Hello:
Despite being warned it was going to be very time-consuming, I decided to strip the paint off my 1978-built stair down to bare wood. The idea is to have the treads natural wood, and paint the risers.
The stairs had been painted with multiple layers of gloss over the years, nut only on the sides. The centre had been left natural, always covered by a carpet runner.
I first used a chemical paint stripper and after 3 or 4 applications, I was able to remove all the paint (or so I thought). I then started sanding the treads, using am electric sander using first 120 and then 80 sanding paper. The wood is indeed starting to show off beautifully, but on some treads there's a very distinct difference in wood tone. The parts that used to be paint in white are clearly lighter, as you can see from the pictures.
I have already spent over an hour of sanding the pictured tread, and I still can't get the wood to start showing in the same shade. Is that because the original paint is so engrained I won't be able to get rid of it completely? Should I just continue sanding and one day I will eventually get to the 'natural', untainted wood? Should I just give up?
Any comments would be most appreciated. The frustrating bit if that some treads show the tone difference very markedly, some other don't show it at all and others show it only slightly. I can't say I used a different technique on any particular bit.
Thank you!
Despite being warned it was going to be very time-consuming, I decided to strip the paint off my 1978-built stair down to bare wood. The idea is to have the treads natural wood, and paint the risers.
The stairs had been painted with multiple layers of gloss over the years, nut only on the sides. The centre had been left natural, always covered by a carpet runner.
I first used a chemical paint stripper and after 3 or 4 applications, I was able to remove all the paint (or so I thought). I then started sanding the treads, using am electric sander using first 120 and then 80 sanding paper. The wood is indeed starting to show off beautifully, but on some treads there's a very distinct difference in wood tone. The parts that used to be paint in white are clearly lighter, as you can see from the pictures.
I have already spent over an hour of sanding the pictured tread, and I still can't get the wood to start showing in the same shade. Is that because the original paint is so engrained I won't be able to get rid of it completely? Should I just continue sanding and one day I will eventually get to the 'natural', untainted wood? Should I just give up?
Any comments would be most appreciated. The frustrating bit if that some treads show the tone difference very markedly, some other don't show it at all and others show it only slightly. I can't say I used a different technique on any particular bit.
Thank you!
