ᐅ Paint the steel staircase yourself or leave it to the painter?

Hello everyone,
we have purchased a newly built semi-detached house with steel staircases (basement, ground floor, first floor, attic). The stairs are still in their raw state and need to be painted.
We originally planned to do this ourselves to save costs, but that can only happen after the handover of the keys. The stairwell will already be finished by the painter beforehand.
What are your experiences? Is it worth doing it yourself? Of course, I don’t want to damage the fresh finish of the stairwell. Although we could still paint the stair treads.
Or is the cost-benefit ratio not favorable here because it is quite time-consuming and not so easy for a layperson?
There are a total of three staircases, and the painter wants nearly 3000 euros for the work.

I look forward to your suggestions and tips.

Christian

C.beckmann1986 schrieb:

Hello everyone,
we have purchased a newly built semi-detached house with steel staircases (basement, ground floor, first floor, attic). The stairs are still in their raw state and need to be painted.
Originally, we planned to do this ourselves to save costs, but it can only be done after the handover of the keys. The stairwell will be finished by the painter beforehand.
What are your experiences? Is it worth doing it yourself? Of course, I don’t want to ruin the freshly painted stairwell. Although we could still paint the temporary steps.
Or is the cost-benefit ratio not reasonable here because it is quite time-consuming and not so easy for a non-professional?
There are a total of three staircases, and the painter wants nearly 3000 euros for it.

Looking forward to your suggestions and tips.

Christian

The painting itself isn’t the problem; it’s the scraping, sanding, priming, and only then painting. Basically, you have to go over each staircase at least four times, if not more with an additional second coat.

Oh, and the steps have to be removed for that. That goes without saying, right?

And all this without drip edges and dust inclusions.

Done it once, never again. And that was only the ground floor/basement. It was the most frustrating task I did in the old house, and in the new house the painter will definitely handle it.

You have to keep in mind that during the work, the stairs are barely usable because either steps are missing or someone is in the way.

The price is quite reasonable for the number of stairs involved... I would also have a painter do that.

We did it ourselves, and it worked without any problems. You don’t have to sand them completely; it’s enough to lightly sand them by hand and then apply two coats of paint right away. It’s best to use a water-based paint, as that works well. I didn’t remove the risers either—you can easily paint around them since the “real” steps in our case were much larger (the final risers don’t need to be painted). The most important thing is to cover the walls thoroughly. We hung painter’s plastic sheeting from ceiling to floor to protect the walls. Costs: materials were at most 50 euros, plus a few hours of work. I would do it the same way again since it saves a lot.