Stairs & Railings
Stair Refinishing in Hawthorne, Philadelphia
Stairs take more wear per square foot than any floor in the house, and they are sanded almost entirely by hand. In Hawthorne, Philadelphia the median home dates to 1962 and 40.8% of the housing predates 1940, which changes what Deco Hardwood Floor expects to find before the work starts.
Refinishing a stair that is as old as the house
In Hawthorne the stairs are usually original, with treads that have worn unevenly and paint on the risers and balusters that predates 1978.
A stair cannot be sanded with a floor machine. Every tread, riser and baluster is worked by hand and with small sanders, which is why a staircase takes longer per square foot than any room in the house.
On an old stair the first check is how much tread is left. A hundred years of feet wear a hollow in the middle of each step, and sanding it level takes more wood from the edges. Where a tread is too thin it is replaced, and the new one is finished with the rest.
Before you get a quote
Painted risers and balusters in a house this old fall under the federal lead rule when they are sanded for pay. The work area is contained and the sanders are connected to a vacuum.
How the housing in Hawthorne compares
Of the 3,468 housing units in Hawthorne, roughly 1,400 were built before 1940 and approximately 2,100 before 1978.
That makes the housing here newer than the 132 Philadelphia neighborhoods in our data taken together, where approximately 82.8% of 733,961 units predate 1978, and above the 60.5% figure for our whole service area. By the share built before 1940, Hawthorne ranks 75th of those 132. The full table is published as open housing data.
Within Philadelphia, the oldest housing in our data is in Cedar Park, with a median year of 1925, and the newest is in Kensington, Old, at 1997.
| Place | Median year built | Built before 1940 |
|---|---|---|
| Hawthorne | 1962 | 40.8% |
| Bella Vista | 1929 | 66.8% |
| Washington Square West | 1939 | 50.4% |
| Passyunk Square | 1927 | 72.0% |
| Queen Village | 1937 | 52.5% |
| Society Hill | 1963 | 32.0% |
| Center City East | 1982 | 41.1% |
For stair refinishing, the pre-1978 share is the figure that matters. Painted risers and balusters in those houses are sanded under the federal lead rule.
What is usually under the floor here
Housing this old normally holds narrow strip oak laid straight over joists, and often it has only one sanding left.
In a place where a large share of the housing predates 1940, the floor under the carpet is usually the original one. That means narrow strip oak, sometimes heart pine on upper floors, nailed straight to the joists with no plywood in between. It also means the floor has probably been sanded before, possibly more than once.
Only the wood above the tongue can be sanded, roughly a quarter inch on a traditional floor. A floor that has already given up two of those sandings is a different job from one that has given up none, and the difference is not visible from standing height. We measure at the edge of a board before quoting.
Worth knowing here
Parquet and herringbone turn up under carpet in this stock more often than people expect, and they sand differently: the grain runs in two directions at once, so a drum sander used the normal way tears them.
Whether the federal lead rule applies depends on the house
Approximately 61.7% of the homes here predate 1978, so it comes down to the specific address.
This is a place where the housing stock straddles the 1978 line the EPA rule draws. Roughly half the addresses are covered and roughly half are not, which means the answer is per house rather than per town.
Where it does apply, the rule governs how the sander is set up: containment and a HEPA vacuum collecting dust where it is generated. We check the age of the house before deciding how the work is staged.
How stair refinishing runs
We look at the nosings
That is where wear shows first, and it decides refinish versus retread.Structure checked
Loose treads and squeaks addressed before finishing, because finish does not fix movement.Sanding, mostly by hand
Machines where they reach, hand work everywhere else.Finish applied
Coats on the cure schedule of the specified product.Staged so you can use the house
Where there is only one staircase, the schedule is built around that.
What stair refinishing includes, and what it does not
Stair refinishing covers checking the structure, sanding the treads, risers and visible stringer, and applying stain and finish. It does not put wood back where the nosing has worn away, and balusters are a separate decision because each one is done by hand.
Included
- A look at every nosing, to confirm the treads can be refinished.
- Loose treads and squeaks addressed before any finish is applied.
- Sanding of treads, risers and the visible stringer, by machine where it reaches and by hand elsewhere.
- A stain sample tested against your existing floor before the stair is stained.
- Finish coats applied by hand, on the cure schedule of the product.
- A schedule built around access when the house has only one staircase.
Not included, or quoted separately
- New treads. If the nosing is worn into the wood, that is retreading and a different quote.
- Balusters, unless you ask for them. Each one is sanded by hand, and it adds real time.
- A promise of a house without dust. Vacuum extraction catches most of it, not all of it.
