Finished

Yeah it is done. The steps were extended at the front with oak. Actually the young oak i got is not that dark as the old ones being walked over the last 80 years. Now sitting beside the logfire and in a good mood to type something. Still there is a smell of two component polyurethane paint in the house and some powder leftovers. This is hopefully gone when the family returns.

Eventually it took a bit of time to take the staircase from the point it was to mostly its original shape. As a new owner of an old house there are lots of changes. Usually i start with de-renovating the ugly trends of the past and start from a solid base. In other words removing the old paint, the PVC flooring, the levelling and when there, the laminated fibre boards too.

Old house, old steps, small feet
Built in the 1930 the house does not have adequate steps to keep up with todays feet. Likely in the 1970 the steps were extended with roof laath. Insulting for the oak behind - not talking about the PVC. In short this was "Pfusch". Removed. Then clean cut with the plunge saw at the front for a nice 90 degree and extended with proper and massive oak again.

Obviously sand papering it and then making the surface persistent with new paint.

The effort
There are 32 steps divided into 4 parts. First 8, turn second 8, then u r on the next level. To give an idea about the time effort - in total it took:

• 4 days to extend the steps again. Cutting the front of the steps and mounting the new oak piece,
• 3,5 days to finish the stairs and their side mount,
• 7 days to sand off old paint and finish the hand rail,
• 2,5 days to remove the old bad taste,
• 2 days of cleaing from the powder (4 major dusty actions).

Quite some work which mostly accumulated in the after working hours. Financially renovating this with typical hourly wages is a "Totalschaden" (remove and replace instead of repair). A new staircase is cheaper. However ways couldn`t be delivered soon. With our beloved Euro currency everybody is transforming the last coins into real things. Handcrafters are a tight resource and have their price especially if you want it a bit sooner.

That made it easier to take out the own tools and start having some, mostly relaxing work with nice wood. Hmm - I remember the smell of fresh cut oak. When i was a very young boy i did -very verboten- turnery on my grand dads wood turning lathe.