Installation of Posts for railings.

[HopsNBarley]

Hi all,

I am not new to newsgroups, but am new to rec.woodworking... I am contracting my own house out and I am at the stage where I am almost finish. I need however some information and knowing how useful newsgroups have been to me in the past, I thought I'd give this one a shot!

I am building what we in Canada (Well Windsor, On anyway) call a Raised Ranch, which just means that the basement is only in the groud 5 feet, and 3 above, so when you walk thru the front door, you have a landing (foyer) which you can go either upstairs or downstairs. This is rather big about

12x6. Now, above the landing on the upstairs, since it's open concept I need to put a railing there, I want to install railings myself. Now my problem is, I don't know if i need to install the Hardwood first then the railings or do I install the post first then the hard wood. I want to use rod iron for the spindles. The most important question is, How do you mount the poles to the floor so they are strong? The joists are Pre-engineered trusts 12" thick with 1/2 plywood on top. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Glenn

[J]

Railings and structural elements first. Flooring after. The structure of the landing needs to be designed to support the railing, and the railing has to resist a lateral (sideways) force. Talk to an engineer or an architect if you are not sure how to do this. There are dozens of different ways to do this.

-j

[HopsNBarley]

J writes

Thanks, any examples on the internet that you can think of off the top of your head...I've been searching all afternoon.

Glenn

[bridger]

and the manufacturer of the floor joists will have definite ideas about what does and does not constitute improper attachment to their product.