Homeowner Decides To Repaint Stairs, Shock at What They Find Underneath

When this homeowner decided to give their staircase a quick refresh, they didn’t expect to uncover a century’s worth of history — and a potential health hazard.

Reddit user Focker1982 shared their DIY ordeal in a post titled: “Stripped my stairs and found 100 years of paint, tar, and regret,” which has since racked up more than 2,300 upvotes. What started as a simple “quick sand and repaint” job quickly spiraled into what they described as an “archaeological dig through every finish known to humankind.”

Sharing a series of photos documenting the painstaking process, the homeowner revealed layers of paint, tar, and other substances that had built up over the years.

"I’ve made mistakes doing DIY before but not on this scale,” they wrote, before continuing to describe the staircase: “Top