How Do I Hide Splits And Fillings On Varnished Wood Stairs

[gdhm]

Hi,

Once again my wife's uncle is proving his 40 years in the trade means nothing, nor his promises, timetables, costings or quality control

He told me he bought quality stair case wood (to be laid on concrete stair base). At the time I was very unimpressed as some planks had splits and one or two sign of woodworm (no idea if old or new).

He told me the usual "no Problem you will like and be very happy when we finished" bullshit and that that the woodworm was dead and the splits and blemishes would BE invisible after the wood had been filled, and varnished etc.

Well now after taking two months of bit by bit work and 3 different crews coz the first walked out over money we have lighter visible filling all over, for all nail holes, screw holes, filled in splits, blemishes and woodworm holes (which mostly can be seen as woodworm holes as the filling was removed with the varnishing).

A darker patch or two where it looks like a darker liquid was dropped on the wood (not there originally), the lower flight of 9 steps has the top 3 backboards clearly of a different colour (and maybe wood). The hand rail and banisters are also different in colour to each other and the steps. Clearly different wood The end result is 4 colours of varnished wood, all places filled in have lighter streaks and spots and there are dark stains in a few places

BLOOD AWFUL.

OK let's assume the Builder will fight tooth and nail against redoing them completely again and I see little point is going down that road unless there are no easier solutions.

What I wish to ask the wood experts is:

Are there varnish "paints" that effectively cover wood like paint and dictate shades and colour whilst leaving wood effect streaks to give a good impression of clearer wood varnishes.

I see no other option IF THERE ARE SUCH VARNISH PAINTS as it will need MUCH MORE than clearish varnishes to hide different wood colours, light coloured screw/nail fillings and many slit fillings and dark patches.

Hoping somebody has a reasonably easy solution I can direct and demand the builder to do. I cannot rely on his ability or knowledge at all.

What he does not know he bullshits and it is impossible to tell one from the other and so far his finishing of my house is a disgrace by any form or Western standards.

I do not wish to go the lawyer route (successful or not) as he is my wife's Uncle and not a bad man. He is just totally out of his depth and money and he deceived himself BIG TIME on costing hence why I have had a "pay peanuts get monkeys" situation for many months. As I am now 450,000 baht over the contracted budget and nearly all my saving now gone and my UK pension worth only 74% (due to Exchange rate collapse of GBP) of what it was a year ago I cannot further finance good workers and redoing of jobs myself.

This house is hel_l on Earth. How often do you have to repaint because the acrylic emulsion used indoors washed off if you lightly wiped a dirty spot with a damp cloth. Of course the Paint company would not believe their mix was wrong not would they check for themselves even thought he Khon Kaen supplier of their paint told them he had personally checked himself and never seen such a problem with their paint or other makes before.

The interior walls so far have had about 25 render cracks filled in and the outside has about 12 in total that need to be dealt with. Needless to say some are not invisible after painting. One worker said it was because the walls were not made wet enough when rendering (I have no idea if that is the reason). After 10½ months the nightmare is still ongoing and I do not give dam_n why things are wrong or went wrong.

If I did get my Lawyer involved he would have so much evidence that he would be able to financially destroy the Builder (which I really do NOT wish to try or do). If ever there was an open and shut case for negligence, breach of contract this is one (even under Thai Law).

Thanks all

Dave

[Rimmer]

I feel very sorry for you Dave, but at the end of the day there is no satisfactory answer to your problems, and no way on this earth is a lawyer going to help matters. Have you got fire insurance perchance?

Stair wood is expensive, about 600 baht a tread for hardwood and 1000 for redwood. Even buying the best does not guarantee that it is kiln dried or even cured in the sun. If the planks already have cracks and woodworm they are not top quality stair treads but I suspect the hardwood planks that are used for scaffold planks and the weatherboards around the house.

Stair treads need to be fixed to the concrete with four screws and a good quality construction adhesive such as 'Nails' (brand name) The screw heads are sunk into the wood and the holes filled with dowel. When the treads are sanded (with a belt sander) The dust can be collected and mixed with the white TOA glue, this can then be used to fill any imperfections and can be again sanded back with your belt sander.

