Old gloss paint

[thebluehen]

My new home has bannisters with many layers of old gloss.

I suspect they haven't been prepped well in the past, because if I try and sand down to get a key, layers flake off and a "quick sand" takes hours.

Someone suggested to use paint stripper. Tried an experimental amount today, and that has taken some layers off but it's uneven and still several layers left on some places and it was very time consuming.

At this rate, it is going to take me weeks and weeks. I'm not lazy and I want a decent finish but they're 1980's stairs and I don't want perfection. They just need freshening up.

Any suggestions of an efficient way to deal with it?

No help, but following for your replies.
Just moved in to a late 80s house and the bannister (especially at the top) is inches thick in old gloss and in a right state.

Looking at the bad DIY elsewhere in my house, a new bannister might be easier than fixing a botched job 🤔 😂

Heat gun.

Frenchic paint - self levelling, easy to work with a very forgiving

I have zero idea if this would work but could you get them even ISH and then prime and paint gloss?
That way you don't need a key and don't need so sand anything that hasn't been sanded? Maybe just filler any chips?

How uncanny, we're doing the same! We've used a spray paint stripper, it works OK ish but still so much paint left, and it's hard work.
My partner saw this on insta, and I really want to try! It looks pretty toxic though 😅

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DE9N0RbK6a6/?igsh=MXh6OGRiam96eHZiaQ==

The most efficient (and messy) way is to get someone in to sand blast them. Can strip the whole stairs in minutes.
paint stripper these days is nothing like the stripper of old and rarely worth it.
you can use a heat gun and scrapper.
of the aim is to just take off the top layer to get a key for repainting then plain old sand paper and/or a detail sander and lots of elbow grease.

The other option of course is to pay someone else to do it!

Heat gun & scraper can be a pretty satisfying job, the paint all bubbles & you can see how much paint you can get off in one go.

Yes klingstrip is also very good. Quite a job for the whole stairs but it does a pretty good job, especially if you want to go back to bare wood. Depends if you want it all off or just enough to repaint.

I only want to repaint so doesn't have to be perfect but sanding takes hours as the paint just flakes off so need another solution. Maybe I'll get a heat gun.

I also vote for heat gun. I have successfully stripped old gloss paint off the exterior cladding to bare wood, and gave fresh coat of paint.

Paint stripper isn't like the nitromors of old (evil chem concoction) but it worked.
Agree with pp heat gun.

I stripped banisters, doors and door frames this summer. This is what I learned:
The heat gun gave the most uneven results.
The paint stripper works but it is really time consuming as you’d have to strip the surfaces to bare wood.
What worked best for me was a combination of electric sander and manual sanding using sanding paper and sanding blocks - the type with sponge inside which are flexible enough to fit in corners and around banisters. Where paint started to flake off I found that the best waywas to grab the lawyer of paint and fully peel it off bit by bit. The layer underneath was easy to sand enough to give it a key. This left the surfaces very smooth. Surfaces which didn’t peel off ended up looking less perfect.
I used oil based satinwood as I find oil based paint more forgiving - it doesn’t show imperfections as much (especially on the door where I used the heat gun leaving a v messy end result).

The sanding took me dozens of hours but I kept persevering knowing that I only had to do it once so it was best to do it right.
Wear protective googles and a face mask - not the basic mask we used during covid as those will make your googles steam up, use masks which have air filters.

Dont use a heat gun or sand if there could be lead based paint in the layers. There is a brilliant product called cling strip. It is a thick paste which you paste on and then cover with cling film for about 24 hours. You can then scrape it off and all the paint comes with it. It works really well.

Agree with PPs. Check if there's lead in the paint. Then apply klingstrip liberally and leave it on for the correct amount of time. Then reassess - if there's still thick bits then a heat gun plus a nail brush will get the bits out of the nooks and crannies, then a final sand before priming and painting will do it. Shouldn't be heaps of time either if the klingstrip does it's job but it's a few steps,.one at a time if you see what I mean