Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - painting old stained and varnish church pews

Trying to paint white old church pews. Have hired someone but don't think they know what they are doing. Really don't know how much prep work went into the preparation. The pews have been spray painted white but over some of them has been put a polyurethane spray and now the pews have a yellow cast. The object was to get them white with a finish that is durable and washable. HELP! HELP! Would like to know the proper steps in doing a project such as this.

you may not need to repaint the pews without the poly.

or you may wish to repaint them all first.

just depends on if you have enough of the original paint to repaint the ones that have been top coated with poly.

the ones that have the poly on them just need to be scuffed up and repainted.

then use a waterbased "floor" varathane,
its pretty tough and wont yellow.

it also drys quickly.

then use the varathane on all the pews that have not been top coated with the poly, bringing them to the same finish.

To paint them, clean them with mineral spirits to remove all grease and grime. Scuff sand the polyurethaned ones with 180 grit sandpaper. Prime them with Zinsser 123 to ensure bonding. Then paint with durable latex semi-gloss. Two coats are good for a long life. A protective coating beyond that of a top quality paint is unnecessary.