Railings

[Feldaspar]

Hi,

I have just built a small landing out the front of the house we are renovating. I want to put timber railings between the posts.

See the picture,

want to put railings between 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 (four is the wall). Between 2 and 3 is where the stairs will be.

I want to put the railings between the posts (not on top). My question is how do you attach them to the posts? I need a solution where you dont have to go from the opposite side of the post (cause I have to put it in to the wall).

Thank you for your help!

[mm]

I want to put railings between 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 (four is the wall).

YOu're only talking agout 4 right?

You could use toe-nails, nails put in at an angle, from the side usually, first through the rail and then the post.

You could use a right-angle bracket, but do that nicely. A neighbor had a deck made and the jerk used wide galvanized brackets all over the place, and maybe one wouldn't see them but it's a deck and half the time people more than a foot down and looking up at the top rail. It looks terrible. But one bracket painted brown with the nail heads brown or painted brown wouldn't look too bad. Oh, yeah, he didn't get the nails in straight either, so the heads didn't lay evenly on the bracket. I asked him his prices when he was just starting, but made a point to see the deck after it was done. Terrible. I don't think the owners even notice what's wrong.

And my favorite, for originality, if nothing else, you could in the front half horizontally of the timber and the post, drill a hole and put in a double screw-ended wood screw, use a wrench or vice-grips to get it started in the post, make sure it's going into both, then twist the timber to tighten it and lock it in place with a toe-nail in the back side. I haven't done this and don't know how hard it would be to get it to come out just right. The big advantage would be no sign of a toe-nail from the front.

I'll bet there are other ideas.

If you haven't done toe-nails before, and gotten good at them, I'd suggest drilling the holes in both pieces, somewhat narrower than the nails. It will prevent splitting, but more importantly, it will keep the nails from going off course. Use a nail set to seat the nails so there are no hammer marks. Oh yeah, the guys who did that deck left a lot of those, too. (Guys, will those swell and disappear? It's been a couple years. I should go check.) I can imagine my neighbors recommending these guys, and my being disgusted, depressed and angry after they did my job. There is no substitute for looking at the work a contractor has done, at least wrt to mistakes that can be seen.

Maybe you could use long thin screws instead of toe-nails.

I've never done this stuff to the standards I have now, but plan to build a deck this summer.

Yours looks good.

BTW, if you want the stairs to land on the sidewalk, since the sidewalk bends, I think you'll have to make a little triangular platform between the two posts. Not so hard.

[willshak]

I want to put railings between 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 (four is the wall).

I used 3" deck screws "toe-nailed" into the posts from the bottom of the rails. I drilled pilot holes to make life easier.

[Goedjn]

> I want to put railings between 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 (four is the wall).

Mortises. Cut a 2" deep hole exactly the shape of the rail in the posts against the wall. Cut an identical hole all the way through the posts flanking the stairs. Slide the railing through and put a screw down from the top of the posts, and cover it with a post-cap.

What the hell is with post 4?

--Goedjn the post at each end.

[willshak]

>> I want to put railings between 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 (four is the wall).

Are you telling me that I should undo what I have done and do it your way?

[RicodJour]

Cutting a through mortise where the exposed end is facing the stairs?

It's not installed yet. He leaned it up against the house so you'd get the idea.

To the OP: There are many ways to do it, some more attractive or easier to do than others. In your situation I'd probably use some railing brackets on the lower rail (since you don't have the clearance from below and toe-screws from above don't look that great), and toe- screw from underneath the upper rail. You local lumber yard or a big box store will have rail brackets for vinyl or composite railings and you can use those.

R

[mm]

>>> I want to put railings between 1 - 2 and 3 - 4 (four is the wall).

I thought he was talking to the OP, who hasn't done anything yet. It may take getting used to but a lot of people are addressing the OP, even if they don't address him by name.

Sometimes they snip the text of the person they hang their reply on and sometimes they don't, especially if they want to keep the stuff before his stuff.