Painting in a stairway can be very difficult especially if the wall is over 12 feet high. Many of the new homes have entryways with that have 20 foot ceilings with stairs going up to the next level. How do you paint a wall that high where there are stairs? How do you cut in at that top edge where the wall meets the ceiling? How about doing a faux finish where you have lots of materials that you need to do the job but it all will not fit on a ladder?
photo credit: Architecture & Food
Well, recently we had a question by one of our readers who asked about painting in a stairway -
“How do you paint that top part of the side wall the goes up the stairs. I was not sure if a ladder would be stable enough or do you use a roller with a extended handle? How do you paint the top edge?”
There are a few options that I would like to share with you.
1. Ladder & Paint Can – This is an old trick that is really NOT very safe, but if you have someone at the bottom holding the ladder for you, then this may work for something simple like cutting in. You would lean the ladder up against the wall – one leg on a step and one leg on a paint can on another step. I always wrap the ends that hit the wall with rags so the ladder doesn’t cause any indentations in the wall. You can then use a roller with a long extension pole to paint up to the area that you cut in.
1. SCAFFOLDING - The BEST means of painting within a stairwell are to use baker’s scaffolding. This is a scaffolding that is used mostly indoors. It comes in 6 foot high stackable tiers. The 2 ends can adjust and fit nicely on the stairs with the plank section level in the middle. You will most likely need to use 2 tiers to get up to the ceiling. You can also use a small ladder on the scaffolding to get a little higher – but you will need to make sure that you are very careful doing this. It can be pretty scary at that height. Scaffolding can be bought or you can rent it by the day from any local rental supply store.
Industrial Mobile Stackable Scaffolding Scaffold – 1000 Lb Load Capacity
Scaffolding is a must when doing a faux finish in a stairway. It can be difficult to maneuver a ladder especially with all of the materials that you will need to do the job. They do have special attachable trays for ladders than can carry more so if you are daring enough to use a ladder, you may want to look into that.
3. Ladder & Plank – You may need to get a bit creative with this method. Here are a few picture examples that I found on www.do-it-yourself-help.com.
As you can see in the first picture, they leaned the ladder up against the actual wall right from the stairs. But again, be sure to have someone holding the ladder for you in case of an accident.
In the second picture, you will see that a few different sized ladders were used with planks in between. You must be very careful if you are going to do this on your own.
Here is a great video on how to paint in stairwell. They use the ladder and plank method.
