How to paint stairwell very tall wall, any ideas?

[Malbab]

We are trying to slowly paint the house ourselves to save some money, done kitchen and one living room and a bit stuck on the hallway, there is one very tall wall adjoining the staircase which we cant reach the top with the usual ladder we use, the ceiling in the stairwell also not reachable, how do people go vaout painting these tricky areas when they decorate themselves, risks of falling and breaking something 😱 is scary!!!

I borrowed one of those ladders that fold into a platform with one end on the floor and the other shorter end on the stairs. Then I used a paint roller taped onto a broomstick, same with a paintbrush.
It would have been a lot easier to have ceiling and walls the same colour!

Check out YouTube for ideas. Most likely a trip to the hire shop for the correct equipment.

I think you need a stair ladder (Google ladder for stairs). I would conclude it was too scary and either put up with it or save up and then pay someone. But I was too scared to climb into my own loft for a good year or so so I am maybe just too much of a scaredy cat.

My dad did mine perched on an insanely dangerous looking ladder.

When the unreachable light bulb went I was too scared to replace it but my builder did it for danger money

You can also get an extendable roller pole but they are quite difficult to use if you can't move back from the wall.

www.wickes.co.uk/Professional-Roller+Extendable-Pole---9in/p/154833?fix&gclid=Cj0KCQiAi8KfBhCuARIsADp-A56D45hoGHmOIa3zgrkeWcS1D1-ya9flYz1VGc5Gj7tNp5s5eV9xRd0aAo2EEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#

If you buy one make sure you get one where you can fit the same rollers onto the short one and the tall one so the texture stays the same across the wall. (Alternatively it will probably be high enough up that you won't notice or care...)

Thnak u all for very useful suggestions will look at the folding ladder thingy ND persuade/harass DH to go up😬

Will cost and space stretch to hiring a scaffold tower? work platform

This is why I ended up painting the hallway white in my last home. Meant I could do the walls with a long roller, and cut in with a brush taped to a stick, without worrying about getting paint on the ceiling (which was white too). A rather avoidant strategy, but it worked!

I had this problem recently and one of the extendable rollers worked OK. I managed most using that then taped a brush to the end to edge round the ceiling and it actually looked OK at the end.

Do like my Nan used to do
plank on landing window sill and banister

dangerous doesn’t cover it

I used an extendable roller - it was a bit tricky. I painted my hallway white so ceiling and wall are the same to make ot easier.

Another vote for paint it all white! (Or save up for a decorator, l’m doing that next time!)

We used an extendable roller and it worked fine.

Yeah going for all white and got an extendable roller, another side to the problem is there is yellow stripey wall paper in those walls and is going to be pain to remove that 😭, will have to look at the scaffolding option someone suggested...

Can you paint over the paper? There are several
paints available that cover patterns if it’s in good condition. You don’t have to stick to white, it’s quite popular at the moment to paint the ceiling in the same colour as walls, and take it down to the skirting. The decorators I use at work say they never get asked to paint skirting or ceilings white anymore in houses.

No can't paint over the paper as is it is peeling in some areas and the finishing won't be as good... I actually prefer white nowadays as it brings some calm 😅 to my otherwise mad chaotic life

We have the same set up OP and are currently redecorating. We had to get the plasterers to finish removing the 1980s wallpaper at the top as we couldn't reach it. (and they had to build a very dodgy scaffolding platform to get to it!) We're also feeling a bit stuck about how we reach it ourselves... Will let you know if we find the answer! Good luck with yours! 😁

We hired a scaffolding platform, it was around £75 for the week. Hired it once to strip the wallpaper and again after the plasterer had been to paint.

Thnaks will look into hiring scaffold platform think that would be safer option

This is why we paid professionals. We also had woodchip removed from the very high ceiling and the frieze above the picture rail. They used different combinations of ladders. The difficulty with scaffold towers is having the floor space in the right place to put them up.

i bought a Colbent multi angle brush extender. Basically you screw it into your extension pole and then clamp the brush in the holder. You can adjust angles on it so you can cut in very nicely. No need for ladders. Thirty quod from Amazon:)

-essexman55- £30?! You were robbed!! Buy yourself a Lockjaw from ScrewFix, does exactly the same for a fraction of the cost.

To remove wallpaper easily, buy a bottle of Zinsser DIF (also ScrewFix but prob other places too), dilute and apply as directed. I’ve used this lots and paper peels easily away from the wall, no bother. Don’t use a metal scraper, so easy to gouge lumps out of the walls - buy a plastic one instead if there’s any stubborn bits. Does the job that a metal one does but doesn’t have razor sharp edges that damage plaster. You will however have to throughly wash the wall down to remove all paste residue, if you don’t and paint straight over you’ll get what’s known as ‘crocodilling’ whereby the paint dries and cracks into a pattern resembling crocodile skin. It’s then an absolute mare to rectify.

To access high areas an extendable ladder - the ones that start off super short and you click release buttons on the side to extend them - are fab. You’re looking at about £90 for a decent one. It’s also easier to use a ladder platform, Google the one by Halio. Again about £90 brand new so check out eBay etc incase there’s one going there.

Often people think it’s cheaper and easy to decorate their stairs but as they tend not to have the kit (and often the head for heights, I have to tell myself not to look down on the scary high ones and it’s my job!) it can be worth just biting the bullet and getting a decorator in to do the job.

I did exactly the same! It works rather well, as long as you don't mind white. 🙂

I've recently stripped two layers of painted wallpaper from old plaster and my experience was that DIF was no better than another cheaper wallpaper stripper. I love Zinsser products so was happy to try it. I found the top layer came off easily and it wasn't always necessary to wet it first. The underneath layer was a different story. Might be because the adhesive used was from over 50 years ago?

A bladed metal stripper was far better than a plastic tool or a traditional flexible bladed metal stripper.

I think find what works for you.