Case study
Restoring an original staircase
Paint-spattered, worn treads on an original staircase. Rather than replace it, we sanded it back to bare timber, tread by tread, and repainted it — the original flight kept.
- Work
- Staircase stripping & refinishing
- Features
- Curved bottom step, turned balusters
- Approach
- Original flight kept
- Photographed
- Before, during & after
Stage by stage
From paint-spattered treads to a finished flight
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Before
The condition we found
The treads were paint-spattered and worn back to patchy, bare timber in places.
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During
Sanding to bare timber
Each tread was sanded back to bare timber with dust extraction running, which keeps the dust out of the rest of the house while the work goes on.
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During
Handrail and string
The handrail and string were sanded back by machine too, so the whole flight was refinished rather than just the treads.
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During
Tread by tread
Part-way through: old paint removed one tread at a time. Slow, unglamorous work, and the part that decides how the finish looks in five years.
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After
Repainted
The finished flight, repainted on a properly prepared surface, below the round porthole window.
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After
The original, kept
The curved bottom step and turned balusters are the details a replacement staircase would have lost. Here they stay.
Why restore a staircase rather than replace it
An original staircase is one of the hardest things in an older house to replace convincingly. Its proportions, the curve of a bottom step and the profile of the balusters were made for that hallway. Where the structure allows, stripping it back and refinishing keeps all of that.
We restore floors and staircases as part of wider period property renovations in Nottingham, and on their own. If a staircase or floor does need to be new, we can build that too — see a pine staircase we built and painted.
Another restoration written up in full: a louvred roof lantern, rebuilt. More on our approach to conservation-sensitive restoration.
Is your staircase worth saving?
Painted-over treads, worn handrails, original floors under carpet — tell us what you have, and we’ll come and look at what can be brought back.