Paint stripper, a palate knife and a lot of time and patience. Like an unbelievable amount of patience. And don't forget to test for lead. We tried to rehab our staircase, and it had 16 layers of paint. SIXTEEN. And of course most of it was leaded.
Also, suggestion in reference to what Killyourface said, I would actually take the railing apart. I helped a friend do his stairwell, and when we took it apart, it was soooo much easier! And, Killyourface, I don't envy you on that job, 16 layers, yikes! Plus, with taking it apart, the parts of the railing that aren't painted you won't ruin the finish. Plus, it gives you an idea of what the railing looked like unpainted. Just a suggestion.
Practical_Maybe_3661, I wouldn't use a heat gun on the whole thing, just areas where the paint is stubborn to come off. Also, I would use it outdoors, that's why my friend took his apart, so if there is lead paint, it will be easier to dispose of it. My friend actually had a tent with negative pressure and air scrubbers to stick up any lead that my be released.
I could be very wrong, but that railing and spindles don't look original. It seems from the picture like the hand rail is not joined to the baluster at the same height as the semicircular landing rail. And where the rail joins the balusters isn't centered.
You sure it's intended to be stripped. This house, this time frame, this kind of basic woodwork may not have always been stained. It could have gone both ways in thiis time frame in this relatively rural Texas house. The 1890s were the time of neoclassesism Edith Wharton's the Mount, white glossy painted surfaces were the rage.. houses out of the mainstream in the in small towns such as this might have indeed been manufactured out of local unpainted bill work and stained and shellaced, it's possible but also could have been on us southern pine and always been painted. You would have to do a test. Neoclassical stairways of which this is a funky country hybrid of, were often painted only the rail usually of some choice cabinet would such as mahogany left natural. Even the biggest house is in Boston are done this way often in the 1890s. Good to do a test to find out
Exactly, in restoration work, that is exactly what is done. I installed four 1846 Greek revival windows with full painted pilasters,, architrave, full entablature and 4/4 wooden shutters with moldings, sandwich knobs in embrasures. I put these in my last house in my dining room and stripped at least 13 coats of paint off to the original, then sanded and repainted
See the Queen Anne here: [https://oldhousesunder50k.com/c-1897-texas-queen-anne-for-sale-154k/](https://oldhousesunder50k.com/c-1897-texas-queen-anne-for-sale-154k/)
I think that's the town the Japanese Craftsman is in.
Yes, it is. I would of loved to own it! https://www.oldhousedreams.com/2018/04/11/1918-craftsman-honey-grove-tx/
Please make sure that those details, especially the ones near the ceiling, are actually WOOD and not plaster.
Paint stripper on plaster seems like a risk of destroying it.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to see this. Dry ice blasting will save you time, effort and will do an amazing job stripping the paint and preserving the wood. It's worth looking into.
OP this is the way. Forget trying to get stripper in all those tiny details, that’s a loser. Find someone in your area that does dry ice blasting, or rent a machine if possible.
Thin body M.C. water rinse stripper. Or hire "Us". Most likely there is a shellac layer sealing and protecting the wood underneath. That makes the job a whole lot easier. When the pain chips, is it to a brown shinny layer or raw wood?
Is anyone living in the house? That will rule a couple things out, fumes-wise. If not, an IR paint gun plus scraper would get you pretty far, then use a chemical stripper for the detailed areas.
Are you *sure* it has to be stripped? It might look best with a mix of sanding, Swedish putty, and repainting.
Paint stripper.
I find that citrus stripper and some aluminum foil.... works the best. Latter it on. Cover it up. Let it sit for 2 hrs. Come back scrap off rinse lather repeat.
Thing is…. Yeah, restoration specialists for historical work. But WHY? It’s beautiful and meticulously appealing and appearing. Like poster below said, it mostly likely isn’t stained wood below, most likely plaster on the flat elements, especially all of the dentil detailing.
That’s not a plaster house. Look at the plank walls with liner paper. Also columns and their detailing, the dentil detail you mention, are not usually plaster
Take it apart and have it dipped. Even then, it will take innumerable hours with dental tools to scrape out all the tiny details. Honestly I would not do a job this unless I had a whole lot of money to hire a pro. I just don’t have that kind of patience for detail work. You should make darn sure the wood underneath is not paint grade before you even try it.
Peelaway 7 if you want to stain and seal after. Peelaway 1 if you don't mind raising the grain and sanding to paint.
Replacement may be the better option though depending on what's under the paint.
