Painting stairs, stringers, rails & spindles.

These are just a few Professional Painter & Decorator tips on how to get a fantastic paint finish on stairs & woodwork. See the bottom of the page for more images during the painting process

The first thing you need to do when getting ready to paint any stairs is preparation, first have a good wipe down with a rag with some Virosol, Krud Kutter or similar cleaner de-greaser and get all the dust and grime off the stringers, rails and spindles, wait until it's dry & then use a professional quality sander like the one i'm using, it's dustless & connects to a dust extractor, the model i'm using is a Festool RTS 400 EQ and has variable speed which is a very useful addition.

Start with a higher abrasive like a 180 grit or similar to get the top layer of paint off, you don't often need to take it back to bare wood, this is just to strip away the top layer of grime & any chips or scratches, if a previous oil based coating or paint has been applied then you do need to prepare as much as you can for a top quality paint finish, once you have power sanded down as much as you can reduce the abrasive to a more subtle 240 grit this will make the surface smoother with less scratches, then get a decent quick drying wood filler like Toupret and fill any imperfections & dents (remember don't overfill too much) wait until the filler is fully dry and sand down to a smooth finish, use a vacuum and a dust brush to sweep away any remaining dust particles & then use a tack cloth to pick up any small residues so it does not contaminate your paint and more importantly your paint finish.

Then apply a high grade trade quality undercoat ( I always undercoat regardless of the surface quality as its a good base for starting from scratch again meaning you get a flawless result) make sure you buy a top quality synthetic brush like a Picasso, Purdy or a Rembrandt then apply one or two thin coats of undercoat, this will normally be perfect, once dry paint with your choice of top coat, normally this would be white gloss or satin but obviously you can use any colour you wish.

I painted this example below this week in East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19. The paints & materials used for this job Dulux trade Undercoat, Armstead QD Satin top coat &  Abranet Abrasives for the power sander, Toupret Wood Filler, tack cloths and a little Virosol to clean down. Paint brushes used were a Picasso Flat 2" and a Picasso Blaze Angled 1.5"

East Grinstead Painter & Decorator October 2015

Should you need a quote for painting & decorating in East Grinstead, Forest Row, Copthorne, Crawley, Felbridge, Smallfield, Edenbridge, Lingfield, Ardingly, Dormansland or anywhere within a 15 mile radius of East Grinstead please contact me.

​www.paint-it-now.co.uk 

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