Installing Stair Railings? Friend Or Foe?

Two Brothers

What's up guys?
I'M taking on a Staircase project.

I've never done this type of work before.
Just wanted to know if you guys knew of a website that might have video that would give me some tips on the proper way to install
Railings and Balusters?

The stairs are done they have iron railings, the Homeowner wants me to remove those and install new oak railings.


thanks!

wink

the book, Constructing Staircases, Balustrades & Landings by William P. Spence, Sterling Publishing. Might help a little, was only $15.00 when i bought it a while back. it's not the best you can by but i think it will give you an idea. the rest of the guys here may know of better. good luck with your railing.sure glad you didn't ask how much to charge.

wink

as an afterthought, and i don't say this as an insult to your skills, if you have never done this, it is one of those things you may want to include in your bid, paying a stair guy to come in and you watch how he does things. oak railings can get pretty costly if you happen to get ahead of yourself and make a mistake.i think,( and these are just my thoughts), this is one of those tasks that are better learned through experience and training by a knowledgeable person. just my 2 cents, remember to post pictures

Trimwerx

Just think for a while about it and you'll figure it out. And don't cut the railings until you've thought 3 times about it. No more, no less. 3 is the number that you shall think. And the number shall be 3.

BKFranks

Here's where I order my stair parts. Mainly because they have a huge wearhouse nearby and I can pick them up will-call. They have a catalog that practically tells you how to install stairs and railings.
http://www.ljsmith.com/

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troubleseeker

Along the thoughts of Wink... How complicated a railing is it. With some thought, you should easily be able to get through a straight run, newel to newel. If it is an over the top of the newel style, with gooseneck risers and direction changes at landings, the cuts can be pretty tricky for a learning project. And like mentioned, you don't want to have too many "scrap" lengths of oak railing, or miscut $65 fittings. Search the Fine Homebuilding and Journal of Light Construction sites. They have had some pretty good articles on stairs over time.
You will become aware of a lot of potential mistakes and be able to avoid them if you tape a roll of brown paper to the opposite stair wall and lay everything out full size before you do any cutting. It is a lot cheaper to erase a pencil line than chunk a 10' piece of rail aside.

peter Metka

being trained in Germany and living in New Zealand I can tell you how it is done here, in case you can't find a good web site for it.
Doing it properly is time consuming, so keep that in mind when you price the job.
Let us know how you are getting on, good luck Piet

piet@orcon.net.nz