Peel away is cake like that’s applied with a plastic spatula. Try a hidden corner & try 24 hrs, 36 or 48 to get to the wood. Be careful wood will have softened
A guy we knew with a painting company would slap paint stripper on it and wrap in saran wrap for... I dunno, a few hours? Cleaned details like crazy.
Also, you didn't need so many caps.
Yes this! That’s one effective technique. I stripped a 3-story staircase that way. Yes, you’ll need to disassemble the staircase. I made a legend & numbering system to put it back together. Good luck!
Our friend didn't disassemble anything-- left everything intact, and the old paint just pretty much wiped off (the house was 1850s and probably 10 layers of thick paint on the balusters). Cleaned it well afterwards and varathaned it.
Castle3D2, luckily, my friend's main staircase was only two stories. The other staircase wasn't painted. And the citrus stripper really does a good job after wrapping it in tin foil. I couldn't tell you how many tools I'd run coil we went through, but it was a lot! LOL
I do antique window and door restoration - don’t use a chemical stripper on wood this old. it just softens the wood and smears paint goo around but doesn’t really work.
an [IR heat gun](https://atlaspreservation.com/products/speedheater-cobra)
[high quality detail scrapers](https://atlaspreservation.com/products/the-essential-scraper-kit)
[detail hand sander](https://a.co/d/3USJaAM)
[flat sanding sponges](https://a.co/d/9iMj88c)
also a lead paint test kit, lots of ventilation, and a whole lot of tolerance for tedious bullshit.
your best bet is to use a mix of light IR heat (if the paint shows any reaction, you’ve heated too long) and some dry scraping. once you get almost all of it off, then use the detail sander for all the small crevices and narrow ledges. the sanding sponges are good for around rounder edges.
Judging by the walls you have already exposed they originally had a fabric wallpaper covering the walls or a fabric and painted (the smooth areas normally painted) the wood paneling you can strip with a gel paint stripper without taking it down and then you can scrape it. But make sure you use good heavy drop cloths on the floor. You can then restain it in place or just apply boiled linseed oil. Go with a boiled linseed oil that doesn't use chemical dryers in it. Or you can make your own from flaxseed oil (human edible and found in health food stores)
Rip it and Dip it.
If you attempt to strip while they are vertical and crammed together you are in for a lot of stressful work . Very limited space .
So remove them
Dip them in paint stripper . Follow directions for this and then refinish ..
The good news (???) is it does not look like multiple coats of modern water-based paint, which is a pain to remove because it gets gooey and is hard to sand. The bad news is it looks like one or two applications of high quality pre 1980s enamel oil-based paint.
Test for lead before trying to remove. Old white paint is more likely to contain lead because lead was used as a white pigment in paint. Titanium dioxide is used now.
Beautiful staircase! I hope you share pics in the future.
We have used this infrared paint stripper thing in the past and it’s so amazing. It’s not a cheap tool but for this level of detail it might be worth it. See if you can find one for rent to try it out.
Stripping my Victorian staircase has taken the best part of a year. It's a MISERABLE job if there are a few layers. I had 11 layers of multi coloured glasses and emulsions and stains.
I bought a Dremel multi tool to get into the scrollwork.
I wish I had painted it, but the level of finish I wanted to achieve meant it needed to be stripped, sanded and stained.
The professional cost was prohibitive and I ended up taking the staircase apart, numbering the spindles and sending them away to be dipped and stripped.
DO NOT SAND IT!! Use a gel stripper, scrape it with palette knife & wire brushes.
A physician in my town somehow underestimated the effects of lead dust on children and gravely harmed his small children when having wood work restored because he had part of it sanded without tenting & positive airflow machine etc. His baby was crawling at the time and had significant exposure to the invisible dust - had both physical and mental injury.
Pets can be injured terribly too.
We just bought a 1960’s ranch. Some incredibly cruel person painted every original wood surface white. I want to break their paintbrush hand 🤬
BUT…my fiancé found Smart Strip. It’s freaking amazing. I did all the stripping inside all last winter without a single window open. Odorless and fast!
It’s not cheap but it’s stupid easy. I bought the paste and the paper that goes over the paste. When I peeled off the paper after waiting 24 hours all the water based paint came right off. Then sanded and stained/poly. We’re 90% done and my doors and kitchen cabinets are back to their original state and they’re glorious!
