Happy new year etc etc etc
We have a dark stained staircase which we are thinking of painting white. I was thinking of giving it a light sand before giving several coats of paint - is this the correct process?
Yes. But is it just stained wood, or a shiney wood-effect coating ? Don't forget to use proper undercoat - several coats will be needed, and sanded back slightly between. Use solvent-based paints (the smelly ones) to ensure whatever was under does not bleed through, and apply thin coats of the final gloss so you don't get runs (the paint that is). Also, ensure there is little dust in the air when doing the gloss coats. I painted a door in a room recently used for sanding wood, and the specks of dust just seemed to appear from nowhere ! Simon.
TBH, not sure. Would this make a difference to the painting process / materials?
I was thinking of looking around at paint sprayers. Would make the job 10 times easy painting all the spindles etc.
As long as the surface is prepared to be smooth, even and not flakey you should be OK. A photo would be useful. But you should get back to bare wood for the best finish.
I cannot imagine paint spraying indoors in a pre-decorated environment. For a fine finish you would need a high pressure sprayer (car spraying type), not your old squirty low-pressure type used to paint fences etc. You would have to mask off very carefully. Probably quicker to paint with a brush. But I am not an expert at paint spraying. Simon.
If the stair cased is painted with a dark varnish you may have problems if you just sand it. I had some door frames in an old dark varnish. Tried to get away with just sanding them but the new paint crazed like a paint effect, had to strip off properly.
mark
A first coat of something that
- keys to what's there
- doesn't cause it to craze
is necessary.
Sometimes a water based acrylic primer is best, other times maybe a real cellulose layer like model aircraft dope does the trick. Experiment is the only way to fiond out.
I would say yes and that is pretty much what we did but a light sand is not enough. As someone else has said, getting a good key between the old and the new is the most important bit. Wash with sugarsoap and thoroughly sand first. Taking it back to the bare wood is of coarse best but probably impractical given the amount of work. Inevitably the new paint will get chipped with wear and tear, the better the key the more it will resist chipping. Dark brown chips showing through white paint is pretty ugly and you should be prepared to touch them up regularly. I wouldn't do it if you have kids.
Pretty sure paint spraying wouldn't work. The spray would accumulate on the edges and drip.
My daughter and her husband did this recently and found as others have said that the best solution was to bite the bullet and sand back completely. It did take them a bit of time but the whole stair area does now look considerably better.
Rob
Alternatively if it's nothing special' simply get and fit new rail.
The codt of the wood is trivial compared with the effort of refurbing the original.
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