Refinshing Staircase Inplace

[brnhornt]

Hey folks,

Quick question...anyone refinish a wood staircase/handrail/spindles in place?

Just wondering if you've found a process that works well....or if it's just hours and hours of hand sanding...?

Thanks for any ideas!
Kevin

[Wild Turkey]

I just painted them in place.

If we were doing it again I'd dismantle it and sand on the lathe.

That way I could sand the drips off the bottom rail.

[jteneyck]

I would use a chemical stripper and only sand any damage you find after the finish is off. A stripper containing methylene chloride, like KleanStrip Premium, will take off most anything, varnish very quickly, paint a little slower, but it will get it off. It also will get into tight places better than sandpaper. If your stairs are old and painted there's a good chance it's lead paint, and you definitely don't want to sand that.

John

[jppierson]

I did mine in place. The original finish was shellac, so lots of alcohol, green, red and white scrubbies, and various scrapers. The dental molding at the base newell was a pain. I think I also used some paint stripper at the start just to shorten the total cycle. I used shellac to finish, 1# cut, with a final of 1.5# on the railing. Turned out nice... lots of work. Just be patient, do a couple steps at a time. Make sure you wear gloves, I swear I got punch-drunk not wearing gloves..... didn't feel good at all.

[brnhornt]

Sorry...should have also added...it's approx 30 years old...stained/varnished. Everything is in good shape and solid as a rock (main reason I don't want to try dismantling) it's just a hideous stain/color

[Curlycherry]

I knew a couple that did their own refinishing in place. They had a deal with each other. Each person had to do one spindle a week. If they did not get it done then they had to do the other person's spindle the next week. That got them motivated to get it done. Theirs was in a ~100+ year old house and had gobs and gobs of paint. It was about a 1+ hour process per spindle, thus the need for motivation to keep the job going.

[stilinsm]

ours was a 17 yr old oak stained in a crap brown color. I just went over it with a light sanding with a dark all-in-one stain & finish. Turned out much better and only took a couple hours.

[brnhornt]

stilinsm said:

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ours was a 17 yr old oak stained in a crap brown color. I just went over it with a light sanding with a dark all-in-one stain & finish. Turned out much better and only took a couple hours.

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I think we had the same builder

[DogwoodTales]

For a chemical stripper you will want something viscous enough to stick on vertical surfaces and stay put while it works.

I refinished a set of stairway spindles once. Royal PIA, but the end result paid off.
I used a lot of drum sanding paper that I cut into strips varying 1/2" to 1 1/2" wide.
It worked really well. It's tough and lasts a long time.
It also rolls well into tubes to get into the contours etc.
I was also able to straddle the paper around the spindle and worked it back and forth at varying angles to get the old finish off and maintain a somewhat random scratch pattern to make the finish sanding vertically easier to do.
I also used a card scraper and a regular glue scraper.
I used a lot of different things to scrape and sand.

[blackhat]

If you are going darker, you don't have to strip everything to bare wood. You can tint some varnish and just get it to the point you can add a couple topcoats.