An elegant finish on old woodwork
Q In my front hall and stairway, the woodwork, treads, and risers are pretty beat up but still serviceable. Can I make them look good by varnishing them? Can I do the same with the entire railing system on the stairs, rails, spindles, and all? The only thing that really bothers me is the risers, the painted boards immediately under each tread. They are painted white and are really miserable looking. What can I do except repaint them and hope for the best?
Dorian Fliegel, Cambridge
A Hope springs eternal, and you do have a chance at making all that woodwork decent looking. Varnished old woodwork and railings have an elegant look, even if it is a little decadent. It would be a shame to paint it. So, if the finish on all these surfaces is still there, more or less, and there are no bare wood areas showing, you can sand lightly, then apply two thin coats of an oil-based polyurethane varnish. Even light sanding will make everything look even worse, but the new varnish will cover very well and make a pretty fair finish.
I keep harping on thin coats. Why? Because thin coats have a better chance of sticking. Thick coats can wrinkle and lose adhesion.
If there are a few bare wood areas showing, or the bare wood has turned a bit gray, you can stain those areas to match the original finish; the stain will penetrate the bare wood but not the finished surface. Then you can varnish.
Do the same with the railing system. Trying to refinish such a system, spindles, rails, and anything else, is a daunting project.
Which brings us to those risers. If they are varnished, it would not be too difficult to revarnish. But most are painted white, in the traditional system of dark treads and white risers. And those risers are really bad, scuffed black from countless shoe toes and heels. So, instead of painting them again (and again!), try this: buy white contact paper, cut it to fit, and apply the self-adhesive stuff to the risers. The paper is easily peeled off, so when it gets tired looking, pull it off and put up new. I got this idea from Paul Quinton, a good friend from Weymouth who put a marble-pattern paper on his risers.
What about my risers? I cheated and put down a stair carpet.
Q I have some pressure-treated lattice surrounding my closed-in porch. Can I paint or seal it? Also, can I put screens on the lattice to keep the bugs out?
Stylish
A You can paint or stain lattice, but why bother? You are better off leaving the lattice to weather. Or, if you want white, buy the new vinyl lattice. You can put screens on the lattice, but make sure you staple the screens on a solid wood base. The lattice is too thin to staple directly.
Q I have recently seen two big bees buzzing around my gutter. I see a lot of sawdust around. I think they are making holes in the fascia behind the gutter, but I can't imagine how they are getting to the fascia. What are they and how can I keep them from making more holes?
M.E.O., Boylston
A Ah yes, 'tis the season for making babies, and that's what the carpenter bees are doing. They are about the size of bumblebees; they drill holes in wood and then turn a corner and deposit eggs for incubation. I am sure they had no trouble squeezing behind the gutter to make the holes. What you can do: Sit tight and hope they don't make more holes. If they become bothersome you can spray an insecticide in the holes (if you can reach the holes) and plug them with glazing compound. I don't like to say that because the bees are beneficial, and pollinate a lot of plants, which is important in this age of a great loss of honey bees throughout the country. With fewer bees to pollinate, the fewer veggies and fruits we will have, and hand pollination may be necessary, and even that is inadequate.
Your fascia boards may be a little punky, making it easier for the bees to drill their holes. So, inspect your fascia boards (you may have to remove the gutters), and replace them if necessary with fresh, solid wood, well painted or stained.
Q My brick patio, mostly unmortared brick, has sunk considerably, and of course unevenly. Would it be possible to cover the uneven bricks with sand to level out the surface and put down new bricks in sand?
Lenore Wilcox, Beverly
A Sure, but this will raise the patio considerably, so you will have to put a border around the patio, made of pressure-treated timbers or on-end patio blocks to keep the patio bricks from walking all over the place.
And here the Handyman's Midwestern roots take over: Why put in new bricks at great expense? Why not pick up the old bricks, apply more sand, level it and tamp compactly, and put the old bricks back in place? New bricks cost at least 50 cents each (probably more since my day of playing with bricks), and at five bricks per square foot, that is $2.50 a square foot. It mounts up. The old patio sank because the sand underlayment was not compacted enough, so when you redo it, make sure the sand is well packed.
Q We're a condominium (17 units) about 20 years old in Maine. We've been in the habit of restaining the exteriors about every five years, though we are attempting to stretch the time. The question has arisen about shifting to paint, as according to knowledgeable people, paint lasts longer than stain. Can our exterior surfaces be painted (using good quality paint) over the previously stained surfaces?
Sandy, by e-mail
A Sure, you can paint over stain, and paint will last longer than stain, but sometimes paint will peel before its time, causing more problems than you have now. If the stain you were using was not peeling, then stick with it. Generally stains will last five to seven years, but the severe Maine weather might keep it down to the five-year intervals you are experiencing now.
"I had just mentioned to my daughter a mysterious smell in my bedroom every year when the sun is shining and the windows and storms are still in. The next day, April 22, 2007, I saw a question in your column in the Albany Times-Union from S.K., Ipswich, about the same type of mysterious odor (that occurred only when the sun was shining).
"This got me thinking that if it isn't unique to my house maybe I could find something on the Web. After doing a bit a searching the only possible cause seemed to be ladybugs. I had my doubts but I do see ladybugs periodically on the windows. Ladybugs emit a yellow substance and a foul odor. In the spring is when the larvae begin to hatch and ladybugs use this to protect themselves from predators.
"So, I decided to remove the storms and thoroughly wash the tracks and the storms and the windows with an ammonia solution in case the larvae were in between the windows. So far, no more smells on warm sunny days (not that we get too many of those here in Albany lately). Don't know if that is the cause of S.K.'s odor or even mine, but it is worth a try, especially if she has ladybugs around her house."
Well, thank you J.P. Even if your odor problem was different than S.K.'s, you did find a solution to one of them, and that guarantees you immortality by being in The Handyman's archives of pertinent, interesting, useful, and weird information.
Globe Handyman on Call Peter Hotton is available 1-6 p.m. Tuesdays to answer questions on house repair. Call 617-929-2930. He also chats online about house matters 2-3 p.m. Thursdays. To participate, go to Boston.com. Hotton's e-mail is photton@globe.com 
