All,
I have a traditional 1930's semi with 1970's panel staircase. I am about to embark on ripping out the panels and installing spindles and a new handrail. Before anyone asks, no the original spindles are not behind the panels unfortunately.
Does anyone have any advice on the steps involved or can point me towards some instrutions? Is it DIY'able or should I get someone in (bearing in mind I am a fairly inexperienced woodworker)?
Any advice greatly appreciated!!! Thanks
SPC
That's a shame. So many people panelled their stairs for the sake of fashion but they didn't need to remove the rails :-( . It does cut down on the dusting (if you're bothered about that) but it also cuts down the light and airy feel of the place. I hate the enclosed feeling of the panelled stairs, I'd rather not have any barrier at all than a solid one.
Go ahead and do it. You can buy ready made spindles, I reckon it shouldn't be difficult and someone round here will be able to tell you how even if the instructions don't come with the pack.
Our rails are simple four square ones in groups of three. I prefer those to fancy ones bcause of the dust ...
Mary
It's very straightforward but would be tedious without an electric mitre saw. You can buy all the bits (spindles, newels, base rail, hand rail, etc) from a number of sources including the sheds, Richard Burbridge are well known but there are others. There are different ways to fix the handrail to the newels, some easier and some more traditional. I've seen a good "how to" leaflet on the web somewhere but can't find it now - try spending some time with google. It's worth doing, we had an 80s ranch style staircase with square newels
- yeuk.
might be useful.
Some of the sheds often have freebie Richard Burbridge brochures with installation advice. I've seen them in B&Q and Focus.
I tried for around a year to get a carpender. I did get one which eventually came along and measured up, but then never saw him again. Eventually I did it myself, and although I'd not done serious carpentry (such as mortice and tenon joints) since I was at school many years ago, it all came back quickly after a couple of practice runs in some offcuts.
A tip... Buy the timber and leave it standing in the stairwell for some time (6 weeks in my case, but that included the thick newel posts) so it gets all its shrinking and warping done at the right humidity before you start converting it into banisters/splindles. I bought nearly twice as much timber as I needed for the balustrades, which meant I could select the best straight and unsplit sections to use when it had finished drying out. In my case, I was installing newel posts from scratch too, and I didn't want any further shrinkage after they were bolted to the floor joists, which would have made the now inaccessible nuts and bolts loose (which hasn't happened, glad to say).
There's a Richard Burbridge video which is quite useful for showing you how to handle cuts at the stair angles which was £5 from B&Q at the time. It or their leaflets (can't recall which) also covered the legal aspects such as balustrade spacing and handrail height. The £5 is refunded if you buy their parts, but I didn't -- except for the handrail, I made the newel posts balustrades, etc from plain timber. If you are not up to mortice and tenon joins, then there are metal brackets available to join handrails to newel posts although I haven't tried them, and you might find it easier to replace the handrails than to try and use the ones you have.
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