What's The Safest Way To Reach High Walls When Painting Your Staircase?

Updating your staircase area is a great way to add cohesion and elegance to your space. However, painting a staircase or stairwell is a tad more complicated than painting a regular wall. Aside from choosing the best paint colors for your staircase, you'll also need to strategize on how to safely paint precarious architectural features. Namely, to safely paint high walls, you should avoid ladders and rely on extra-long paint roller poles instead.

One of the biggest safety risks when painting your staircase and stairwell is reaching the highest part of the wall. Due to the inherently vertical nature of stairs, many homes have high walls along the sides of the staircase. This is especially true of homes with high ceiling styles, such as vaulted or cathedral. If you find yourself craning your neck way back when inspecting a stairwell that needs painting, it's time to invest in some height-oriented painting supplies. 

When it comes to painting stairwells and other staircase elements, ladders are usually a bad idea. There's a risk that a ladder will fall over if you put it on a single step or tiny landing, and any elaborate setups with planks or platforms are best left to the professionals. To avoid a potentially serious injury, keep your feet firmly planted on the ground and use your tools, not your body, to reach the top of a high stairwell.

That said, paint roller extension poles are easy to find online or at in-person stores. For instance, this extension pole from The Home Depot can go as high as 16 feet and is available for under $100. Most extension poles are simple to use and can be attached by screwing the pole into the end of the paint roller handle. If you're trying to reach high-up edges or corners that can't be properly painted with a traditional roller, consider purchasing some specialty paint pads. A rectangular pad like Mr. LongArm's Paint Edger from Amazon can be attached to a pole and will line up nicely with straight edges and 90-degree angles. Although a particularly long paint roller pole can be challenging to maneuver, it's a much safer option than balancing a ladder on a low step. So next time you're painting a stairwell or any other high wall, for that matter, put safety first and stick to using an extension pole.