I want to remove the paint from the bannisters and spindles and restore it to a natural wood finish. I’ve searched through other threads before posting but my questions are:
1. Is this a job for a novice or only an expert?
2. Any tricks for removing the finish from numerous small curved surfaces?
3. do stirppers actually work? ie do they actually remove all the paint such that you can see the natural wood beauty again?
Replies
Novice. because I did it. My old paint coating was fairly brittle and I found the hard way that using scrapers on all surfaces to chip flakes of paint away left a clean surface. For scrapers read broken glass. plane irons, knives, anything conforming to the profiles.
Paint remover was a disaster, apart from the never ending job of removing residue it trails over the rest of the house,and if you have pets-forget it! Good luck.
Oh yes, the stuff will remove just about any finish down to the bare wood.
The probelm most novices have when stripping is that they lose patience with the job. It is messy and smelly and things never come clean as quickly and easily as you see demonstrated on TV. Stripping a painted finish isn't difficult, but you chose one of the more difficult items to do the first time out. Only because it is located in the middle of your house and you have many turned spindles to clean.
If you can remove the banister, spindles, and knoll post it will make the job much easier. That isn't as difficult as it may sound and there are probably people on this forum who can help you with that. Personally I never removed one but I stripped many that had been removed. If you have carpeting on the stairs this may be your only choice.
If you don't remove the railing, you will have to cover everything with a heavy mil plastic. You may even use two layers. There may be material on the market that is beter suited as drop cloth in this application. I recommend a paste consistency methylene cloride stripper. You must have good ventilation and wear protective clothing (including eye protection), but the stuff works fast. But you have to cover everything because it will damage any finshed surface it touches, instantly. It will even damage the plastic drop cloth so you must clean up splatters right away. Water neutralizes M/C stripper immediately.
There are sites that explain the dangers of use paint stripper so be sure you read up on the stuff before hand.
If you can remove the railing, the job becomes much easier and probably less expensive.
There is much more to tell, but I'm out of time right now.
-Chuck
I'm going to ask what the wood is. If it is oak, you may never be able to get it out of the grain, because it was probably not primed with a clear finish, leaving you with a "pickled" look. Just a thought.
If you can remove it and work, it is much more doable.
Gretchen
And Chuck is right on. PATIENCE is a true virtue for paint stripping. You have to wait for the stripper to lift the paint. You'll just waste time and product if you scrape it off too soon.
Edited 5/29/2006 7:46 pm ET by Gretchen
He still has some hope for oak, but only if it was originally finished with a clear finish, and only painted subsequently.
If this house was built before about 1980 you should assume that the old paint contains lead. At the very least this means you don't want to be sanding it into the air. Lots of on-line info about dealing with lead paint.
Yes, I said that somewhere in there.Gretchen
So you did. I should read better.
I can't even begin to guess at what the wood is underneath. Right now it has this hideous brown and gold paint all over it but I'm guessing regardless of the type of wood, a natural finish has got to be better.
House was built in '93 so I don't think lead will be a problem.
I considered removing the bannister but convinced myself I had no idea what I would be doing. Guess I'll reconsider as I too was wondering about the fumes. My daughter has asthma and the stairs are in the middle of the house near her room. Also have two golden retrievers so as someone mentioned, they could be a problem too.
Can someone point me to more info on bannister removal?
thanks.
I just finished this very around they project. My house was built around 1912. It had 20 year old carpet and the spindles and any exposed wood was painted with puke yellow paint with sand in it. I started the project in place with peel away 7, worked pretty good but must have patience and allow time for it to work. wood was originally shellac so i rinsed with denatured alcohol which worked really well to get the little bits left behind.
some areas needed two coats. I also used various shaped scrapers carefully around the tight areas. I removed the majority of the paint but it was still in the tight, tough to get at areas by the spindles, I finally decided to remove the spindles I removed each piece of wood and numbered them. I removed the final bits of paint by scraping and sanding outside. this left the spindles with fresh exposed wood as compared to rest of staircase. I lightly stained spindles to bring them back to similar color as staircase and the applied several coats of shellac to everything.