Hand rails are pre shaped and should be matched, if they are not pull them out and get matching ones, they will annoy the h*ll out of you.

TOA have a good range of wood coverings but for durability I prefer Sadolin, it really brings out the grain, or in your case the worm holes.

Cracks in cement rendering is usually because the mix was too wet and/or dried out too quickly.

Have no idea about the paint other than it may be a cheaper brand. BUT at the end of the day acrylic emulsion is water soluble and the indoor paints can often be rubbed off with a damp sponge.

[Somtham]

<snip> Clearly different wood The end result is 4 colours of varnished wood, all places filled in have lighter streaks and spots and there are dark stains in a few places

Are there varnish "paints" that effectively cover wood like paint and dictate shades and colour whilst leaving wood effect streaks to give a good impression of clearer wood varnishes.

Yikes! Sounds like the house is a mess and you're a wreck.

Just about all brands of stain/varnish can be purchased with pigment in them to make them simulate a wood color they are not such as oak, teak, mohaganey, etc. The problem is that if you are starting out with 4 different woods you will end up with 4 shades of oak, teak, etc unless you opt for ebony (then you could just use black paint!).

What I would suggest is first find a woodworker that knows what they are doing. There are plenty around in this country. Go take a look at some of their work before you hire them. If money was not an issue you could have that new woodworker replace your existing stairs and railings with a nice mai daeng or mai makah.

Since it sounds like money may be an issue and you don't want to replace anything then you should strip/sand off the varnish and get the 4 woods back to theit natural state. Do as Rimmer suggests and collect the sanding dust from each of the 4 types of woods, mix it with the TOA and "fill" all the cracks, worm holes, etc. with the compound.

Pick the wood color of the 4 that you like the best or even the wood that you have the most of, because what you want to do is try and match the color of that wood. Your choice. Almost all hardware and/or paint stores sell little bags of oxide powder. You can get them in black, red, yellow, blue, aqua, etc. Buy bags of the ones you think when mixed in the correct proportion will simulate the wood color you have chosen to match.

Keeping track of the mix ratios stir them into the varnish you have chosen and test the new color on the 3 woods that need the color change. It takes a little patience but is not difficult to do. When you're done matching you should have 3 different colors of varnish ready plus the plain varnish.

Hope this makes sense. It should to the woodworker you hire.

Good luck with the rest of the palace.

rgds

[gdhm]

Thanks Rimmer and Somtham,

This house is sturdy and sound. Unfortunately the Builder does not seem to know a Rats arse about Western (or good) finishing standards. pillars rendered sloping to left (what was wrong with the renderer's vision), doors in frames are awful and he was told at the outset what standard I expected. With several doors the latch sticks inside the door when turned, several have gap where the latch barely reaches the frame and 6 doors squeal due to poorly fitted hinges. Most do not haver the doors flush with the frame both sides.

I do not know what the problem is. Even 1950's mass built UK houses had reasonably tight fitting doors.

I will not bore you with the almost countless mistakes and poor work. I was so cross 3 months ago I started a list of errors for giving to my Lawyer to fire a shot across my builder bows. I got to 58 without thinking. Now it must be beyond 100. All easily verifiable as shoddy work by any neutral decent builder (none serious and mostly superficial finishing and not serious - BUT everybody sees.

regards

Dave

[gdhm]

Well I found out the reason for the 3 top backboards being a different colour. My idiot Uncle-in-Law was not even able to work out how many planks he needed for 2 flights and 16 steps. He of course ran out.

Solution buy more from a different source (and probably different wood).

The half landing he intends to use parquet, so God knows what colours that will be. I expected him to use the same wood as the stairs.

They have had a second go and have improved the splits appearance but the nail hole fillings are as before beige coloured circles around 8 to each step and back board.

The top three backboards start at just above eye level upwards (why he did not even try placing at feet level I do not know) so anybody looking to go upstairs immediately sees the mismatch.

