How do I cover up divots in stairs after ripping up carpet, staples, nails? Picture included?

I ripped up some old carpet from the stairs in my house, and found lots of nails, little pieces of wood, and staples used to secure the carpet and padding. In getting rid of these things, I put many divots in the wooden stairs. Here's a picture:





http://www.consumertechsupport.net/divot鈥?/a>





The divots are more pronounced today after staining. Should I just use some thick brown paint to cover the divots?


Thanks for your advice.How do I cover up divots in stairs after ripping up carpet, staples, nails? Picture included?
the best thing you can do it sand them. anything other than that will only enhance the divots. GOOD LUCKHow do I cover up divots in stairs after ripping up carpet, staples, nails? Picture included?
well, the good news is that the board look like they are at least 1'; thick, the bad news is that the best way to get rid of the dings and dents in the wood is to sand the wood down quite a bit. you should be able to rent a belt sander and start with a rough grit, to get the wood smooth again. before staining, smooth out with progressivly finer sand paper until you are sanding with 180 or so, the stain and clear coat, and it will look like a brand new set of steps...





the answer about famowood is wrong. first, famowood is available in about 15 colors, second, I wouldn't recommend it. it would probably not hold up well on steps. it is normally used for filling in nail holes, and SMALL dings.
There isn't a whole lot you can do. The pic is not that great, but it looks like deep ';divots'; right on the edge of the treads. That leaves out wood fillers or sanding down past the ';divots';.





This may sound crazy to you, but if it's an old house, you can give the stairs a kind of antique, unique look by taking some screws, lay the threads on the steps and hit the screw threads with a hammer, leaving an imprint of the threads. You may even want to just hit the treads with the hammer head also to cause ';catfaces'; or dents. Do this in a random pattern and then stain and top coat it. It really does look prety cool if done right. Try it on scrap wood and see what you think.
Home centers sell Famowood filler used to fill holes in hardwood floors. It will come in a single color which will not always match the hole you are patching. To fix this, go to a woodworking supply and but two small bottles of UTC, universal tinting colorant, in red and dark brown. Using these a drop at a time into a small cup of filler, you can change the color to better match the wood surrounding the hole. Once the holes are filled touch them up with the stain and you are ready to finish.
Um um um, those are deep! Lots of sanding and hard work involved there.





Instead, I would !gently! pry up the treads and flip them over and nail them back down. Hopefully that hasn't been done already so you will have a perfect side that would need very little sanding.
As an alternative, you can also do something different with the stairs to draw your eye away from some of those divots.





1. You could tile the risers with ceramic or tin tiles. Creates a very nice look.





2. You could paint the risers to look like tiles.





http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hi_floor_c鈥?/a>