Painted stairs?

[Pintof]

I've got my heart set on having my stairs painted white at the edges with a strip of carpet up the middle. Like in this picture.

The stairs already have some layers of paint on them.

Will I need to strip all this paint off if I'm painting them again? Or will it be okay to just sand this paint down and then paint over the top?

Thanks for any help you can give!

paint on old stairs is usually very rough, with drips, brushmarks, wear, and often painted over the dirt.

If yours is not too bad, you can mostly power-sand it, then do the crevices by hand or possibly a detail sander (it will be slow)

repeatedly hoover and brush it to get the dust out.

If your house is more than about 50 years old, there is probably linseed oil paint, which strips off quite easily with a hot air gun and scraper. There may be lead paint so you have to avoid the dust and smoke. I don't know if 3M do a suitable breathing mask. You will have to shower and wash hair after work to remove residue.

Hi @PigletJohn

The house is 120 years old. So it looks like I'd probably need to strip off all the paint? Ugh.