It took awhile but was well worth it. I get many compliments on it. Many people can't believe what a difference it make to the whole house.
good luck
I can't figure the spindles out. I took one out just to see how easy it would be and it has a small nail in the top direct center of the spindle. So I can't for the life of me figure out how to get it back in there...
After you strip a couple of spindles, I'd like to see a cost-benefit on stripping vs. replacement spindles. If you are hand stripping them, I'll bet you'll spend more time and money stripping and cleaning than what a new one would cost. I hate stripping paint.
In my particular case, the spindles are not all the same. Some are longer than others. I've thought about just replacing the spindles but:
1) they're not all the same length. Makes my brain hurt to try and figure out where I'm going to find these replacement spindles.
2) can't figure out how to get the new or refinished spindle back in there without taking the bannister off.
It shouldn't be a problem finding the multiple length spindles--just about all stairs have to have the multiple lengths. Any real lumber yard should be able to get them.
If the house was built in 1992 and a;ready has painted stair parts, it's likely they were paint grade pieces to begin with. Could even have mis-matched woods, or even finger jointed boards. Definately scrape a few places to check on the woods. It may be that sanding smooth and repainting with high quality paint in attractive colors would be the better solution.
I can't even begin to guess at what the wood is underneath. Right now it has this hideous brown and gold paint all over it but I'm guessing regardless of the type of wood, a natural finish has got to be better.
Don't be too sure about that. As people find out to their chagrin when stripping painted furniture, it may be made of a mixture of woods--not just a nice piece of oak, etc.
HOw old is this banister, do you think? Are the steps painted also or clear coated? As Steve and I have mentioned, you could be lucky and have had a clear coat of finish on the original wood, which would make it (maybe!!) easier to strip. Having a clear coat would also suggest that the wood underneath is acceptable and uniform and worthy again of a clear coat.
Gretchen
Edited to say I had not read the rest of the posts saying essentially the same thing. New house--painted--mixed wood, as Steve and others said.
Edited 5/31/2006 8:00 am ET by Gretchen
I'm guessing the bannister is as old as the house which was built in 1993.
The steps have carpet except for about 12 inches directly underneath the bannister that is also painted.
I think you are going to have to find a shade of paint you like. These will not be pretty pieces of wood.Gretchen
scraped some paint, used to be white and then I don't think there was anything else on the wood. Seemed like it was pine.
is this bad?
Might not be. Sort of up to you.Gretchen
Pine would be easier to strip than oak but could very well not be worthy of staining and applying a clear finish. But pine is pretty soft for stairs. You would have to expect to live with dings and dents. In the right context this can look good, depending on the style of the house. But unless I were just dying to have clear finished stairs, I would still be considering paint.
You could do a painted wood grain faux finish over the existing painted woodwork for 1/10th the effort and mess involved in stripping and refinishing what is quite possibly only mediocre woodwork that won't look good with a clear finish. Faux wood graining is relatively simple to learn and can fool even a trained eye unless it is closely examined.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
Ramblin,
Steve has a good point there. Your house isn't very old and there is a chance that you banister was always meant to be painted, although a more appealing color. Since you have one of the spindles off (the proper term is baluster) why don't you take a paint scraper or an old pen knife and carefully scrape the finish off one end. If you come to a primer just before bare wood, Steve's scenario is looking good. If you come to a varnish finish, chances are you'll have a hardwood (probably Oak) and your chances of a natural finish are much improved.
Did you think about posting over at the "Breaktime" forum? Those guys are the home builder / remodelers. Some of them have probably installed dozens of banisters like yours.
You of course know your daughter's condition better than I, but I don't know if stripping that banister in place would be my suggestion.
I'll send you a site that talks about the different types of paint strippers.
-Chuck
thanks. i look forward to all help.
Here is a paper I found to be rather informative on the subject.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/423.html
This stuff won't kill you on the first wiff, but just like any tool, it's important to understand what you are working with and take the necessary safeguards. Shoot, years ago I stripped my dining room and living room floors, stair treads and banister and nobody got hurt. Fortunately for me I didn't have any kids or pets at the time; Just a tolerant wife.
Let us know what you find out.
-Chuck
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