Stripping gloss off a banister

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Hi, as always I've bypassed Dh and come straight to the place where I know I'll get an answer! I'd love to strip the white off this bannister, just the top rail, not the spindles. It's white 'satin wood' or similar at the moment, it's not thick gloss.

Is this even possible? Would sanding be best, or will it require heat and scraping? I figure if it goes horribly wrong then I can just gloss it (doing all the woodwork soon anyway) but I think it's worth a shot at a lovely stripped wooden rail. Has anyone done this?

My dad did our bannister using paint stripper. He smeared it on & then rolled & scrapped it off. Sanded down the wood & then varnished it. We had a dark wood under the paint & it looks really good.

Heat gun and scraper. Get the hang of it somewhere it doesn't show.
Finish with sandpaper.

Just ( about) finished ours. It did takes HOURS. We tried a paint on sol first but it did bugger all to the 50 yr plus old gloss. God knows how many coats it had. But we then invested in a heat scraper thing. It worked a lot better. Worth the effort if you have the time

I have done this in the past using a product called nitromors then finishing off with a scraper / heat gun. Hth!

Ok, I've heard of nitromors- is it really messy? And with a heat gun, does it sort of melt the gloss? Would this work with eggshell/satinwood type paint? There is a patch already with through to wood, so I might have a little fiddle with it tomorrow! Luckily it's not 50yr old gloss.

It is messy and you have to follow strict instructions as its quite toxic, i.e not getting it on your skin etc. But it does the job much quicker in my opinion!

We used Kling Strip from these people

www.stripperspaintremovers.com/products.htm

It's like a paste that you spread on, cover with thin plastic (old supermarket carrier bags work a treat), then peel off. Takes loads off, less messy than liquid paint stripper. It also has the advantage that you're less likely to damage the other bits of the bannister.

Nitromors is very good, but it's messy and you'll need gloves and a mask and is easily 'splashed' onto your skin, and it will burn, so be careful. Its like a jelly/paste. Ive found that one application of nitrimors will more or less, take off one layer of paint so if you've ten layers of paint to remove (which I have previously on 100 year old cast iron bedroom fireplaces...!) you'll need a few coats over a few days.

So, it's a big job, but if you're properly prepared, you'll be really pleased and satisfied with the outcome.

If it's just the rail, it'd be quicker and less messy to use a heat gun. It softens the paint and you can scrape it off in a satisfying way, a bit like an adult version of peeling pva glue off your hands. It's really not satisfying scraping paint off fiddly spindles.

How old is the paint (and paint underneath) likely to be? Pre-60s it may have lead in it - ok if you're using nitromors or heat gun on low setting, but you need to avoid releasing particles into the air with eg sanding.

Another vote for Kling Strip.

There's another product similar to Kling Strip called Peelaway. Kling Strip and Peelaway 1 can discolour hardwoods, so if you have a lovely mahogany rail hiding under there it might be best to use Peelaway 7. Depends on how old the paint is. Be very wary of using a heat gun if there might be paint on it from before 1992 (but especially from the '60's or before) - older paints might contain lead, and it's pretty dangerous to remove them with a heat gun - you can end up inhaling lots of nasties...
I've just done 3 spindles with the different products - not looking forward to stripping 3 whole floors of spindles and rails.

Nitromors is magic. But toxic, skin blistering magic. Be REALLY careful.

I used it on skirting boards which were layered with horrid lumpy thick gloss. I pasted it on generously and within 10 minutes it was bubbling off, easily scraped/wiped off.

Thanks everyone.,

The paint is very unlikely to be pre-60's (as that would make it virtually original to the house) but most likely could be pre 1992. At least the bottom layers. It doesn't seem thick in terms of many layers, but also the actual paint doesn't seem like a thick oil based gloss either. I don't think the wood beneath is glorious mahogany; I think it's more b&q pine!

I'll look up those strips thank you, and may try with heat first before forking out for any chemicals.

TBH, in a period house with potentially beautiful wood underneath that once stripped would need some professional help to get looking like it was originally I would save up for a decorator.

You would make a worse mess of it.

Sorry! Could not would.

Ok I've just looked at the kling strip link, thanks. Silly question but how can I tell if the paint is water or oil based? Will it work on water based? I have emailed them to ask how much area coverage I'd get from a trial pot, they seem reasonable price to take a risk on if i can do it with one or two pots.

As always, thanks for your help all. I'm such a newbie but I'm really learning a lot and these threads on here are invaluable

Hotel I can only dream of original features in my house! It's a 1950's house with delusions of grandeur.

Don't do any of this if you're pregnant.

Just a little update- after umming and aaahing and researching, (and a lot of delaying this massive job) I took hairdryer and wallpaper scraper to the banister rail today. In 40 mins I've virtually scraped the entire rail!

Easy peasy. Thanks to whoever suggested it!