Sunday, July 21, 2013
Instead of sanding the steps I decided to use denatured alcohol with steel wool to remove most of the old shellac, but not going too crazy. Two coats of amber shellac later and the steps look a lot better. There is some alligatoring going on, but I'm fine with it. I'll be putting a runner on anyway which will hide most of it. Ordered the new runner yesterday, and can't wait to install. I got all of my rug install tools at Harbour Freight which included a pneumatic stapler for only 18 bucks. I should really go there more often.
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5 comments:
What a pretty staircase. You're so lucky it wasn't painted.
Thanks Sharon. The unpainted woodwork is what really sold us on this house.
Hi - beautiful stairs! Is this just shellac, or is there a stain, tint or dye? Do you know what wood it is? Thanks.
Thanks! It's just AMBER shellac made by zinsser. I just used some denatured alcohol along with steel wool to take care of some of the alligatoring going on. I didn't go too crazy and you can still see some,if you get close to it, but I think it's totally fine.
The amber shellac has a nice warm hue and is so easy to use on these old houses provided you're putting it over old shellac. Zinsser makes a clear shellac as well, but I've never used it.
Try some denatured alcohol on a spot with a cotton swab. If it comes off, your'e golden! or maybe I should say Amber.
The wood is oak-
Good luck!
Very nice work!
I'm sure it was a common style in the teens and twenties, but your newel post and ballustrade bear a striking resemblance to the one in our house:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rG_i6gjhw4o/VK6mXwk3PFI/AAAAAAAApUM/rdWFP0CMVFk/w649-h865-no/IMG_1918.JPG
Apologies for the crappy iphone pic.
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