painting stairs

joe.

Plan on re-painting the stairs in the house. They're painted and varnished over at the moment and a couple of the rails were loose so new ones were got. Whats the best steps to take to get the best effects. Note the new rails haven't been painted at all yet. Should i use wood-glue to place on the rails before i paint and how much should i sand the varnished stairs.Down to the way they were originally before they were painted at all or what? Thanks

I mean the actual handrail of the stairs and not the steps themselves

Degsy

i recently spent three weeks stripping paint off the stairs using paint stripper,sandpaper and an orbital sander.I can safely say it was the most horrible job i've ever undertaken.When i varnished the stairs,residues of the original paintwork are still visible and frankly it looks pretty terrible.In addition it cost me a fortune in stripper,sanding pads and ultimatly varnish.If i was doing it again i'd get a quote from a professional..

MorningStar

First off if you put in new spindles you will notice the difference unless you strip the originals. Striping paint off completely is a nightmare but there are ways and means. Most paint stripper chemicals require a lot of effort but you can use stuff originally meant for furniture and it is less hassle. You put it on and keep it moiste with towels or the like and the next morning all the paint will come off.

Well thats what does happen if you get the hang of it. It's kind of expensive but a lot less hassle than the standard Nitromore way. You still have to use a fair bit of effort.

Heated paint strippers can be dangerous to use and can damage wood if you aren't used to them.

The easiest option is to painthe the new spindles a few times so they appear to have as many layers as the others. A bit lazy but you could spend a long long time stripping back.

Degsy

What i ended up doing was painting the risers(inmy case gloss white)and varnished the treads,it looks much better than the whole lot being varnished and if i'd done it first i could have saved a lot of time and hassle.