Decided to strip varnish off staircase... :(

danielle21_2

Hi

i decided I no longer liked the darkish varnish on our staircase & wanted it lighter... we put nitromors on & started stripping it which took ages!!, then we decided a sander might take less time.. how wrong were we!

It's proved almost impossible unless I have a spare week or so to focus on it & to be honest dont think I can take anymore!!

We have done the first 5 spindles & due to it taking so long have decided maybe to paint it cream or white, please can someone tell me what procedure to do this in terms of undercoat etc & also as the first 5 spindles r stripped will this make it look uneven in colour when finished in white or cream?

please help me!! - me & my ideas eh??

cazziebo

Took me weeks to do mine but honestly - well worth it when it was finished. Used nitromors and all sorts of funny tools to do the spindles.

good luck

misgrace

When you say you want it lighter, do you mean still stained, but a lighter stain, IE, oak, pine etc, or do you mean you want it to go white?

When you tell me which one, I can advise what way to go.

danielle21_2

Hi

Ideally would like it lighter than it is, bt cos its taking so long to stip existing varnish dont really know what to do for the best!!

Not too sure if i'd like it white??!

misgrace

If you want to go a lighter stain, like I mentioned above, say for example a light oak, you can buy a product called 'brushwood', it made by 'Dulux', its basically meant to use on previously painted wood, white gloss for example.
And what this does, is to make your existing white gloss to look like stained wood.

It also works on any stain, you can go darker or lighter, and it comes in two parts.

The first part is a base coat, which looks like a beigey brown paint, you paint that on first, leave to dry, then you go over with the second part which is a stained varnish, whatever your choice, they do it in pine, oak, and a few other stains

Both of these are water based, as you cant in theory stain over existing darker stain with a lighter stain,( using the normal oilbase stain) but you can stain over a lighter stain with a darker stain

The 'Brushwood' can give you any colour stain you want, it comes in different shades, and you can buy it from Homebase, I know that, as I bought it for a client the other week.

The downside of this 'brushwood', is that the top coat ( 2nd part,varnish) can come out looking a tad too shiney,(like gloss) but,what you can do and I have done this over the years, is after I have completed parts 1 and 2, I have gone over the whole lot with a satinwood clear varnish, and it does the job.

Its costs approx £30 for the lot, and it used to be very popular, but over the years, they dont seem to sell as much, thats why only certain DIY places stock it, I know B&Q dont stock it anymore.

But I have used this product approx 6 times, and I have never had any trouble with it.

It does do the job, but you must read the instructions carefully, and if applied right, it will look good.

albalad

can you not strip out the spindles ? makes it a much easier job , you then just dip them in a trough of nitromors .

greyteam1959

Did mine 25 years ago with nitromors......took ages but its one of those jobs that just cant be done quickly im afraid.
Patience and a good supply of mugs of tea.
But it will look great at the end

economiser

Me too. Did a long time ago and it took ages but well worth it. Use a varnish rather than a stain. Stains they can take to some parts more readily than others and leave an uneven effect. I did mine with clear varnish, they looked a bit light to start with but darkened quite quickly (months rather than years) with time and developed a lovely patina.

You can always make darker later but you will need to strip it off again if you want it lighter.

FirstClassMale

As is probably becoming clear, the job of stripping stairs is not one that can be speeded up. I do, however have a few suggestions to make it a bit quicker.

When sanding the treads, hire a floor sander, not the big one, the edging sander. While it will not get into all the nooks and crannies, it will make the job quicker and give a uniform appearance to each tread. Beware, you have to have a fair bit of strength in your arms to do it this way as the sander will have to be held straight to stop it digging in to the wood.

I'm not sure if your spindles are wooden or cast iron, if, as in my case, they are cast, then a hot air gun is the best route. Heat one area of spindle for around 20 seconds then use a scraper, or better still, a finger nail to get under the layers of paint and it should fall off in sheets leaving the bare metal beneath.

Hang in there, the job may take some time but the results are stunning.

iBlob

Danielle.

A question for you. Do you really like stained/varnished stairways? I have never seen one that looks good other than those that were intended for that purpose. By that I mean, Victorian/Edwardian staircases built in beautiful hardwoods. Too often we seem besotted by a desire to make things look what they are not, like knotty grotty pine doors stained Honduran mahogany. I went through all of this a while ago. I stripped the complete stairwell, landing and hallway including the doors and tongue and grooved panelling under the stair case. Result; numerous shades of wood, scars, splits, nail holes etc.

What to do? I re-painted the lot.

But what I did differently was to carefully consider a colour scheme that was NOT goddam white. What is this obsession with white? I find it curious that we spend hours deliberating on a nice wall colour, carpet (or flooring), spend substantially on them and than go and emphasise meters of timber and metal that are there to protect the walls and warm the house, namely; skirting, architrave and radiators - in white. Fine if your walls are white.

There are approximately 3000 colour formulae in the Dulux range alone.

So why not try using different complementary colours. One on the hand rail, stair risers and newell posts and another on the spindles for example.

I had awful 1930's square spindles, so I clad the entire staircase in thin ply and painted this in another colour. I alternated these and a third on the tongue and groove and continued the handrail colour on the skirting, dado, door frames and plinth blocks. One of these colours was the main upper wall colour, another was the main lower wall colour. I painted the radiator as well using Satinwood.

A benefit of enclosing the awful spindles was to smooth the lines of the stairway and landing and eliminate the blast of air up the stairs when the front door was opened.

Subtle shades such as bathstone beige, Victorian ivory plus my own shade which I had scanned and mixed were chosen. The whole look and atmosphere of the hallway, starwell and landing was transformed. The area opened up because the colours melded as opposed to being punctuated with lines of white or gloopy brown varnish. I must add, all the woodwork was properly undercoated before painting in eggshell - with the specific intension of understating rather than overstating any defects. High to medium gloss surfaces reflect more. The more defects, the more they are reflected, the more you see. The wall colours were in matt emulsion; the lower part protected by matt water based varnish

I hope I'm getting across that all too often we follow like sheep and we don't really know why. I'm not advocating Lawrence LLewelyn-Bowen's pompous pornographic purple paint parties, just a little thought to line, shape and form as well as colour.

Next season I shall mostly be wearing tapioca with a hint of mango !:p

cheekyweegit

Hiya,

I've used the brushwood twice now and it's rubbish!!!!! Not to mention pretty expensive to buy.

Yes the colours you get are great and it's easy enough to apply, but it only looks good for 5 mins as it chips and scrapes off very easily, and is certainly no good for anywhere in the home which gets regular knocks and bumps.

I tried it on my stairs and I'm currently stripping it off too trying to get it back to the bare wood which is why I put the brushwood on in the first place thinking I'd get the look without the effort, but alas nope.

It's going to be a long arduous task, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

If you do decide to go down the brushwood route, then can I suggest you coat it once finished with clear varnish to toughen it up and I've heard this helps prevent the knocks and scrapes.