Q & A

Welcome to the Questions & Answers Page

Hopefully, I can answer some of the questions you may have by addressing them here, if you still have one, comment below and I will add it!

1.  The most common question I get is about the landing and the top of the stairs.  What the heck did I do there?  

This issue alone, is the only reason I started this blog.  There was no answer to this question for me when I started this project, so I tried it my way, it worked, now I can show someone who wants to try it as well.

My staircase has a landing and at the top of the steps the carpet continued down the hall. Below is a pic of the landing with the carpet and pad rolled back.  Plywood, but a rounded wood lip.

After painting that "lip," I secured the carpet to the landing, turned the edge under, and secured it by nailing it down. 

Here's what it ended up looking like.

I followed the same technique at the top of the stairs, only with the existing carpet.

Hope this helps!

2.  I get some questions about the steps themselves, are they shiny, smooth, slippery, rough?

The steps are shiny, smooth looking, but not slippery, because they are rough.  Does that make sense? No? Here's the deal.  They are pine (I think) or some soft wood, so even though I no longer have finger prints left from filling in all the staple holes and dents, they have grooves and rough patches.  But after the poly was put on, it looks fine.

I took a close-up so you can see the way the stairs look, with the knots and grain of the wood (and dog hair.)

3.  How long did this take?

If you don't have a bunch of little kids and you do have someone to help you, (and now that Downton Abbey is in the off-season,) you could probably complete the steps in a long weekend, maybe a day extra for paint drying purposes.  So, a week total, with the wall wood project.  For me, it took 3 loooong weeks.