Should I strip away the chipping paint around my stairs in my 100-year-old home, or is patching enough for the smooth soft texture underneath?
Asked by Ceyhan Özkara 
2 months ago
Last Updated: October 31, 2024
I’m currently tackling some projects on my super old home, and one of them involves repainting the entire upstairs. There’s some chipping paint happening around the stairs, and I’m debating whether I should strip off all the layers or just patch it up. The texture underneath is really smooth and soft. What do you think I should do?
I wouldn’t recommend trying to patch it. The patch would end up very thin and might not hold. Instead, sand down the edges until they blend perfectly with the rest of the paint. One trick is to mix the patching material with paint to thicken it, then apply a couple of coats after the primer, of course.
Sure, go ahead and remove anything that’s loose. Then, you can decide whether to spot prime the exposed areas or sand down the scraped paint edges until smooth.
Some people might think it looks bad, but many older surfaces have that scraped look, not perfectly smooth, and were painted over. In fact, my 80-year-old house has them all over, so I don’t bother trying to make them all smooth.
Visit any historical site in the US, and you’ll likely see painted wood that looks just like that.
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