hello, what is the best way to strip my outdoor stairs and re paint them?
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop @sharynritchie. It's marvellous to have you join us and many thanks for your question on painting concrete.
It would be extremely difficult, and realistically almost impossible, to fully strip the paint from these stairs, especially from the rough non‑slip treads where the texture traps the coating. You might be able to remove some of the smoother internal areas with a paint stripper, but it would require a lot of effort for limited payoff.
The easiest and most effective approach is to start by blasting off any loose or flaking paint with a pressure washer if you have one. After that, scrape away any remaining loose areas. On the internal faces where the paint is peeling, lightly sand the damaged sections to smooth out the edges so you remove the lippage between the intact coating and the exposed concrete.
Once prepped, you can use a primer designed to bond to previously painted, weathered concrete surfaces, such as Rust‑Oleum’s Recoat Primer. After priming, simply finish the stairs with a durable outdoor concrete coating like Rust‑Oleum Battleship Grey concrete and garage floor paint. This method gives you a clean, long‑lasting finish without the huge workload of trying to strip the stairs back to bare concrete.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