What changes the price of stair refinishing
The price is set after we see the stair, not from its square footage. It moves most with the number of steps, with whether the balusters are refinished too, and with what has to come off the wood before new finish can go on.
| What changes it | How it moves the price | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Number of steps | Each step is a tread, a riser and several inside corners worked by hand, so the count of steps drives the hours. | A flight of fourteen risers has fourteen horizontal surfaces, fourteen vertical ones and a corner at every joint. |
| Balusters in or out | Refinishing balusters means sanding and coating each one by hand. Painting them, or leaving them alone, removes most of that time. | Treads and handrail refinished, with risers and balusters painted, is a common and faster version of the same job. |
| What is on the wood | Paint, old carpet staples and tack strip holes take more work to deal with than a worn clear finish, and all of it comes before stain. | A hardwood stair that was painted or carpeted over needs more preparation than one with a tired coat of polyurethane. |
| Open or closed stair | An open side adds the tread returns and the outside face of the stringer, plus more edges to work around the balusters. | A stair between two walls has fewer surfaces than one open to a hallway with balusters set into every tread. |
| Color change and finish type | Changing the color adds stain and sample work. The finish chosen sets the cure time between coats, which sets how the job is staged. | Waterborne finish lets you back on the stair far sooner than oil-modified polyurethane, so the two are scheduled differently. |
The full method, the equipment and what we will and will not promise are on the service page: Stair Refinishing.
Also in Hawthorne
Hardwood Floor Refinishing
Sand the old finish off, repair what needs repairing, and put a new finish down
Dustless Floor Sanding
Vacuum-extraction sanding
Solid Hardwood Floor Installation
Solid wood, nailed down over a wood subfloor
Engineered Hardwood Installation
Real wood over a stable core
Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) Installation
Waterproof, quiet, and it does not care about a wet basement
Custom Stair Installation
Treads, risers, stringers and skirt board, built to a drawing instead of a catalog page
Hardwood Floor Repair
Board replacement, weaving in new wood, squeaks, gaps and cupping
Why homeowners hire Deco Hardwood Floor
Deco Hardwood Floor is owner operated: the person who quotes stair refinishing in Hawthorne is the person responsible for it, and the material comes with the labor in one number.
Material and labor in one number
We buy the flooring direct from the distributor and pass the store price through, so you are not sourcing wood on your own between quotes.
Samples come to your house
Samples and larger offcuts come to you, so the color gets chosen in your own light instead of under a showroom lamp.
Stairs and railings built in house
Treads, risers, handrails and newel posts are drawn and built by our own crew. Most flooring crews subcontract stair work or decline it.
The owner quotes the job
The person who measures your floor is the person responsible for the work. There is no salesperson in between.
Measured before it is promised
Remaining thickness is measured at the edge of a board before we say a floor can be sanded, and no price is firm before we have seen the room.
Told straight, including the limits
Vacuum extraction catches most of the sanding dust and not all of it. We tell you that before the job instead of after.
More about who we are and what we will not claim on the About Deco Hardwood Floor page.
Questions about stair refinishing in Hawthorne
Is it worth refinishing stairs, or should we replace the treads?
Refinishing is worth it when the treads are sound hardwood and the wear is in the finish. Stair refinishing keeps the stair you have and is less work than building over it. Replacement, called retreading, makes sense once the nosing is worn into the wood or the treads are cracked. Deco Hardwood Floor checks the nosings first, because they decide which of the two you need.
Waterborne or oil-modified polyurethane for stairs?
Either works on stairs, and the choice mostly changes the schedule and the color. Waterborne finish stays clearer and lets you back on the stair sooner. Oil-modified polyurethane adds an amber tone, takes longer between coats and smells stronger while it cures. For stair refinishing in a house with one staircase, cure time is usually what decides it.
Can the risers be painted and the treads stained?
Yes. Stair refinishing does not have to treat every surface the same way. Many customers have the treads and handrail refinished as wood and the risers and balusters painted. Surfaces that will be painted do not need to be sanded back to clean bare wood, which shortens the hand work. Say so at the estimate, so the quote covers the right surfaces.
Is stair refinishing safe around pets and children?
Keep pets and children off the stair and away from the work until the last coat has cured. Stair refinishing makes sanding dust, and vacuum extraction catches most of it, not all of it. Wet finish keeps paw prints and footprints. In a house built before 1978 the federal lead rule governs how the sander runs, which is one more reason to keep them clear.
Can you tell me what my floor needs over the phone?
We can tell you what is likely, and this page is most of that answer. What we cannot do is quote a floor we have not seen, because remaining thickness and what is under the covering both decide the job and neither is visible in a description.
Do you bring the material?
Yes. We buy direct from the distributor and the material lands in the same number as the labor. Samples and larger offcuts come to the house so you choose in your own light.
My house is from the 1920s. Can the floor still be sanded?
Often, but it is a measurement rather than an assumption. Only the wood above the tongue can be sanded, and a floor that has been refinished twice already may have one pass left. We check at the edge of a board before quoting.
Stair Refinishing near Hawthorne
Send a photo and we will tell you what you are looking at
Stair Refinishing in Hawthorne starts with someone reading the house. We quote every job ourselves, with no salesperson in between, and a photo of the floor gets you a straight answer faster than a form does.
