Can I fill and paint old stairs or do I need retreads?
Stairs hidden under carpet are often made of two separate pieces of wood with a noticeable gap, plus leftover nail and staple holes. You can fill the holes and paint the boards to use them as functional stairs temporarily, but you will need to purchase new treads to permanently fix the gaps.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Can I fill and paint old stairs or do I need retreads?
- 1retreading the stairs entirelyDid this help you?
- 2filling holes and sanding them downDid this help you?
- 3Sanding and painting the existing boards as a temporary measure despite the gaps.Did this help you?
- 4Purchasing and installing completely new stair treads.Did this help you?
- 5Leaving the gaps alone because they allow for seasonal wood expansion.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Can I just fill in the nail/staple holes and then sand and paint the stairs, or do I need to retread them?”source ↗
“Upon lifting the carpet, the tread is two inches deep and then separates into another piece of wood(not cracked, noticeably two pieces of wood.”source ↗
“It’s not noticeable under the carpet and padding but she wanted to rip it up- the wood looks to be in pretty good condition but we’re not sure how to remedy the gap”source ↗
“So could the carpet be ripped up and these be painted and used as functional stairs until treads can be purchased?”source ↗
Where this came up
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