Finishing Stairs

[scott szollos]

What is the better way to stain and finish stairs, spray or brush? Moving into a new home and need the best finish. Im ok to mask everything since im re doing the floors and baseboards and painting the house so Im not so worried about over spray. Also the whole house will be masked off to spray paint all of the trim and baseboard. Not sure about the procedure for staining and finishing the staircase though. Thoughts?

[Scott Holmes]

Spraying is faster, not better. You can actaually make a much bigger mess spraying... Slow drying varnish (relative to a few minutes for Cat Lacquer and conversion varnish) will have overspray on everything within 15' of the staircase.

The polyerurethane varnish you use to finish the steps will be the same whether it's sprayed or brushed. I finished a solid pecan spiral staircase a year or so ago and I used a foam paint roller and a good varnish brush.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Varathane oil poly, reduced 10% with mineral spirits for the first coat and about 5% for the second and third, flows out glass smooth using a half decent brush. I imagine a better than half decent brush would deliver a spectacular finish.
I can see why so many people use it. Good stuff.
It stinks though - make sure you have a lot of ventilation.

Scott,
Did you use Varathane on the stairs?
My only concern w/it is how slippery the floors were that I just finished doing. They're fine if your wearing shoes, but, w/just socks on you can "ice skate" on them.
IIRC, and I can check later today or tomorrow to be sure, I used the semi gloss - not the satin.
None of the water polys I used on other floors are/were like that.

[Scott Holmes]

I did indeed use Varathane satin poly. Poly will not be a hard, nor as slippery as a water-borne acrylic, unless they put something in the water-borne to reduce the slippery factor.

Because poly is "tough" therefore not as hard as other varnishes, it is not going to be as slippery. One of the few good traits of poly.