Help with butchered old staircase

Help with butchered old staircase

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Discussion

Harry Flashman

19,283 posts

241 months

Tuesday 4th September 2018
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Still an inspiring thread. OP - where did you get the resin? I need to bodge a cellar repair and the usual methods aren't workiing!! Pourable resin probably would...just needs to last until next summer.

dmsims

6,453 posts

266 months

Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Wednesday 5th September 2018
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Looks amazing!

CinnamonFan

980 posts

195 months

Wednesday 5th September 2018
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Excellent stuff OP! Really enjoyed how you wanted to do it properly! It will be brilliant when it's finished! Please keep us updated!

Uggers

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

210 months

Wednesday 5th September 2018
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Thanks everyone, with paint going on I'm really beginning to see the results of the countless hours of soul destroying preparation!

Harry Flashman said:
Still an inspiring thread. OP - where did you get the resin? I need to bodge a cellar repair and the usual methods aren't workiing!! Pourable resin probably would...just needs to last until next summer.
It depends on what you are hoping to do in your cellar. But for my steps it was simple casting resin. But the cost adds up depending on quantities reqd.

http://www.mbfg.co.uk/sg2000l.html

My requirements were not structural, but it had to be paintable and a great advantage was very fast setting time. Very useful when your mould cannot be sealed 100%.

Uggers

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

210 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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Wow, nearly another year has gone by!

As usual with all my projects, they take a back burner to life in general but I am nearly there with the stairs. It's coming together along with our kitchen, which I may do a thread on. Nothing amazing kitchen wise as budget was not up there with usual PH stuff, but should be a hell of an improvement to what was before.

Anyway, the biggest news, I have a banister fitted top to bottom!



You can see the individual segments, but grown to like them as it reminds me of all the work we put into them. Now been stained with mahogany spirit, and currently has one coat of polyeurathane varnish on. Will get some more coats on, once the destruction in the kitchen has finished and the dust has settled.

Stairs from 1st to 2nd floor:


We decided on a dado rail, not to everyone's tastes, but it cut down on the amount of wallpaper needed to do hallway up to the top floor (currently used 25 rolls) And it befits a house of this age. Also with the kids running about it's so much easier to sort scrapes and marks on a painted bottom area.

Fitted some more bare metal radiators, including a tall one on the middle floor landing, as no space to put a longer one in. It makes a nice feature, but was a hell of a job mounting on lath and plaster walls as there is no strength there and the spacing for the verticals was not suitable. It's actually mounted on the stone wall behind, and stood off the wall using spacer tubes so looks like it is mounted to the lath and plaster walls.



There is going to be an open area to the hallway where we hope to put a couple of comfy sofas, possibly Chesterfields. Will be an area where I can chill out in front of the wood burner we had fitted last year. We also bought and fitted new chandeliers.




So now the only jobs left to do is putting a runner down for the stairs, and putting down the engineered wood flooring I bought ages ago. Also going to source a salvage door for the hallway as the sheet glass is ugly, and fairly certain it isn't safety glass.

These will be done to coincide with finishing the kitchen. This all HAS to be done for Christmas this year smile



Edited by Uggers on Sunday 25th August 03:37

victoriansmallholding

33 posts

72 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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That's looking great! Well done. I'm looking forward to seeing what carpet runner you choose as we have to make that choice next year biggrin

Andeh1

7,107 posts

205 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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Thanks for coming back to update us! Looks magnificent now, well done. smile

rovermorris999

5,195 posts

188 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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Well done. It's looking lovely. I'm glad you've saved so much and are keeping it in character.

Uggers

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

210 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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Thanks there has been so much work done that's never seen.
Repairing the ceilings, walls and archways. Stripping and repainting 14 doors. Stripping and repainting 114 balusters, needle gunning 44 stairs. Long and soul destroying, I could never be a full time decorator!

I know I could have just done a light rub down of everything and repainted, and it would have looked better. But this is meant to be our forever home, so best to do it right. smile

Had a few quotes to do the runners which at around £1k is better than I thought it would be. Especially as they cut and bind the carpet to match 2 half landings. What colour scheme I don't know.