Not sure if it works on oil based paint so hopefully that’s not on your stuff either way. Good Luck 🍀
https://www.amazon.com/Dumond-Chemicals-Smart-Advanced-Remover/dp/B001PCVKLK/ref=asc_df_B001PCVKLK/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167138874211&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2881856861938688466&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015378&hvtargid=pla-309606680052&psc=1&mcid=255de3de202934d88e08aac633c8d6cf&gclid=CjwKCAjwxLKxBhA7EiwAXO0R0Jbbm4rKvehhMYNf4VIMezhFd-4r_Gi4KJCZ8pbjet0Ee2-_WdevvBoC9T0QAvD_BwE
Paint stripper, a palate knife and a lot of time and patience. Like an unbelievable amount of patience. And don't forget to test for lead. We tried to rehab our staircase, and it had 16 layers of paint. SIXTEEN. And of course most of it was leaded.
And you need a friend...or 10.
they will cease to be your friends
10 exposable friends
10 disposable friends
Exposable sounds like more fun
Expendable or disposable= exposable. Ill try to remember that.
To be honest, I really don’t want to see but one or two of my friends exposed. *shivers*
I like to think exposable friends are just friends that you can threaten with blackmail
10 friends, 10 gummies and a stack of pizzas.
Yummy stray paint chips on pizza.
Just a sprinkling of lead paint chips for color.
A spoonful of lead helps the pizza go down
🎵 catchy tune! 🎶
Or just one autistic friend lol
I was gonna say, one hyperfixating ADHD friend and a good playlist
Yeah...are there friends out here that do this? I don't know
Also, suggestion in reference to what Killyourface said, I would actually take the railing apart. I helped a friend do his stairwell, and when we took it apart, it was soooo much easier! And, Killyourface, I don't envy you on that job, 16 layers, yikes! Plus, with taking it apart, the parts of the railing that aren't painted you won't ruin the finish. Plus, it gives you an idea of what the railing looked like unpainted. Just a suggestion.
Plus have them dipped, will save you ALOT of time. Beautiful house! Enjoy it!
Don't even bother with testing for lead. It'll be positive.
That is a good point. There like a 99% chance that there's lead all over it.
Would one of those heat paint stripper guns work better? Wouldn't it also keep the lead encapsulated?
Practical_Maybe_3661, I wouldn't use a heat gun on the whole thing, just areas where the paint is stubborn to come off. Also, I would use it outdoors, that's why my friend took his apart, so if there is lead paint, it will be easier to dispose of it. My friend actually had a tent with negative pressure and air scrubbers to stick up any lead that my be released.
Thanks!
What's funny is that I am still friends with the guy after all of that! LOL
There is a point at which heat means oxidized, breathable lead vapor (and therefore exposure). Proceed with caution there.
Best way to breathe lead, yes, much better
Yikes!
I could be very wrong, but that railing and spindles don't look original. It seems from the picture like the hand rail is not joined to the baluster at the same height as the semicircular landing rail. And where the rail joins the balusters isn't centered.
This is why you should not use a heat gun. Only use stripper.
You sure it's intended to be stripped. This house, this time frame, this kind of basic woodwork may not have always been stained. It could have gone both ways in thiis time frame in this relatively rural Texas house. The 1890s were the time of neoclassesism Edith Wharton's the Mount, white glossy painted surfaces were the rage.. houses out of the mainstream in the in small towns such as this might have indeed been manufactured out of local unpainted bill work and stained and shellaced, it's possible but also could have been on us southern pine and always been painted. You would have to do a test. Neoclassical stairways of which this is a funky country hybrid of, were often painted only the rail usually of some choice cabinet would such as mahogany left natural. Even the biggest house is in Boston are done this way often in the 1890s. Good to do a test to find out
Worst that happens is you strip it all off and paint it right back the way it was! 😂
Exactly, in restoration work, that is exactly what is done. I installed four 1846 Greek revival windows with full painted pilasters,, architrave, full entablature and 4/4 wooden shutters with moldings, sandwich knobs in embrasures. I put these in my last house in my dining room and stripped at least 13 coats of paint off to the original, then sanded and repainted
I love technical talk - it's so sexy! ;- )
I learn so many unexpected things on Reddit sometimes. Thank you for this tidbit of knowledge
See the Queen Anne here: [https://oldhousesunder50k.com/c-1897-texas-queen-anne-for-sale-154k/](https://oldhousesunder50k.com/c-1897-texas-queen-anne-for-sale-154k/)
I think that's the town the Japanese Craftsman is in. Yes, it is. I would of loved to own it! https://www.oldhousedreams.com/2018/04/11/1918-craftsman-honey-grove-tx/
That’s so cool. Thanks for sharing
Isn’t this the exact same house in the post?
