painting stairwell

[doitmeself]

Hi, my stairwell is very old the has a few layers of old paint. The spindles have been bashed about a bit so there are chips in the paint. I want to re-paint the lot, but the spindles will need to be rubbed down.

Not sure the best and quickest way to do this. Just using sand paper will take ages and i don't know of a sander that can fit into all the grooves.

I'm thinking of arranging for the Spindles to be removed and taken to a company where they chemically strip old paint then replacing the spindles.

Can any one give advise and average cost a joiner might charge to remove and replace. There are 32 steps, not sure on exact number of Spindles. Is this a good idea or is there a better way if doing this? Advice most welcome!

[masona]

doitmeself wrote:

I'm thinking of arranging for the Spindles to be removed and taken to a company where they chemically strip old paint then replacing the spindles.

The problem is, they will swell up a bit and making it awkward to re-fit them again.

I think the best way is to take your time with paint stripper, put some on and walk away otherwise you end up rushing it. I use a scraping blade tools to take most of the paint off.

I have bought these tools from here £4.50 for set of 3. Toolpost Click onto "Tools for Woodworkers" > then scroll down to "Cabinet scrapers".

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[DAZB]

You could always remove the lot and replace with one of these kits...

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=58551&ts=82442

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=90686&ts=82442

May not be the same style as your existing spindles but just another option . They also do the sections for the landing areas .

[newboy]

If the stair case is as old as suggested then it's probably covered in lead based paint. Don't sand it off - use a chemical stripper