Restoring the staircase

pieroabcd

Hi,
at home the only place where I still have carpets is the staircase(s, unfortunately on  both flights).
It *must* go.
If the stairs have been painted white at the sides (that seems to have been incredibly common in the past) how easy it is to remove the white and show the plain wood surface? would it go away with some fine grain sanding or would it need some solvent?

Also, what's the best way to give a new shine to the timber? With some paint would I preserve the veining or would it look totally flat?
Ideally I'd like to give a nice coating to the horizontal surface and some flat white on the riser.

Does the paint have to be breathable? Could the timber rot otherwise?

Thanks.

ThisIsWeird

How easy to remove can only be trialed, I guess. If you are lucky, the paint will be old and brittle, so could scrape away quite cleanly, leaving only a relatively light sanding to finish it all off. 
Or, it could be well stuck, so you'll need chemical stripper, or a hot gun - try the latter first.
Once the paint is removed, you may find the exposed timber shows different shades because of the paint - air/sunlight often darkens timber. 
For paint, no concerns about rot. You may find specialist paints such as Zinsser AllCoat to be the simplest and best to use - just apply to bare wood, tho' it'll need prob three coats.
For the timber tread, all manner of finishes from wax, to oil, to varnish. Osma products are rated, I understand.
Best to find photos of what you wish to achieve - Pinterest is very good for this. It'll likely also describe how to achieve the finish, and products used.

pieroabcd

Thank you!

jonnydeppiwish!

For me, I’d keep carpet on stairs. Quieter, warmer, and a lot more comfortable when you miss the step…….

pieroabcd

As far as I'm concerned there's absolutely nothing worse than carpet.
It was a huge satisfaction for me when I removed it from the first floor.

Section62

pieroabcd said:

Also, what's the best way to give a new shine to the timber?

You really don't want a shine on the treads of stairs, particularly if there's a risk of someone coming down the stairs with damp or wet feet.

A finish which is more non-slip would be a lot safer.

pieroabcd

This is really nice to know, thanks

Slinky

jonnydeppiwish! said:

For me, I’d keep carpet on stairs. Quieter, warmer, and a lot more comfortable when you miss the step…….

Having fallen from top to bottom of ours, backwards, I can confirm a teak wood staircase is pretty uncomfortable to land on. I broke one of the open treads out when landing on it. I'm sure it would have been less hard if it had carpet on it.

Doozergirl

Slinky said:

jonnydeppiwish! said:

For me, I’d keep carpet on stairs. Quieter, warmer, and a lot more comfortable when you miss the step…….

Having fallen from top to bottom of ours, backwards, I can confirm a teak wood staircase is pretty uncomfortable to land on. I broke one of the open treads out when landing on it. I'm sure it would have been less hard if it had carpet on it.

They can be really quite slippy in socks too.  

pieroabcd

I don't have the habit of walking barefoot at home. I always slippers or shoes, everywhere.
Anyway yes, antislip it is!

Section62

pieroabcd said:

I don't have the habit of walking barefoot at home. I always slippers or shoes, everywhere.
Anyway yes, antislip it is!

Some hospitals and care homes have banned patients/residents from wearing slippers - the plastic soles are a slip hazard on hard floors.  Instead they issue 'hospital socks' with some kind of non-slip material woven into them.  E.g....

https://www.medicalsupplies.co.uk/medline-double-tread-hospital-socks.html