Advice on stairs

renfirsttimebuy

Hey...questions on stairs 

1. The banister looks like it has layers of white gloss.... do i sand it with the machine or sand paper? 

2. Noisy stairs..how do I fix this? 

Thank you 

grumbler

1. What do you want to achieve?  Machines are good for flat surfaces.

2. Carpet

renfirsttimebuy

1. Smoothness before I paint again.

2. There is carpet but still loud... anything else I can do? 

grumbler

Do as much as possible with machines. The rest, if needed, manually. You can try a heatgun to remove the paint completely.

Is there underlay?

renfirsttimebuy

Yes underlayer...stairs still creak... 

Ebe_Scrooge

renfirsttimebuy said:

Yes underlayer...stairs still creak... 

The cause of creaks will be the wood in the treads moving.  You'll need to remove the carpet and underlay, then have a look at the state of the treads.  Very often, creaks can be cured by screwing the treads back down - if they're currently just nailed down, then the treads can rise and fall fractionally as people walk on them (just the same as floorboards).  Use a screw that's threaded along its whole length (some screws have the top 1/4" or so unthreaded), this will usually fix the problem.  It's possible that you'll find a tread has cracked or split - it's not too difficult to replace if this is the case, or you may be lucky and get away with a few strategically-placed screws.  But a screw will only work if there's something underneath the tread for it to screw into, so you'll need to have a look at what's there.

One other trick that can sometimes work, if you've got two floorboards that are moving and rubbing against each other.  Sprinkle a little bit of talcum powder between them - this will act as a lubricant and will sometimes stop the squeak.  Doesn't always work, but it's simple and cheap to try.

Regarding the sanding - if you're planning on re-painting then you don't need to take it back to bare wood.  You just need to sand it enough to give a flat surface and to provide a key for the new paint.  Make sure to remove all traces of dust when you've finished sanding - traditional sugar soap is probably the easiest thing for this, widely available at any DIY shed, online, Screwfix, etc. etc.

neilmcl

renfirsttimebuy said:

Hey...questions on stairs 

1. The banister looks like it has layers of white gloss.... do i sand it with the machine or sand paper? 

2. Noisy stairs..how do I fix this? 

Thank you 

As mentioned what are your trying to achieve. Do you want to strip the paint or simply key it for a new coat of paint. If the latter then it only needs a light sand to key it, so doing it by hand is acceptable and probably less of a faff.

renfirsttimebuy

Thanks...I plan to paint it black... But right now it's got layers of white gloss. 

In terms of creaky stairs, @Ebe_Scrooge thank you. Will take off carpet and look at the situation. Funny how only the top two and bottom two stairs make noise and the rest don't. I checked under the stairs it is plastered!!!