What should I use in the dog-damaged staircase?

[Pettman]

I had glued and clamped a piece of new wood planed evenly, but I'm a bit obsessed with woodworking and fine carpentry....

 

[Nilsson i Boda]

My puppy has scratched up my wooden staircase. I was thinking of fixing it, but what should I use? Regular putty feels weak and chemical wood a bit tricky.

Wait until the puppy is older and (maybe) doesn't go on the stairs again. I repaired a wooden staircase that was pretty worn out by buying a small router, then routing away parts of the stair nose. I routed enough so that I could insert a wooden strip. I bought oak, which is more durable than pine. Then I glued in the strip. On top of that, I painted the stairs in a selected color. It turned out very well.

 

[RiKr]

I had tried with wood filler.

 

[Bigfoot]

"Plastic padding" is not just one type of filler; there are a few different kinds. The fiberglass filler is strong and good for filling larger holes, but it's not fun to sand or try to get a smooth surface with. The "regular" filler feels a bit fragile if it were to get a kick. Ultima (I believe it is now called "superspackel") is a bit more tough and elastic and would probably work best in your case. But there might be other products that are better.

 

[johanlund77]

Wait a couple of months first, you want to fix all the damage at once, and if it's a puppy, it's probably not done yet

Haha, yes you're right but I've waited for 6 months 😊

 

[g.kraft]

Haha, yes you're right but I've been waiting for 6 months 😊

Aha wise, should be enough unless it's a herding dog from Central Europe

 

[_Magnus L]

Aha, wise choice, it should be enough unless it's a herding dog from Central Europe

It seems like you're choosing "Plastic." Then, do as usual with window putty and mix in something that in this case the dog doesn't like. In window putty, it's usually white pepper (could work? (potassium cyanide works but might have an unpleasant side effect= DON'T choose)). Otherwise, as I mentioned early on, I would have chosen to somehow insert new real wood.

 

[Paxman]

I think it's quite clear in the picture that the stair nosing is a "separate" strip, so it might be quite easy to remove the old one and replace it with a new one. If you have a router, you can create an identical profile on the strip using the old one as a template. Then the place most exposed to wear and tear is sorted.

The marks on the tread can easily be filled with any filler since the breaking forces there are not as strong.

Anecdote: When we bought our house, a strip around a door was missing. The profile of the strip no longer exists, so I bought a similar strip and then used the router in a router table to modify it. Today, no one would be able to tell which strip around the door is new, even if they were informed that one is not original. 🙂

Good luck!

 

[apcinso]

My puppy has scratched up my wooden staircase. I thought about fixing it, but what should I use? Regular filler feels weak and chemical wood feels a bit tricky.

It will be stronger if you screw in a few screws without tightening them all the way in, so the screw heads are a few mm outside. Then fill around and over the screw heads. I would use plastic padding.

 

[borjerik]

My dog did the same thing. I got a tip about Plastic Padding. It worked well.