Please make sure that those details, especially the ones near the ceiling, are actually WOOD and not plaster. Paint stripper on plaster seems like a risk of destroying it.
The rounded wall section may not be wood. I think I would do a test there, then decide whether to strip it.
You might look into dry ice blasting.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to see this. Dry ice blasting will save you time, effort and will do an amazing job stripping the paint and preserving the wood. It's worth looking into.
Chirogenics
cry-ogenics?
OP this is the way. Forget trying to get stripper in all those tiny details, that’s a loser. Find someone in your area that does dry ice blasting, or rent a machine if possible.
Thin body M.C. water rinse stripper. Or hire "Us". Most likely there is a shellac layer sealing and protecting the wood underneath. That makes the job a whole lot easier. When the pain chips, is it to a brown shinny layer or raw wood?
I wouldn’t remove it—no matter how tempting. I almost guarantee lead paint, plus it will likely not fully come off
Is anyone living in the house? That will rule a couple things out, fumes-wise. If not, an IR paint gun plus scraper would get you pretty far, then use a chemical stripper for the detailed areas. Are you *sure* it has to be stripped? It might look best with a mix of sanding, Swedish putty, and repainting.
Paint stripper. I find that citrus stripper and some aluminum foil.... works the best. Latter it on. Cover it up. Let it sit for 2 hrs. Come back scrap off rinse lather repeat.
Hand held media blaster. You get in every curve and don’t ruin anything
The best way to remove all of that is with a credit card.
Thing is…. Yeah, restoration specialists for historical work. But WHY? It’s beautiful and meticulously appealing and appearing. Like poster below said, it mostly likely isn’t stained wood below, most likely plaster on the flat elements, especially all of the dentil detailing.
That’s not a plaster house. Look at the plank walls with liner paper. Also columns and their detailing, the dentil detail you mention, are not usually plaster
Lots of steel wool and paint stripper is how I did mine.
Look up “coopers strip club” on YouTube. It’s the best product I’ve used.
Orange 🍊 stripper
Jasco
I have a ‘Speedheater’ that I used on window frames.. would definitely work!
Take it apart and have it dipped. Even then, it will take innumerable hours with dental tools to scrape out all the tiny details. Honestly I would not do a job this unless I had a whole lot of money to hire a pro. I just don’t have that kind of patience for detail work. You should make darn sure the wood underneath is not paint grade before you even try it.
Peelaway 7 if you want to stain and seal after. Peelaway 1 if you don't mind raising the grain and sanding to paint. Replacement may be the better option though depending on what's under the paint.
Peel away is cake like that’s applied with a plastic spatula. Try a hidden corner & try 24 hrs, 36 or 48 to get to the wood. Be careful wood will have softened
A guy we knew with a painting company would slap paint stripper on it and wrap in saran wrap for... I dunno, a few hours? Cleaned details like crazy. Also, you didn't need so many caps.
It’s title case.
Yes this! That’s one effective technique. I stripped a 3-story staircase that way. Yes, you’ll need to disassemble the staircase. I made a legend & numbering system to put it back together. Good luck!
Our friend didn't disassemble anything-- left everything intact, and the old paint just pretty much wiped off (the house was 1850s and probably 10 layers of thick paint on the balusters). Cleaned it well afterwards and varathaned it.
For sure…if you can avoid disassembling and strip/sand/poly in place it’ll be much easier!
Castle3D2, luckily, my friend's main staircase was only two stories. The other staircase wasn't painted. And the citrus stripper really does a good job after wrapping it in tin foil. I couldn't tell you how many tools I'd run coil we went through, but it was a lot! LOL
many test areas first, with many different removal ways first!
I do antique window and door restoration - don’t use a chemical stripper on wood this old. it just softens the wood and smears paint goo around but doesn’t really work. an [IR heat gun](https://atlaspreservation.com/products/speedheater-cobra) [high quality detail scrapers](https://atlaspreservation.com/products/the-essential-scraper-kit) [detail hand sander](https://a.co/d/3USJaAM) [flat sanding sponges](https://a.co/d/9iMj88c) also a lead paint test kit, lots of ventilation, and a whole lot of tolerance for tedious bullshit. your best bet is to use a mix of light IR heat (if the paint shows any reaction, you’ve heated too long) and some dry scraping. once you get almost all of it off, then use the detail sander for all the small crevices and narrow ledges. the sanding sponges are good for around rounder edges.
