I am staining and finishing stair treads, but have been unable to find a definitive answer for my question. I have read that industry standard is 1 coat of sealer and 2 coats of poly, or just 3 coats of poly.

With regards to my application, which should I go with? I do not currently have the sealer. I have stained my Hickory treads with Dura Seal and purchased Bona Traffic semi gloss for the finish. Any explanation of why the first method is better then the latter would be appreciated.

TIA

I work with those two products a lot. And based on Bona's recommendations, you are likely going to get better adhesion by putting the traffic directly over the stain. Some of their sealers are fine for this application like their dri-fast oil sealer. Their Bonaseal is a water based sealer as is the DTS sealer. Neither is recommended to go between stain and traffic.

If you think you want the cosmetic effect of having an oil based sealer, which adds some yellow and gold tones , then use one. If you like the color you see right now, then no need to add a additional step of using a sealer. Just vacuum and tack the treads and put traffic right on top of the stain .

What you definitely do not want is adhesion issues. Always give stain 24 to 48 hours to dry when coating with water base.If I use Bona Dri-Fast oil sealer, I sometimes coat the next day with traffic (after buffing the dri-fast) but sometimes choose to wait an additional day .

One additional note. Sealers are almost a general term. Many contractors do not feel the need to put a finish coat material down to seal wood as it costs more than using a less expensive sealer .This is similar to priming sheet rock. A high quality paint could be used to seal sheet rock but it is cheaper to use a priming paint and it does the same job .

I personally tend to not use sealers when coating wood with oil based urethane.I use Lenmar oil based urethane most of the time and it seals perfectly and doesn't cost much more than a typical sealer.So on a floor or treads, I will put 3 coats of lenmar oil based poly down and the first coat "seals" perfectly.

With water based urethane, the sealers are half the price of some of the finish coat materials. So using traffic to seal a floor is a very costly choice (at $100.00+ per gallon) For this reason , most flooring contractos choose to use a much less expensive sealer to seal the wood and get some initial build.

Paul,


you are forgetting some important technical info..particularly regarding waterbase.

it is very important to seal the wood first..the finishes directly to the floor do not allow the floor to expand properly and cause side bonding, which leads to panelization.

the same can be said for oil base..but by far not as often..
another technical issue of oil finishes directly to wood can be poly beads depending upon time and conditions applied in.

therefore, i always use a sealer.

and I also always use it under traffic as well..but we use Universal..

just my 2 cents..

Thanks for the replies fellas. Bona's tech documents somewhat contradict each other stating that no sealer needs to be used with Bona Traffic. However in the prep directions is says to use a sealer.

James, would side bonding apply in my application of stair treads?

Each tread is separate. So there is no side bonding.Side bonding relates to floor boards that are next to each other . On a floor, side bonding can and does happen whether you use a sealer or not but in the case of treads , the issue does not exist.

Thank you Paul.