bought cabinets for and installed, when the pic was taken, still needed the countertop...

*** see post below*** hit pic limit.

I did this project like all my others, get 90% done, get so worn out that I take a break, and never want to start it up to finish it off...

I still have to get the stair nose installed, a few more base boards installed, crown molding installed on all kitchen cabinets, and a few threasholds to complete. And I'm on here showing you instead of doing anything about it!!! I'm a procrastinator.

All in all it still took 2 weeks, just had to rearrange some planned things for it to finish on time. And after I finish this, I still have to do the steps, hardwood our bedroom and closet, and tile both upstairs bathrooms. Maybe that'll be a winter job???


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## TouchDown (Jul 18, 2009)

Hit pic limit, here's the pic of the office.


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## Fluvial (Jul 18, 2009)

Wow, TD, it's amazing how much that lightened the kitchen up, putting those white cabinets in.

We took all the carpet out of our house (except for two kids' rooms) and stained the concrete. It looks great. I love having the hard floors; I don't think I'll ever go back to nasty old carpet.


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## TouchDown (Jul 18, 2009)

Fluvial said:


> We took all the carpet out of our house (except for two kids' rooms) and stained the concrete. It looks great. I love having the hard floors; I don't think I'll ever go back to nasty old carpet.


I've always liked the look of stained concrete. We have a few rooms in our plant that are polished concrete and it is magnificent. I bet it is unbelievably maintenance free. Great idea.


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## Fluvial (Jul 18, 2009)

All I do is sweep and mop it. Once a year I redo the wax on the high traffic areas - I use that same wax that's supposed to be for Mexican Tile.

What I liked the best about it was the cost; something like 16 cents a square foot.


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## Road Guy (Jul 20, 2009)

we are going to do one of the rooms in our basement with the stained / sealed concrete and cut some patterns in it so it looks like big tile, some of our neighbors have done that and it looks really nice.

well this past weekend I finally got around to doing the stairs, I didnt feel like trying to paint the riser and stain the tread so I bought all oak and will stain everything once I get it sanded (tonight) to do 14 steps it cost..... $600 just for the wood, and what sucked is that I could only find the stair treads in 4' lengths, and my stairs and most of the free world has 3'. I have a cheap table saw and thing had a hard time keeping up cutting oak that thickness. I tell you when your working with a stair tread that cost $6.50/ LF you measure abuot 6 times to make sure you dont have any waste!

I think the people that built my house put down an entire tube of liquid nails on every step because it was extremely difficult to get the old pine stair treads up....


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## Fluvial (Jul 20, 2009)

It will look so great when you get done though. I *love* the look of wood.

Re: the concrete - we cut the squares in our bedroom, but in the rest of the house we just didn't bother. It still looks great.

It's kind of hard to keep the lines straight (or so hubby says).


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jul 20, 2009)

Fluvial said:


> All I do is sweep and mop it. Once a year I redo the wax on the high traffic areas - I use that same wax that's supposed to be for Mexican Tile.
> What I liked the best about it was the cost; something like 16 cents a square foot.


That looks great. Though I think in my neck of the woods a tile floor would be frigid in the winter!


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## Fluvial (Jul 20, 2009)

VTEnviro said:


> I think in my neck of the woods a tile floor would be frigid in the winter!


You may be right. I've never lived that far north. 

When we had a dog, he loved lying on the cool floor in the heat of the summer.

RoadGuy do you have any pics yet?


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jul 20, 2009)

> When we had a dog, he loved lying on the cool floor in the heat of the summer


Our kitchen floor is stone tile. The dog likes it when he is hot, but it is a double edged sword. His water bowl is in there and it gets REALLY slippery when it splashes around.


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## goodal (Jul 21, 2009)

painting the riser is a bad idea. especially white. ours has stained tread and white riser and the riser looks like crap year round because of scuff marks. we have painted it, cleaned it sealed it you just cant keep from getting it scuffed


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## cement (Jul 22, 2009)

TouchDown said:


> Here's a few update pictures / before and after...
> This is upper cabinets and soffit above cabinets as I prep wiring for the pendant lights.


nice work TD! I hate those old oversized soffits.

We re-did ours last year but found the soffits were full of plumbing and electrical. I know my limits so we brought in a contractor to rebuild smaller soffits flush with the cabinets.


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## snickerd3 (Jul 22, 2009)

Very nice work TD. We removed the soffits in our kitchen too...opened things up very nicely!


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## Road Guy (Aug 26, 2009)

we'll I still need one more coat of polyurethene but here is how my steps turned out....


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## Capt Worley PE (Aug 26, 2009)

Holy crap! Your house is haunted!


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## snickerd3 (Aug 26, 2009)

Road Guy said:


> we'll I still need one more coat of polyurethene but here is how my steps turned out....


looks good!


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## Supe (Aug 26, 2009)

Definitely looks better than if you were to paint the risers.


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## TouchDown (Sep 1, 2009)

Nice Look RG. Definitely a lot of effort there, but worth all the work, for sure!


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## Road Guy (Sep 1, 2009)

I've got to do our bedroom and two kids rooms and the whole house will be hardwood and tile, really dreading those last 3 rooms


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