Sanding: #01

The Staircase renovation has begun. Susan had to work tonight so it seemed a perfect time to begin sanding the staircase. I believe I made fairly good progress.

Here you can see the base of the stairs as they were before I began the arduous task removing 99 years of stain, dirt, mold, slime, goo, schmagma, crap, and poo from the surface.

I started with our detail sander but quickly realized that I should start large and finish small. So I pulled out the palm sander and, using 60 grit sand paper, went to work. The treads and the siding sanded to bare wood pretty easily and quickly. I discovered that you can't get too attached to any particular piece of sand paper. You use them up quickly and without prejudice. When it is no longer doing the job for you, it is not prudent to keep using the same worn out piece of sand paper. (There are so many metaphors I could use here, but every one of them gets me in trouble with someone who might read this)Once you add a fresh replacement, the difference is amazing and readily noticeable. I only completed four steps tonight but that was in the span of about an hour and a half.

The odd thing is that the side trim and the treads sand to wood pretty easily. The risers are much more difficult to sand. For one thing, I can see that we missed a LOT of staples and nails when we pulled the carpet up four years ago. I'm going to have to meticulously examine each riser for staples and nails. If you miss one, particularly a broken staple, it rips the hell out of your sandpaper.

I used one sheet of sand paper on tonight's efforts. I figure I need about se7en more sheets. Probably more!

times se7en!