As despite the other half s enthusiasm I feel grey is leading me down a one way road with colours. What would work with grey that isn't grey?

She's not too happy about me wanting oxblood Chesterfield's laugh

gf15

980 posts

265 months

Monday 26th August 2019
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Fantastic work and Thank you for keeping us updated.

Would the vestibule door originally have had stained glass? Ours was and again was removed in the 70's. We got some second hand and had it modified to fit (not expensive), but very effective and warming.

Love the radiators. Adding the dado rail was a good idea, breaks up teh wall nicely.
You will get many years of satisfaction every time you see or walk up the the stairs. Satisfaction on completing this to such a high standard cannot be bought, it is earned, and boy have you earned it!
Well done.

dmsims

6,453 posts

266 months

Monday 26th August 2019
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Greta job but resist the griege


Uggers

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

210 months

Tuesday 27th August 2019
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gf15 said:
Fantastic work and Thank you for keeping us updated.

Would the vestibule door originally have had stained glass? Ours was and again was removed in the 70's. We got some second hand and had it modified to fit (not expensive), but very effective and warming.
It's hard to know. I think the door that is fitted, may well have been the original as the hinge mounts do not look to have been changed. But the centre of it gutted to make way for a sheet of glass. This may have been done in the 60's when the property was converted to use as the towns doctors surgery. I'm probably going to go solid georgian style to match existing doors, as the vestibule isn't in great shape (at the moment)



dmsims said:
Greta job but resist the griege

Nice, I am trying my best to stop my house turning monotone! That carpet style may well work thankyou. Did consider stair rods, but not sure if they are a bit of a dust trap? Also the stairs are solid stone, so fastening them is a bit more involved than just screwing into wood. They would really finish them off though!

rovermorris999

5,195 posts

188 months

Wednesday 28th August 2019
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You're going to have to fasten the carpet somehow. If it's not rods then presumably it'll be gripper and/or glue. The gripper won't nail in so you'd be screwing that it. I think I'd go for rods or no carpet at all. And use brass slotted screws! Modern screws visible in an old place jar with me but perhaps I'm too fussy.

dmsims

6,453 posts

266 months

Wednesday 28th August 2019
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rovermorris999 said:
And use brass slotted screws! Modern screws visible in an old place jar with me but perhaps I'm too fussy.
Whilst I have some sympathy with this they are the work of the devil!

You can get get brass screw caps smile

Uggers

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

210 months

Wednesday 28th August 2019
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The last carpet that was fitted by the previous owners was held in place by gripper which was then bonded using some sort of epoxy adhesive.
Even though it was fitted terribly, it didn't move or cause problems, so may do similar.

I'd have to drill and rawl plug to fasten stair rods in place. Would take a while, but can be the absolute last thing to fit, and I can fit as and when without creating havoc in the house like I usually do smile

I think there was stair rods fitted previously, as you can see holes full of lead inline on both sides of the steps.

Uggers

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

210 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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We are almost finished now.

Still got a lot of plants/pictures/curtains/furniture to add as it does look a bit sparse at the moment. But we will add as and when money allows. It's quite monotone as I was fighting a losing battle for warmer colours with my partner, but 3 or 4 days of painting it can be easily changed in the future.

The runner worked out twice as expensive as planned as decided to go for a much better carpet than planned for the stairs, but with cloud 9 underlay on each step it's so nice to walk up and down the stairs.

The wooden floor I fitted myself and came out about as well as I could hope. There's the odd bit where the joins started to run away from me, but managed to get away with it!

My final lot of pictures...


















Thanks for looking and sorry it took so long! smile

Ace-T

7,688 posts

254 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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You have done a cracking job there Uggers. thumbup

I know when we finished our hall it made a massive positive difference to how we felt about the house, hope this has reinforced how lovely and special your house is to you.

Escort3500

11,830 posts

144 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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Fantastic result and well worth the effort. Enjoyed the thread too smile

CharlesdeGaulle

26,103 posts

179 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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That really is impressive work, well done. I know what you mean about colour, and a house like that allows you to be really bold, but what you have is an elegant foundation until you can convince your wife and sum-up the money/enthusiasm to paint over it!

Great thread, thank you.