Steps/rails/durability

New carpets coming and the steps are not being covered. Not sure what the timber is but it looks like meranti to me (see pic).

SWMBO wants the steps and rails/posts darker than what they are (so they match this thing called decor, don't know what that is being a practical guy who hates stain).

A deep mahogany is the prefered colour.

What is the best stain to use, and finish to use???????????

Been looking at the Cabots brochure and they want me to apply one coat of CFP before staining..........mix the stain with the 2nd coat of CFP..........finish with a coat of clear CFP...........Isn't this just tinting the surface finish????????

Fanta,

This "sandwich" approach is one used for flooring - large areas of timber where it may not be possible to achieve a consistency of colour.

The first coat is to more or less seal the timber.

If the stain is the first coat, it may be possible for really "thirsty" parts of the timber to swallow more stain than others, resulting in a blotchy finish. If the stain is used in the finish as the second coat, then this is much less likely.

The final part of the sandwich is obviously to provide the final durability coat.

As you are only doing a small area (steps) Im not really sure how necessary this "sandwich" process is. If you are quite confident on achieving a consistent stain finish across the steps, then I would say dont worry too much about sealing the timber with an initial coat of flooring finish, but DEFINITELY do at least 2 top coats of flooring finish for durability. The CFP additive may also give it even more durability.

Stick with an oil based stain (or even a varnish stain) if you are going to use an oil based floor finish. And a water based stain if you are using a water based finish.

I hope this helps.

Thanks......

Am a bit worried about consistency of colour so will try the sandwich method.

Tried it on a scrap piece of timber and after three coats of the stain tinted laquer it looks OK.

Looks like I'm going to have to put 6 coats on the whole lot....

1 prep, 3 stain, 2 finish. Purchased Cabots Floor coat (bloody expensive but what the....)

No problem, would love to see a photo of it when finished

This is a shot of a part of the steps.........would like to put another coat on to make it a bit darker but its sucking the laquer into the groove between the tread and riser making a black (heavily stained) bit........any ideas on how to stop this????????????????