Best thing for stripping/refinishing stair case spindles and bannister?

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

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One part of our home which has bothered me since we moved in has been the staircase and the bannister rail and spindles. The previous occupier(s) appear to have just been lathering paint on paint, with the previous tenants painting over some parts in a dark grey matt type paint, over what looks like gloss.

Rather than add to the mess on them I was thinking it would be wise to strip them right back to wood, tidy up any imperfections with filler and then go about re-painting or just staining the original wood.

What is going to be the best way to strip these back? The three avenues ive got in my head are:
  • Blowtorch
  • Paint stripper
  • Sanding
Blowtorch - not sure if this is the done thing anymore. I just remember my Dad going through the exact same process at our family home when I was a youngster as he wanted to strip the existing paint back to bare wood. He was at it for a good few days/nights with a scraper and blowtorch, so not sure if that is the best thing.

Paint stripper - I believe they arent as good as they used to be, but may be the best way forward and give me the quickest and easiest way to tackle the job.

Sanding - ive got a multi tool with the sanding attachment so could use that, or im pretty sure someone i know has an orbital or similar sander i can borrow. Just wondering if thats the right thing to use from the off?

Luckily the spindles are just square ones and not a fancy shape or size so shoudnt be as finnicky to restore.

Anyone any insights or advice on the best way to tackle it?
 
In our last house we sanded the handrail and replaced the spindles.

Doing the same in our current house as well - just need to replace the spindles.
 
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The easiest method is a heat gun; just make sure you mask up. It'll just flake off.

The chemical stuff is an absolute nightmare; I wouldn't do that unless you are changing the floor as well. It'll definitely get everywhere.

Also, it's the stairs, so to a large extent - who cares. Rub it down and coat it in a good quality paint.
 
Most consumer-grade paint strippers have been utterly nerfed, now.
If you can get some of the industrial stuff, maybe off a friendly car resprayer or something, it will make seriously light work of the bulk removal.

Otherwise, for many layers of thickly painted gloss/whatever-else, careful use of a heat gun is probably your best bet.
Sanding is more controlled, but is more labour-intensive and can be far messier than simply opening a window with the heat gun.
 
Personally if it's already been painted, I would just repaint it, because going back to bare wood is too much effort, unless you are dead set on wood. So, it then depends on the condition of the existing paint. If I can get it back to reasonably smooth by light and targeted sanding, then that's what I would do. If you are using water based paint, you will need to put on a few coats anyway, and that should help provide a uniform finish.
 
Replacing the spindles is an option as we need to buy some for upstairs anyway as we're going to change the upstairs bannister from being boarded up to have spindles too.
Looking at them closely they'd need a fair bit of work as there are clumps of paint and runs all over the shop on them, so it may just be a more efficient use of time to replace them all.

That would mean just sanding down the posts and rails.
 
radderfire said:
Personally if it's already been painted, I would just repaint it, because going back to bare wood is too much effort, unless you are dead set on wood. So, it then depends on the condition of the existing paint. If I can get it back to reasonably smooth by light and targeted sanding, then that's what I would do. If you are using water based paint, you will need to put on a few coats anyway, and that should help provide a uniform finish.
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Yea I'd go this route as well, rather than trying to sand it back to wood, just "key it" which is basically sanding off the top layer of paint, then repaint over that.
 
New spindles and hand rails is the way to go
i tried stripping the paint off mine as it was already flaking in places , after many many hours of trying to remove the old paint I ended up just getting everything replaced

i worked out how much longer it would take me to get the paint off , repair/fill and sand it it all in , it ended up better to work overtime and just pay for it all to be replaced
 
R.O.S.S.I said:
What is going to be the best way to strip these back?
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To what extent can the bannister be disassembled? Could you put the spindles in a barrel / bath of paint stripper?

Do you have a lathe? Not for cutting but for sanding the spindles after they've been stripped. Put the spindle on the lathe, spin it, and just hold the sandpaper to the piece.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Yea I'd go this route as well, rather than trying to sand it back to wood, just "key it" which is basically sanding off the top layer of paint, then repaint over that.
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I may take this approach. I think what I need to do is have at it with a sander to see how easy it is to get it smooth.

JBuk said:
New spindles and hand rails is the way to go
i tried stripping the paint off mine as it was already flaking in places , after many many hours of trying to remove the old paint I ended up just getting everything replaced

i worked out how much longer it would take me to get the paint off , repair/fill and sand it it all in , it ended up better to work overtime and just pay for it all to be replaced
Click to expand...
That may well be an approach I take.

Quartz said:
To what extent can the bannister be disassembled? Could you put the spindles in a barrel / bath of paint stripper?

Do you have a lathe? Not for cutting but for sanding the spindles after they've been stripped. Put the spindle on the lathe, spin it, and just hold the sandpaper to the piece.
Click to expand...
I don't have a lathe no, but the spindles aren't cylindrical ones, they are just simple straight square spindle so a lathe wouldn't help.

The more I look at it I think i'd be easier just replacing them all.

The only thing i'm unsure of how easy it will be to remove the spindles from the base rail and hand rail. How are they usually attached? By nail? Might just need to have at it with the multi-tool.
 
fez said:
I think if most of us did this we would never do much DIY at all!
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true , I don’t mind most diy but some things are just not worth the effort

I dont remember exactly how many hours I put in to stripping my spindles and handrails but it was around 40 hours trialing various methods; standard paint strippers (various brands) , peel away (putty style heavy duty stripper) , heat gun with scraper set and also just a scraper with brute force , I got about 1/3rd done but to a poor standard , in the end it cost me £800 to replace the lot but overtime paid for that and it was less hours and my work is a lot less tedious
 
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