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We just bought a 1925 Craftsman. It has the original wood floors in almost all areas of the house . We ripped up the carpet on the stairs to the 2nd floor with the intention of re-sanding the stairs in addition to the main floor.
Well, someone (or perhaps several people throughout the years) thought it would be nice to paint these stairs on the sides and have a runner going up the middle. (They also painted the banister and the rails and, well, EVERY piece of woodwork in the house except the China Cabinet in the dining room...) So there are about 4 different layers of paint on the sides and the original stained red oak in the middle. After an attempt at stripping some of the paint, I gave up and decided to sand the wood part and repaint the painted part when we do our painting next month. I think it will look kinda neat that way and still tie in the wood stairs with the original floors upstairs and on the main floor as well as combining in the wall and trim colors.
The question is what is the best way to go about doing this? The risers are a somewhat damaged from the carpet and all the tacking they did. The treads look pretty decent. Do I use a wood putty or filler to fill in holes etc and then sand? What type of sander and paper should I get? If I need to use wood filler, what type is best?
Pictures would help a lot to see what you're looking at for this. Be warned, sanding stairs is a royal pain in the butt, literally. I know, I did mine last year as part of my overall floor refinishing project (search on here for my name on the thread red oak floors for picture if you want).
Look at this picture. See the little sander to the left near the wall? That's called an edge sander and you can rent one at any decent tool rental place (or possibly Home Depot too). They're common. Depending on what you're working with here, an 80 grit paper to start should strip that paint right off with no problems what so ever. But I would try honestly with a 120 grit first to see if that does it. If not, 100 and go down from there. 80 grit for me cut through the old dark stain to the raw wood like a knife through warm butter.
Then buy yourself a $50 random orbital palm sander from one of the big box stores. Mine is a Rigid and it's great. Use it starting at 100 grit and go up higher to smooth it out even further. Strongly recommend this step to make sure it's all smooth and no swirl marks left behind from the bigger one in the photo.
Consider yourself warned here - this is a painful and tough job. Prepare to sweat, buy yourself a lot of Advil and take your time. I did two floors last year, along with the stairs. Roughly 3,000 SF. By far, the stairs were the most punishing on my back. Not easy but not impossible.
Here's a few pics showing the damaged risers, the paint, my attempt at paint stripping, the top of the stairs where they meet the rest of the floor (difference in color) and the painted banister.
Well, someone (or perhaps several people throughout the years) thought it would be nice to paint...
After an attempt at stripping some of the paint, I gave up and...
The question is what is the best way to go about doing this?
Paint stripper. But you'll need to use the GOOD stuff and follow directions...
and still expect to have to go back at the nooks and crannies too.
If it were me, I'd disassemble the whole thing, remove it to outdoors, and either take it to a professional antique refinisher, let them strip it with professional strength stripper or I'd do it myself in a home made stripping tank with said stripper. Once stripped, sanded and refinished, re-install. There is no way to do a good job stripping that in place....imho.
Yep- I'd take the banister/balusters apart and strip one piece at a time- or professionally stripped and refinished. The treads and risers are just back-breaking physical labor. Start with a stripper, then sand; and sand, and sand, and sand.
Did I mention the part about sanding? A lot of sanding!?
Just use the usual progression with sandpaper- whether by hand or orbital sander. 80-100/180-220/320. Gouges and nail/staple holes can be filled with water putty. Drys fast, sands smooth, and takes paint well. If the wood that will be stained has gouges/holes, you may have to do a little experimenting to get filler to match the stain color.
if it were me, I'd sand and refinish the center of the tread where it's natural, and then paint a tape line where it's already painted. It would look very cool I think, and reflect the history and different chapters of the house. And a LOT less of the elbow grease and caustic chemicals it would take to strip all that off.
Considering the age of your house, the unpainted portions may be shellac and will be very easy to clean/refinish (great vintage BTW, I have a 1926 house )
My house also had most of the woodwork painted. The kitchen and pantry are natural as are the doors and drawers of the built in closet upstairs. All the doors were spared. And the stairs are unpainted except for the balusters. I never could figure out why I only seemed to have one coat of paint and just came to the conclusion that I was unlucky to have found a house where they painted the woodwork 10-20 years prior to my purchase.
Recently, a relative of the original owners got in touch with me and sent me some pix of her family growing up in the house. I found much more was painted than I had could see! The inside of the front door, the risers were painted, the treads may have even been black. And if I look closely I can see some remnants of white on the front door. I eventually found out they first painted the woodwork in the 1950s for a big family event and it failed shortly thereafter, so the youngest son spent his entire summer stripping it with powerful chemicals and repainted it. And he did this a few times before he got married and moved away.
In the mid-90s, I tried Peel Away 6 on a couple of window sills which didn't work. But a couple of years ago, I tried a citrus-based stripper on a pair of window stops and it worked great! It did not work so well on the old oil based exterior paint on my sashes, but I just sand and repaint those.
I have cats though, and am hesitant to take on such a large project while keeping them away from everything, especially on moldings which are going to take more work to get clean.
If your unpainted portion is shellac, you can simply clean with a scrubby and Murphys and reapply the shellac. You'll need a few coats to match what you had (I usually end up with 6 coats of garnet). You can strip it completely with denatured alcohol. I mix my own shellac rather than buy the can, as I found the Zinser wore off pretty quickly.
Oh - I had wall to wall carpet in the entire upstairs and down the stairs. I really haven't worried about filling in random nail holes from the tack strips, they weren't bad enough to bother me. What really annoys me is that they ripped off the larges molding on the last step, which was curved and will be the most difficult to reproduce. Because why ruin a straight one?
I install, sand & finish/ re-finish hardwood floors and stair case's. It's all I do...everyday.
My great grandfather started the business in 1921 in Tampa and its still in business. My uncle and cousin are running it now. Working with family can be hard and I left them and started my own in 2001.
NC211, Good job! From what I can see in that pic it looks like you did pretty good!
Especially since you were working with rental equipment. The edger in the pic looks like a Pro Sander (name brand) which is now made by Bona. That drum sander in your pic runs on 110V for the rental/DIY market. The drum sander's that we use run on 220V.
What you've got done in the pic is what I'd call your "rough cut", its ready to be "rough edged" now. That little edger kills your lower back! I am surprised to see rental sanders hooked to a vacuum though, usually they just have a bag on them.
All that old paint is likely is lead containing paint; ie, hazardous material to sand.
IMO, you would be better off to strip this paint than sand it.
The suggestions above to disassemble the stairway and bannister, then have it professionally dip stripped will save you many untold hours of detail sanding that will be a tedious and difficult process.
PS: power sanders with coarse sandpaper in tight places, joined edges, and curved surfaces are the fastest way I know of to destroy the woodwork. I’ve seen a lot of this type of result in old houses, furniture, wooden boats, and antique cars. Few folk are skilled or patient enough to do this type of restoration project properly to a good overall outcome.
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. We ripped up the carpet on the stairs to the 2nd floor with the intention of re-sanding the stairs in addition to the main floor. 
) So there are about 4 different layers of paint on the sides and the original stained red oak in the middle. After an attempt at stripping some of the paint, I gave up and decided to sand the wood part and repaint the painted part when we do our painting next month. I think it will look kinda neat that way and still tie in the wood stairs with the original floors upstairs and on the main floor as well as combining in the wall and trim colors. 
)
