About a month ago I decided that it was time to ripe the carpet off of the stairs leading downstairs. I had this plan to take off the carpet and then paint them. I thought it would be a job that would take about week or two to complete.
Not knowing what was underneath the carpet didn't concern me as Kent was sure it was cement. Underneath the brown carpet was a layer of ugly green vinyl that just peeled right off. But, underneath that was a layer of uglier brown/tan vinyl that was glued down. After scraping for hours and not making much progress, Kent figured out the best and fasted way to remove both the vinyl and the glue (towels soaked in hot water and then scraping the glue off). We were done in no time.
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Look, it is good wood underneath these stairs! Good news.
The bottom part of the stairs were another story. After scraping off the two layers we discovered that 4 of the steps were not in good shape. In fact they were disgusting. We also discovered that underneath the these stairs there were cement stairs. After taking out the rotted stairs were we able to rebuild them and glue/nail the new ones in place.
Next step was to prime all the steps. I chose to paint the steps a chocolate brown on the treads, and pain the risers white. I also added molding along the outside edges and also the joint where the riser meets the treads.
In all, this project took longer than i had planned (just a little over a month to finish). I am pretty happy with how they turned out. I also painted the walls a lighter color which just makes it looks that much better!
This is Pololu Beach, a black beach at the End Of The Road on the north shore of the Big Island. It was quite a hike down to the water but worth it.
Just a few of the pictures we took. Will post more later.