Recoat stairs

[kenandkimemail2022]

Hello - We had to move into our house prior to having final poly coats on our stairs. the stairs are now fading (Jacobean) but no scratches. We want to recoat with poly (and possibly another layer of stain) without having to do a full sand. Is it possible to just scuff up with 180 grit paper, put another layer of stain on and then coat with bona traffic HD?

 

[C.J.]

One option you can do if you want more color would be to glaze the stairs. That’s where you add tint to your poly then recoat your stairs. Otherwise you’ll have to sand through your current layer of poly and get down to actual wood if you want to restain your stairs.

As far as abrading the current layer of poly in preparation for another layer, 180 is a pretty rough grit to be abrading stairs with between coats of poly. You’ll end up having scratches that won’t disappear with the next coat of poly. Only way to fix that is to damn near start over. Guess you could restain your stairs if you went that route. I’d hand scuff the stairs with 400 grit and keep on rollin like Peter Brady.