Staircase Painters in Marlow | Marlow Decorators

Georgian staircases in Marlow’s townhouse and terrace stock have turned timber spindles with a slender profile and distinct turning detail at the top and base. After decades of periodic painting without stripping back, the paint accumulation at the turning channels obscures the profile and produces a lumpen spindle that reads poorly against a freshly decorated hallway.

Stripping spindles correctly means using a combination of heat and chemical solvent at the turning channels, then fine-sanding by hand down the length of each spindle to restore the original profile. On a standard period staircase with twenty-four to thirty-six spindles, this process takes a full day before any primer is applied. Original timber staircases in central Marlow and on the Henley Road corridor are the most common source of this work.

Original turned newel posts in Marlow properties are typically turned and sometimes carved at the cap. They carry more paint than spindles because of their larger surface area. Paint accumulation on the carved or moulded cap detail is the most common failure point on period staircases.

Your decorator strips back to sound timber at the cap and turned sections, repairs any damage at the base where the newel meets the string-board, and primes with a suitable wood primer. The finish coat on an original turned newel post is typically gloss or eggshell depending on client preference and the existing hallway scheme. We advise at the site visit if any structural repair at the newel base requires a joiner before painting can proceed.

1900s-era staircases in Marlow’s pre-war housing stock combine painted string-boards with stained or painted treads. The string-board runs the full length of the staircase on the open side and carries visible wear at the tread junction and at the base where foot traffic and cleaning cause deterioration.

Your decorator sands the string-board back to a sound surface, fills any dents or chips at tread junctions, primes, and applies two finish coats. The junction between string-board and tread nose is finished cleanly to produce a sharp line. Where the staircase also includes hallway painting work, the string-board programme is coordinated to avoid any colour clash at the junction.

The majority of Marlow Decorators’ staircase painting work is commissioned alongside a hallway repaint. The staircase and hallway share the same visual field in most Marlow properties, and mismatched finish quality between them is immediately visible.

We coordinate the staircase and hallway programmes into a single visit schedule where possible, completing the spindle stripping before the walls are decorated and returning for the staircase finish coats after the hallway walls are dry. This avoids any risk of overspray or brush-off from the spindle coats landing on freshly decorated walls. For the hallway elements of a combined programme, see our hallway painting page.

Some Marlow townhouse staircases, particularly in the conservation area, have carved rather than turned spindles with a flat face and chamfered edges. These spindles require a different stripping approach to round-section turned spindles. The flat face can be worked with a flat scraper; the chamfer edge needs care to preserve the corner profile.

Your decorator assesses spindle type and carving detail at the site visit. Carved period balustrade spindles take longer to strip than standard turned spindles of the same height, and the quote reflects this. The result is a staircase balustrade where the original profile is legible after decoration, not buried under paint.