I am going to paint all my staircase parts except the treads and railings will be stained. I will be able to do this before instal. Do you all sand (what grit?)after every coat? Primer and two coats or three?What will give me the best finish? The wood is beech. thanks
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Depends on the level of finish you want.
Why not spray before you install, fill nail holes and paint on the final coat?
thanks for your thoughts.
Either a shellac based or acrylic latex based primer. The shellac based primer has the advantage of not raising the grain. (Shellac based primer is shellac with white pigment.) You'll only need to sand lightly with something around 150 grit or so. Shellac dries fast and sands easily.
I believe you can buy shellac based primers in spray cans, which would make priming the spindles much easier.
If the final color will be dark the store can add some tint to the primer to darken it.
Top coats should be acrylic latex. Probably a gloss or semigloss finish would be best, but it's a matter of aesthetics -- whatever you like. You may or may not need to sand between coats. You only need to sand if you get a rough surface on the first coat. You don't need to sand between coats to improve adhesion. One coat never produces a good, even covering. Two coats should be enough unless you have a challenging color like bright red. If you do sand, let the first coat dry thoroughly, at least overnight.
It is worth it to spend the money on quite a good quality synthetic bristle brush for the top coats, the finish will turn out better.
If you get all the treads in without needing any touch up you'd be lucky.