Can I just pull up carpets and leave floorbords as they are?

MB Lacey

Do I really need to sand and varnish them?
Living in Drimnagh, we lifted carpets off 3 bedrooms, hired a sander and sanded and varnished the floors and they look cool.
We now want to lift carpets off stairs but we're both feeling too lazy to sand and varnish all those stairs.
They're in good enough condition - probably about 20 years under carpet.

Please tell us we can just lift the carpet and tread up and down the unvarnished wooden stairs without any real damage.

thanks.

jiggerypokery

If you want your stairs to look cool also, sand and varnish. Unprotected timber will look terrible very quickly when stains and dirt become ingrained and will require deep sanding to remove them.

MB Lacey

thanks JP
but thats not what I wanted to hear!

I can't imagine us spilling anything on the stairs but I didn't think about dirt getting trodden into the stairs.
Would it really look that bad?
Could it not look - 'cool, bad'?
Both of us like country cottage, farmhouse kind of interiors over perfectly painted interiors..

So if we're not too pushed about the stairs 'looking bad' is there any Real physical damage to the stairs without varnishing them?

John Mason

after about a month they will look horrendous, grubby and neglected.

it will take a lot long to sand them and clean them up.

either replace the carpet or sand and varnish them

antoinolachtnai

If you like the look of them you could just clean them really well and varnish them, I suppose. But it's worth going to the trouble of sanding them.

One other thing, noise can be an issue on stairs so some people like to carpet 'em, even if they sand and varnish everywhere else.

Lex Luthor

varnish not only makes wood look good but protects it aswell. It will prevent any moisture getting in and also dirt...

up to you but I would

Buford T Justice

MB Lacey wrote: »

thanks JP
but thats not what I wanted to hear!

I can't imagine us spilling anything on the stairs but I didn't think about dirt getting trodden into the stairs.
Would it really look that bad?

Yes, it would. Dirt from shoes, socks etc.... it'll destroy wood that isn't protected - its unavoidable if you don't varnish it

MB Lacey wrote: »

Could it not look - 'cool, bad'?

In short. No, no it wouldn't. Just bad and grubby.

MB Lacey wrote: »

Both of us like country cottage, farmhouse kind of interiors over perfectly painted interiors..
So if we're not too pushed about the stairs 'looking bad' is there any Real physical damage to the stairs without varnishing them?

Up to you OP, but if you don't varnish it, you will regret it, and you will curse the day that you didn't do it when you have to sand off all the dirt to get the stairs clean before you can varnish it.