Staircase oiling & painting project.

This project we recently completed in Pudsey, Leeds was part of a larger project in the same property. The full job also included prepping and decorating the walls, ceilings and wood work in the entrance porch, living room, under stairs cupboard, hall, stairs and landing, bathroom, loft hatch and also oiling five new oak doors.

The staircase element was a labour of love as it was an existing staircase with dark varnish that had new oak elements and new spindles added by a local joiner. The oak was being oiled and the existing dark varnished areas and spindles were to be painted white. We started by sanding, filling and prepping the areas of dark varnish ready for paint. Once that was done the spindles had to be masked off at the top and bottom to avoid any oil getting onto the fresh bare wood that was due to be painted.

We then brushed three coats of Osmo Polyx Oil into the new oak elements. Once those coats were dried and cured it was onto de-masking the spindles. We then masked off the newly oiled oak elements ready for painting the rest of the staircase.

The next job was to prime all the wood with Haftprimer adhesion primer which sticks well to previously varnished areas. This was done with an airless paint sprayer. Once complete any areas that were showing tannins bleeding through were stain blocked with Zinsser BIN.

Next was two airless sprayed topcoats in Tikkurila Everal Aqua 40 which is a hard wearing, satin finish enamel paint that is perfect for spraying and great for this project.

The last thing to do once the paint was dry was to carefully remove the masking to reveal the final result.

• Airless Spray Painting, Brush, Q1 Masking Tapes

• Bare Oak - Osmo Polyx Oil

• Adhesion Primer - Caparol Haftprimer

• Stain Blocking - Zinsser BIN

• Wood Topcoats - Tikkurila Everal Aqua 40

The trickiest part on this job was the masking. To protect the bare wood spindles from the oil they had to be masked at the top and bottom. With them being cut at an angle at both ends this took some time to do.

Once the oiling was done the freshly oiled oak elements then had to be masked off to protect those from the paint spray at the next stage. Again, this took some time to do.

The top of the staircase also had a small return which was not the easiest to get your hand into to mask, brush or spray, but as with anything it just needed to be done methodically to make sure the end result was a good one.

When spraying paint the masking stage can seem to take a long time, however once it’s done it means that the areas to be painted can be sprayed in minutes rather than hours (or even days) so the time spent masking is gained back once you get to painting. The finish is also unmatched by brush or roller if done well so it’s most definitely worth it.

This project, with all the other work being done at the same time, was a lengthy one but the client was over the moon with the final result. She sent us this feedback afterwards:

‘Thanks so much Tom, I can’t believe how good it looks. I can’t stop looking at the staircase, that’s so sad isn’t it. I’ll recommend you to everyone now, you’re going to be so busy ha!’

See our instagram @yesdecor_social to view the results for yourself.