As you will see, I have some pretty big gaps to deal with. One at the “landing”—if that’s what you can call my little turn in the stairs—is particularly big, and we weren't sure if the foam will work or if we will end up needing to do a wall patch since it is where the base of the wall meets the stair. In my usual fashion, I charged ahead with the foam to see what would happen.
Above mentioned big hairy gap! |
Another of the larger gaps. |
Now, I've never used this expanding foam before, and I found
it has a wee bit of a learning curve. It takes a second for the foam to push up
the straw at first, but once it gets there it is off and running! Watch the
straw to see when it is actually getting close to the tip, and then start
moving along your area you want “foamed”.
I put blue painter’s tape along the wall. I was afraid the
foam would mess the wall up, so I was going with the better safe than sorry
adage.
Here is a tip…don’t add a little more because it doesn't
look like it will expand to the edge, ‘cuz it will, and if you add more it will
way over fill!!! You can cut the overfill with a utility knife, but I found
that it didn't always cut cleanly. Of course, that could have been due to a dull
blade, but who has time to replace a razor in a utility knife??? Not I, let’s
just charge ahead and funk things up so it takes longer to sand (“Because I just
love sanding,” she muttered to herself sarcastically.) Moral of the story, for the love of Pete,
change your blade!!!
Just a few of my overfill areas. |
When trimming areas of
overfill, slice the area down to the edge the gap closest to you, so you aren’t
trying to press the foam between your knife and the wall. I just found this to be more effective.
As you can see above, I
would just slide the knife along the tread, then along the wall. I would do
this several times and then pull the foam away using the tape. If it was being
stubborn, which it sometimes was, I would just use the flat head screw driver to
coax it loose, if necessary.
Pulling away the tape and foam. |
I was unable to get the foam cut perfectly flush to the wood. Believe me, I tried. I may have been better able to do so if I used a razor blade by itself, but I would have inevitably severed a finger, or five in the process. I really don't have time for that amount of cleanup. Here are a couple of pics demonstrating the way most of it looked when all of the foam had been trimmed:
It is difficult to see in the pictures, but in many of the areas the foam did not slice cleanly, as I mentioned above. It sort of has a gnawed appearance.
Here is another tip, make sure you really have the bottom of your painter's tape stuck to the wall, otherwise you may also have this issue:
My stairs are in rough shape. There are gouges (some were already there, some came from prying the tack strips), a few of the treads had very uneven top edges on the tread noses, not to mention all of the lovely holes from the nails and staples. I addressed, or attempted to address, these issues with wood filler. I have no idea how it will hold up on those tread nose edges, but I guess we will find out! Here are a couple of pictures showing some of the many areas I used the wood filler:
I figured that I should let the thicker areas of wood filler dry for 8-12 hours. I want to do everything possible to keep it from crumbling away when I try to sand it. I also tried it over a really, really rough area of the foam just to see if it will stay during sanding. I did discover that it takes the wood filler much longer to fully dry over the foam...at least 24 hours. I haven't tried to sand it yet, so I'll let you know how that turns out. If it stays put and sands smooth, then I will use it over more of those rough areas of foam.
Next, it is time to tackle sanding! I, in my thriftiness, tried doing the sanding with a hand sander...the kind powered by your actual hand, not electricity. I got two of the steps partially sanded, remembered just how much I hate to sand, and decided that being thrifty in this case was for the birds. I went to Lowe's and bought this beauty! Once I get done with this dreaded step of the process I will report back.
Former big hairy gap! :-) |
It is difficult to see in the pictures, but in many of the areas the foam did not slice cleanly, as I mentioned above. It sort of has a gnawed appearance.
Here is another tip, make sure you really have the bottom of your painter's tape stuck to the wall, otherwise you may also have this issue:
Oops!!! Guess I get to play with some joint compound. |
I figured that I should let the thicker areas of wood filler dry for 8-12 hours. I want to do everything possible to keep it from crumbling away when I try to sand it. I also tried it over a really, really rough area of the foam just to see if it will stay during sanding. I did discover that it takes the wood filler much longer to fully dry over the foam...at least 24 hours. I haven't tried to sand it yet, so I'll let you know how that turns out. If it stays put and sands smooth, then I will use it over more of those rough areas of foam.
Next, it is time to tackle sanding! I, in my thriftiness, tried doing the sanding with a hand sander...the kind powered by your actual hand, not electricity. I got two of the steps partially sanded, remembered just how much I hate to sand, and decided that being thrifty in this case was for the birds. I went to Lowe's and bought this beauty! Once I get done with this dreaded step of the process I will report back.
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