Staircase varnish removal

[mistymoon]

How do I remove a dark varnish from my staircase and bannister ? I want to now paint it white.

[Mr Peele]

I'm not sure!

I have recently tried to remove a very thick varnish from some door frames and have failed miserably. I used nitro-mors, this just took forever and i nearly passed out from the fumes. Then i tried a blow torch (not recommended) it had the same effects, producing a lot of evil fumes and gunging up my scraper.

If it is reasonably thin, Nitro-mors may work!

[theonlyone]

Try a hot air gun , and scrape , scrape ,scrape , hard work but better than Nitromors , better still get someone else to do it for you !!!

[6758]

can u not just sand it lightly and paint over it?

[cleversod]

As 6758 says sand down just lightly hoover the dust up and give it two coats of under coat. and then two coats of gloss , make sure you leave to dry after each coat.