Repainting pressure-treated exterior stairs

[cewyattjr]

The stairs leading up to our home are made from pressure-treated lumber, which has been painted with latex paint. After every winter, we find they look worse and worse, the show shoveling and weather cause a LOT of flaking/peeling. Looks bad.

One thought I have is to chemically strip all the treads and "arms," essentially all the horizontal surfaces and repaint with oil paint that is the same color as the latex. Would that work? My feeling is that the oil paint would permeate the wood better and stick better through the seasons. Right/wrong?

thanks!

Chuck (in New England)

[C & E]

Have you seen the 'natural' stripper advertised on the infomercial which states taht it lifts the paint and binds it to the stripper and you peel the dried combo off of the wood? Who knows if it works. I'm just thinking that from mess and toxin standpoints it's an improvement. There are some citris strippers in the hardware stores but you're back to the messy cleanup.