Thick gloss paint in hall, and on stair spindles and skirting

[WellTidy]

Our Edwardian house has a lot of woodwork in the hall and on the stairs. We are replacing the carpets and redecorating the walls, so now is the time to repaint the woodwork too. It is all covered in layers upon layers of slightly yellowing gloss, some of it chipped and flaking away.

We would like to keep it, rather than replace, and of course it would be easiest just to paint another layer of gloss over it. But if we wanted to strip all of that gloss off and start again, how would we do it please?

I’m a big fan of a heat gun and paint scraper. I think we paid £20ish for one from screwfix and it’s stripped many layers of paint. It can be tedious after the initial satisfaction of seeing it bubble off, but I think the results are definitely worth it.
Should wear masks/protective gear though as some older paints contain lead.

My experience of paint stripping, either using a heat gun or chemical strippers, has been utterly utterly tedious. I spent a whole day stripping one side of one door, and it's just made a wreck of it - couldn't get it all off especially out of the nooks and crannies. It's worse than before I started. I would say don't bother or just replace the woodwork itself.

Please be careful re lead paint if you are pregnant or have young children at home.

Definitely not pregnant, but we have DC who would be here whilst we did the job. There is loads of woodwork and I am now thinking maybe not to bother. If it were just skirting, maybe I would think it was worth it. But there are panels that go against the side of the under stairs space and which gave the hall, and there are three doors and architraves off the hall, and a massive window and sill half way up the stairs, so it is a big job. I am thinking of may be too much for us as we are fairly time poor. Maybe a(mother) coat of gloss would make it look a bit better and I can start prioritising some other part of the house.

Thanks for your experiences!

My tip if you want to patch up chipped bits is to prime with Zinsser Bin, then paint over.

For the doors you could get them dipped and stripped by a company. Mine cost £30 each, and although they aren't solid wood so need painting again, it did take off the millions of layers of gloss paint. Decorators recommend diamond trade paint for woodwork in either eggshell or satinwood. Not as shiny as gloss and doesn't go yellow. It's also water based so easier to work with. Expensive but worth it

Might be tricky on the spindles but what about sanding it down a bit before you paint, to smooth it all and remove the chipped bits?

You could take out the rail etc and have them stripped, speak to stripper about this. But the stairs would need done in situ. Also doors, skirtings can be removed and dip stripped. Can look amazing once done.

But failing that I would sand well before painting so that the runs and drip marks from the past disappear. Then paint.

i'd just repaint with satinwood......the paintwork won't look as 'fat' when its not shiny

you can remove and replace skirting fairly cheaply,so i would get that new

Only thing I would say is be careful having them dipped and stripped. The process can dissolve the original glues etc holding them together and you may find that they warp, fall apart etc. If you can afford it, find a good decorator, you'd be amazed what they can do with an electric sander, filler and excellent painting skills. Also, water based woodwork paint should not yellow inside, as modern oil based paint tends to.

Thank you for all these tips and recommendations. I am fearing that to do this properly, it will be too big a job than we have time for, and your responses have made me realise this. We are time poor and have loads of other decorating and improving to do as well as this. Toying with moving, so don’t really want to spend on decorators. If we decide to stay, it would absolutely be worth investing money in though.

Honestly if you are time poor pay someone else to do it.

Get some quotes for stripping and repainting, or simply varnishing. Then decide.

We stripped some skirting boards and architraves with a heat gun and the results weren't great to be honest as PP described. It was a lot of effort and the wood ended up in a bit of a mess.

What about a small detail sander to give it a really good going over before painting? It would be no more tedious than the heat gun and scraper but I think it would be kinder to the wood. We're doing our stairs at the moment and we've just sanded by hand but have accepted it's not going to be pristine when we paint next week as we simply can't be arsed / haven't the time to get that standard.

I've just spent today putting the 2nd coat on my hall/stairs woodwork and it isn't that arduous. I sanded by hand first and tbh prefer that over a heavy electric sander. Diamond satinwood and its come up nicely.

Ricepops if we use the zinsser bin primer, can we put a layer of gloss straight on over that please? Or do we need the primer and then an undercoat and then gloss?

Get good dust masks and eye protection if you're sanding. You don't want to be breathing that stuff.

You paint directly over zinsser bin. The shellac one is great if the paint is peeling in any areas.

I finished in johnstones flat oil as I hate gloss. It is matt oil based paint.

Right. Thanks for the input. We are going to lightly sand (really lightly, or it will take forever), use zinsser bin and then a layer of gloss. I am hoping that it will make a big difference, but I accept that we aren’t doing it ‘properly’.

I feel your pain OP. Have been stripping the million layers of paint and yukky old varnish in our Edwardian house for the last few weekends.

I have been using a heat gun, and wearing a mask like something out of Mad Max, and still have a sore throat!

Had to be done though as want the bannisters and stairway to look really good so hoping all the hard work will pay iff when I funally get it all painted up.

Dave this is what we have in the hall too, with all that wood at the side of the cupboard under the stairs. Also very deep and detailed (lots of ridges, is the best way I can think to describe them) skirtings and detailed architraves to all doors that lead off the hall. Are you doing skirtings and architraves too?

How many hours would you say that it has taken to do what you’ve done? And how many in total to take all the paint off (leaving aside the repainting for now) please?

It’ll be worth it in the end, I’m sure.

The style of our staircase with the handrail and banisters looks really like yours Dave but I think we might have more turns and a massive wide window with the kind of sill you can sit in on the first flight of stairs. And then there is another staircase with two turns going from first to second floor. It’s nice but dear god it makes it a big job, which is why I think we will not do it properly.

Wow @WellTidy..your staircase sounds amazing, especially with a lovely big window on the first landing! I can totally imagine how overwhelming it must feel to think about tackling it though!

OH stripped back the skirting boards and dado rail before we had them decorated, so those have been glossed now and come up quite nicely. You can never get old woodwork totally smooth though, but I guess that is kind of part of the charm of an old house.

I would say the spindles and side of the staircase took me about10 hours over 3 Saturday's approximately.

If you are looking at selling though I would be tempted to take the least time consuming route, so maybe a sand down and repaint. Not sure how easy these type of bannisters are to sand though with all their nooks and crannies!

Dave you’ve made my mind up. We don’t have the time to do a proper job, much as we would like to. I’m sure it would make a massive difference but I think if we were going to do it properly, we should have done it at a time when we would have taken more of the benefit from it. A light sand, primer and a coat of gloss, with new carpet, is going to be as much as we can manage.

Good luck with finishing yours, it will be really lovely I’m sure.

I really would recommend the diamond satinwood, especially for a period property as it has a much more subtle finish, and won't need undercoat either...

Misty could you paint that diamond satinwood straight on top of chipped gloss please?