Hello all,

So Ill be refinishing some oak hardwood stairs.

They are 4 year old oak stairs, poly'ed without stain.
Want to strip the poly and stain a nice dark color and of course re poly.

To make the job easier.. Im going to replace all the spindles with new spindles, paint them white. I will also be replacing the newels and the oak floor nosing as I need them thicker to match up with a hardwood floor going in. The railing will be sanded, stained and poly'ed.

The risers on the stairs are just oak veneer... so I dont know if Ill be able to strip the poly and ever so lightly sand and stain or I will have to maybe apply new veneer OR paint the risers.

My questions start with first the Nosing... How should one secure the oak nosing to the floor? Finishing nails and glue? Screws? Doesnt look like there are any screws in it as I dont see any sanded oak plugs.

Secondly... the Newels.
How are the secured to landings typically? I dont see any oak plugs with them either. I was sort of able to look from under the stairs at one of them and I THINK its just some sort of screw type fastener up through the middle of the newel? Maybe predrilled the newel bottom, then screwing it down on the screw and gluing it?

The spindles are not going to be a problem... know exactly how those were secured. Will try to twist their dowels out of the nosing, if they dont come out without breaking Ill redrill the holes for the new spindles and dowels.

Once the stairs are all sanded, should the oak be primed with anything before staining?

Does this make sense? I want to know as much as possible before I start.