Fixing and painting softwood stair treads

My house has softwood (SPF) stairs going from the main to second floor. These are the original stairs that used to be covered by carpet. One of the previous owners had removed the carpet and just painted the treads (I believe it's a latex paint, but haven't tested it yet).

There are many chipped edges on the treads, the paint is peeling in some areas, I've dripped paint on them during my renos and there is a large gap on a triangular tread that is made of two boards side by side...

Eventually I will be hopefully replacing these with either hardwood or putting veneers on top, but for now, I just want to fix up the chips/dents/gaps and paint them again to make them look half decent.

So I have a few questions:

1 - What should I use to repair the chips and fill the gap and dents? I was originally thinking of wood filler, but I don't think it would hold up to foot traffic. Essentially whatever I use must be as hard as (or harder than) the wood itself and I need to be able to sculpt and sand it to form new edges.

2 - What kind of paint should I use? I don't think regular latex paint would hold up to foot traffic too well. I was thinking of putting a coat of polyurethane on top of the paint, but I'm afraid it will make the stairs too slippery.

3 - What kind of prep work do I need to do? I was just going to give it a light sanding to make it smooth and and get rid of the paint drops... should I prime it after?

Some pics below...

Chipped edge


Chipped edge


Peeling paint


Gap between boards

 

Just sand it down and repaint them. Rounding the edge a little by sanding will make those areas less noticeable. I wouldn't use any type of filler on the edge!
http://www.doityourself.com/forum/pa...latex-oil.html

 

I though maybe something like bondo might work for the edges... but if it's not doable, I'll just round them as you suggested.

Are you suggesting that I sand them down to bare wood before repainting?
Also, would wood filler work in the gap?
lastly, any suggestions as the type of paint to use?

 

It's difficult for any type of filler to adhere to the edge long term!

You don't need to sand down to bare wood although that will probably happen at the edge where you are trying to dress it up some. You should use a floor enamel. Oil base should wear longer as it dries to a harder film but it does have a stronger odor and takes longer to dry. Latex paints don't usually adhere well to oil base enamels so it pays to know what is currently on the treads.