My wife is horrified, but I am seriously thinking of painting the whole staircase with a solid coloured gloss paint.

I hate sacrificing varnished wood but the builder is in full control of this house not me (I am only the owner and his employer but TIT) and the staircase faults cannot be concealed by varnish I now I see no other alternatives. I cannot afford to foot the bill for another attempt.

At least the 4 colours of wood, hole fillings, splits and parquet flooring will match and all errors and imperfections will be concealed .

What are the experts opinions on this idea please.

If painting is thought to be the next best choice, please may I ask for guidance on type and quality of paint and colour

When in the UK I was used to white (well maybe magnolia white staircases (seemed OK) but not sure what experts consider good colours for use on stairs. The floor tiles are a very light whitish beige and the walls are a slightly darker beige but still very light. Ceilings are white.

Another colour that came to my mind was very dark chocolate brown colour

On a happier note:

If anybody reads this before Christmas Day you are very sad like me and should be out enjoying Christmas Eve.

Seriously, may I take this opportunity to wish you and your families a Very Merry Christmas and to any readers before and/or after Christmas I wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year

Kindest regards

Dave

[eddiemonster]

Far from being an expert, I have, however, been in a similar situation to your goodself. Whilst I wouldn't dream of advising you on colour preferences without knowing your tastes I think glossing your staircase is your easiest and cheapest solution.

Personally, I would go with white. A touch boring maybe but very few people dislike it, with the added bonus that if at a later stage you decide to go with another colour it is easier to cover.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you too. And good luck.

EM

[Bill97]

A good cabinet finisher (the guys that sand and varnish/urethane or whatever on cabinets) knows how to mix and recolor wood. But you need a good one. Mine in Chiang Mai did wonders touching up places and matching wood colors before he put the finish on.

[torrenova]

I'm no builder but I had to sack a couple of chippies in the UK a fwe years ago and then got involved in doing door frames, skirting, flooring and architraving etc. myself.

I didn't find the best mix to be using dust and glue but rather to get a few of the filler colourants and mix them them to match. You can't put too much in as it will crack, better to just take two attempts. Where one proved to be the wrong colour, I just keyed out a millimetre or so an filled it again with the right colour. After some time you learn the mixes 90% right first time.

Now this is just a work around you understand but it did work and I was pleased with the results.

I'm so sorry that you are in this predicament but it looks like a work around on some things is going to have to try and make the best of a bad job.

Best of luck.

[gdhm]

I'm no builder but I had to sack a couple of chippies in the UK a few years ago and then got involved in doing door frames, skirting, flooring and architraving etc. myself.

I didn't find the best mix to be using dust and glue but rather to get a few of the filler colourants and mix them them to match. You can't put too much in as it will crack, better to just take two attempts. Where one proved to be the wrong colour, I just keyed out a millimetre or so an filled it again with the right colour. After some time you learn the mixes 90% right first time.

Now this is just a work around you understand but it did work and I was pleased with the results.

I'm so sorry that you are in this predicament but it looks like a work around on some things is going to have to try and make the best of a bad job.

Best of luck.

Thanks Torrenova.

They are at last beginning to get things better after many attempts. Now the 3 top back boards look close to the others. They seem to have applied more coats of varnish to gradually darken the backboards to that close to the others.

Seems to be working as the difference does not now hit me in the face.

The fillings are now closer to the main wood colours. My wife passed on comment received from this forum but I am unsure at that they did exactly (as I do not watch over them all the time.). My suspicions is they mixed filler colours rather than wood dust

I have told them some of the splits need to be redone and smoothed as I can feel them under bare foot.

The workers on the stairs (at least seem willing to put the effort in to get it to my satisfaction) unlike many others in the house before that only wanted to offer what they wanted to do and how. and the much quoted phrases to shit work and finishing (that I will remember to the grave

"Good enough" and "It no problem" (not for them )

Mind maybe my family will soon become "solvent abusers" with the number of times the steps have been varnished and the solvents permeate around our house all day whilst drying (well ventilated or not makes me head achy at times)

Thanks again all

Dave