Removing paint from wood stairwell

[fidbod]

Hi all, I would appreciate your advice on the following.

The floors of my duplex flat are connected by a wooden stairwell. The stairwell currently has a top coat of black paint (probably emulsion) however there is at least one further coat of paint beneath that based on the white areas where the black paint has worn off. The stairwell itself has a small mezzanine area halfway up.

My intention is to take it back to the bare wood, stain it and then oil.

My question is whether to sand the paint off or paint strip?

thanks in advance for your thoughts

 

[Albopalbo]

I stripped my banister, sanded and re-painted it as the paint was very rought. The easiest way by far is to strip the paint off.

Don't use chemical strippers thought, use a heat gun and a wallpaper scraper. Careful, the scrapers blade will get hot! I found if you aim it down the blade, it shoots onto the paint ahead of you so by the time you get there it'll come off all in one pass.

Then, sand, maybe filler if there are any dings (use car body filler not poly filla as it's not tough enough) and re-paint

Tip: don't use a cloth that's too damp to wipe off the dust from sanding as this will raise the grain of the wood and need to be sanded...again.

 

[Albopalbo]

Just seen you are planning on staining it..so ignore what i said about paint and filler!!

Al.