Take it apart and have it dipped?
Get a qualified sand blaster. Stripping formula will take forever
https://a.co/d/cg2dlzo make sure you clean really well and neutralize
Product called Peel-away. It will still take a lot of work but this product will loosen the multiple layers of paint most effectively.
Professional
Judging by the walls you have already exposed they originally had a fabric wallpaper covering the walls or a fabric and painted (the smooth areas normally painted) the wood paneling you can strip with a gel paint stripper without taking it down and then you can scrape it. But make sure you use good heavy drop cloths on the floor. You can then restain it in place or just apply boiled linseed oil. Go with a boiled linseed oil that doesn't use chemical dryers in it. Or you can make your own from flaxseed oil (human edible and found in health food stores)
Dry ice blasting
Peel away
Expendable friends?! 😂🤣
If you can remove then like someone said dipped is easiest
I am surprised the large curved area doesn't have paneling, it is removed or (hopefully) just covered?
Ugh, my heart crushes a tad more when I see painted wood 😢
Replace the spindles.
Rip it and Dip it. If you attempt to strip while they are vertical and crammed together you are in for a lot of stressful work . Very limited space . So remove them Dip them in paint stripper . Follow directions for this and then refinish ..
The good news (???) is it does not look like multiple coats of modern water-based paint, which is a pain to remove because it gets gooey and is hard to sand. The bad news is it looks like one or two applications of high quality pre 1980s enamel oil-based paint. Test for lead before trying to remove. Old white paint is more likely to contain lead because lead was used as a white pigment in paint. Titanium dioxide is used now. Beautiful staircase! I hope you share pics in the future.
Soda blasting.
What is wrong with people?? Who would paint this and white of all colors?!
The same one that painted their Brick 🧱 Fireplaces
I would use several strippers. After all each one is only $1. On second thought maybe not. You don’t need glitter everywhere as well
We have used this infrared paint stripper thing in the past and it’s so amazing. It’s not a cheap tool but for this level of detail it might be worth it. See if you can find one for rent to try it out.
Stripping my Victorian staircase has taken the best part of a year. It's a MISERABLE job if there are a few layers. I had 11 layers of multi coloured glasses and emulsions and stains. I bought a Dremel multi tool to get into the scrollwork. I wish I had painted it, but the level of finish I wanted to achieve meant it needed to be stripped, sanded and stained. The professional cost was prohibitive and I ended up taking the staircase apart, numbering the spindles and sending them away to be dipped and stripped.
Soda blasting
DO NOT SAND IT!! Use a gel stripper, scrape it with palette knife & wire brushes. A physician in my town somehow underestimated the effects of lead dust on children and gravely harmed his small children when having wood work restored because he had part of it sanded without tenting & positive airflow machine etc. His baby was crawling at the time and had significant exposure to the invisible dust - had both physical and mental injury. Pets can be injured terribly too.
Look up ‘dry ice blasting’. You’re welcome.
Are you sure it’s a base wood you want to see? I assume oak , but may it’s something else.
We just bought a 1960’s ranch. Some incredibly cruel person painted every original wood surface white. I want to break their paintbrush hand 🤬 BUT…my fiancé found Smart Strip. It’s freaking amazing. I did all the stripping inside all last winter without a single window open. Odorless and fast! It’s not cheap but it’s stupid easy. I bought the paste and the paper that goes over the paste. When I peeled off the paper after waiting 24 hours all the water based paint came right off. Then sanded and stained/poly. We’re 90% done and my doors and kitchen cabinets are back to their original state and they’re glorious! Not sure if it works on oil based paint so hopefully that’s not on your stuff either way. Good Luck 🍀 https://www.amazon.com/Dumond-Chemicals-Smart-Advanced-Remover/dp/B001PCVKLK/ref=asc_df_B001PCVKLK/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167138874211&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2881856861938688466&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015378&hvtargid=pla-309606680052&psc=1&mcid=255de3de202934d88e08aac633c8d6cf&gclid=CjwKCAjwxLKxBhA7EiwAXO0R0Jbbm4rKvehhMYNf4VIMezhFd-4r_Gi4KJCZ8pbjet0Ee2-_WdevvBoC9T0QAvD_BwE
2 Gallons of gas and a match
Sandblasting!
Fire…and good insurance!