In many homes, wooden handrails and large banisters are featured prominently in the interior design. Unfortunately, due to their intended use, these rails and banisters tend to wear down, chip, crack, or lose their colour over time. Many homeowners are unsure how to address these issues, but painting offers a viable solution. Sprayed lacquer, applied by a professional spray painting company, provides an excellent surface coating for refinishing and design purposes. Through a detailed procedure of cleaning, sanding, priming, filling, and spraying, even the oldest, most worn-down wooden banisters can look brand new with a vibrant, modern colour. This article will outline the general process involved in spraying a banister railing by a professional company, as well as the costs for an average-sized staircase from one floor to another. Spraying banisters differs significantly from spraying kitchen or bathroom cabinets and requires more laborious prep work and closer attention to containing dust and smell throughout the house.
Prepping a Staircase
For a typical banister railing that starts on the main floor and follows the staircase to a second floor, the prep is intensive. The surface area being sprayed is expansive, and the angles and small detail work can be difficult. Any open areas leading to other rooms must be blocked off, requiring a significant amount of floor coverage both downstairs and upstairs, surrounding any area nearby and underneath the banister where the spraying is aimed. If the floor is carpeted, the carpet edges are thoroughly taped off and everything is covered either with drop cloths or tear-resistant adhesive plastic. If the railing spindles are metal, for example, and are not being sprayed, they are meticulously taped and covered up. Any wall area adjacent to or around the banister is taped and covered with masking paper. Painter’s plastic is used to cover any furniture in the area, as well as to create poly walls to block hallways, other rooms, and conceal as much of the central area as is feasible. The prep phase may take a while for a large and detailed banister, but proper attention paid to that detail will yield the best results for a brand new-looking handrail.
Sanding and Spraying
This is where the fun begins. Once the flooring and surrounding area are sufficiently covered, the sanding phase can be started. Due to the fact that banisters and handrails are rarely flat, often being rounded or designed intricately, most of the sanding is done by hand. This enables the painters to access areas between the spindles, across the top of the rail and underneath, as well as in all the corners and detailed spots to ensure a consistent and flawless finish. If the spindles are being sprayed, each individual spindle is sanded and thoroughly checked for consistency. Once all surfaces have been cleaned, sanded, and dusted off, the priming phase can be initiated. Two separate coats of primer are often applied by many professionals, with a fine-detail filling stage in between, as the primer reveals more blemishes and flaws. The primed banister is then thoroughly hand-sanded again, ensuring a consistently smooth finish regardless of where it is touched. Now the final coats are ready to be applied, requiring the highest attention to detail and accuracy. The irregular spray angles and all the tricky areas make banisters one of the tougher in-home spraying projects to complete. However, with proper procedures and professional-level attention to detail, the final coats of color will make even the oldest handrails appear brand new with a smooth, consistent, flawless lacquer finish.
De-prep and Final Product
Once the lacquer has sufficiently dried, all the prep tape, paper, and poly can be removed to reveal clean and sharp lines, untouched flooring and walls, and a striking, new-looking banister railing. The banister, which used to be dated, chipped, and worn, drawing attention towards its faults, is now completely fixed and refinished. It has been given a modern, vibrant colour that changes the feel of the home’s entire interior space. As for cost, a starting point would be around $2000 for the average banister that runs from one floor to another. However, prices will fluctuate depending on the complexity of the banister, the sizing and surface area involved, and the level of prep required. Each project is unique, but $2000 is a good starting point to envision what your home may look like featuring an all-new vibrant colour scheme on your banister.