Stripping paint from stairs and repainting

K

Kitekat

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Hi,

I recently bought a second hand house. I have changed the white doors to oak and put down an oak wooden floor in the hall. The stairs are painted white. I have started stripping the paint from the handrail. I am thinking of painting or varnishing it a darker colour and painting the spindles or baulsters an off white. Has anyone else done this? Did you varnish the handrail a dark colour or paint it a dark colour and if so - what colour did you use. Also, do I need to remove the paint from the spindles or do I just sand them down before repainting them. If sanding them, how much sanding do they need? Would it be worth while hiring out a hand sander or would i be better just using sandpaper??? Sorry for all the questions. i am just learning as I go along !!!
 
I sanded back part of the stairs and put in a new bannister. I was going to varnish it, but decided in the end to treat it with Dutch oil. It gives a lovely warm finish to it, and it's a doddle to apply. You do have to top it up every year or so, but that burnishes it and makes the colour richer. I also have all oak doors and must say it matches in very well with them. As for sanding, I used a sander 1st and finished by hand. If you get it smooth and then apply the paint I think you'll be alright.
 
I'd use a hot air gun on the handrail and follow it with a small hand sander to clean off the paint. You'll buy a hand sander cheaply and you'll get plenty of use from it if you do any more diy work in the house.

If you've got good quality wood and have brought it back to a good finish, then a low sheen varnish would be the way to go for me.

If the spindles are in good nick (no globs of paint or breakages) you'll get away with painting them directly, give them a good scrub up with sugar soap to get all the grease & dirt off.

It would have been better to get all this dirty work done before the new floor was put down, but nothing you can do about that now. Make sure you have plenty of drop cloths to protect it (newspaper isn't enough).
 
Thirsty said:
If you've got good quality wood and have brought it back to a good finish, then a low sheen varnish would be the way to go for me.
Click to expand...

Definitely the way to go and avoid the back breaking job of painting in the future.
 
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