Stair Tread Best protective top Coat - question

I did some searching for this topic but did not find what I was needing. If I miss it in the forum please forgive and point me to the thread.

I am looking to staining and putting a protective sealer on some oak stair treads. Or I may paint the treads depending on what the BOSS tell me she waits. If I paint they will not be oak.

Anyone have have any suggest for a novice on a good protective top coat ?


Mark

I would use an Oilbased Polyurethane as a top coat after staining. Several coats. (One suggestion, you can put fresh finish on alternating steps and still be able to use them if it is a primary egress to your home. Or you can do a right or left side only for the first couple of coats (alternating each day) until you are ready to add the final where you scuff up and wipe out any overlap marks to make a smooth final coat)
This doesn't work well with small tykes who can't remember which steps NOT to step on...

Or you can apply after bed and add a fan to keep air circulation and hope that it cures by morning.

Using Oilbased Poly will allow you to touch up when periodical dings and scratches occur, using wipe on Poly and a rag.

Remember to use Gloss Poly as Semi will dull with age and not make you happy. You can always tone down gloss but you can never brighten up Semi.

Thanks Bill for the help, it helps a lot.

Mark

Nothing really to add, sorry, but this reminds me of something I saw here in Tokyo once, just to show you the abuse the stairs take.

One of the main entrances to Shinjuku Station, just down the street, they were replacing the stair treads, I was really curious, as they were doing half the stairs at a time, so the foot traffic was rather congested on the other half of the stairs, and I remarked to my Japanese friend that it is a good thing they don't have to do that very often. He told me they do it about every year, maybe 18 months

The kicker is the stair treads were 3" thick granite, and in that short of a time, they get enough wear to have to replace them.......

3,000,000+ people a DAY go through Shinjuku station..., so that is 6,000,000 feet and that is an average day, so 365 x 6,000,000 = 21,900,000,000 boy that is a lot of foot steps

My point is that no matter what you do, stairs take a beating, and you have to be prepared to fix them up at some time.

Good luck!