Banister baserail with 24mm groove?

[robkingston]

I am in the process of redecorating my stairway, where a previous occupant had removed all the spindles from the banisters, boarded over the gap with hardboard and covered the lot with white gloss.

I've taken off the hardboard panels and stripped the gloss paint off to reveal perfectly good pine newel posts and handrail, and I want to fit new spindles. Unfortunately, the handrail has a 24mm groove, not the

32mm or 41mm which seems to be standard nowadays, and there is no baserail.

I have tracked down 24mm spindles but cannot find a 24mm grooved baserail anywhere. When I asked in one of the sheds they said I should just use an ungrooved baserail, but that doesn't seem very satisfactory. I was also thinking of getting a 32mm baserail and cutting the top ends of the spindles to fit into the 24mm groove but that seems a lot of work and difficult to do accurately.

Anyone got any ideas where I can find a 24mm baserail?

Thanks, Rob

[auctions]

Why not use 32mm and fit a piece of 4mm square pine in either side.

A

[Stuart Noble]

On the old staircases I've seen the spindles are just skew nailed at the bottom.

[Andy Hall]

Did they hardboard panel the doors and the fireplaces as well?

Why do people do this and plaster paint over perfectly good wood?

This would be a job for a small local joinery firm, either using a spindle moulder or other machinery.

Also, it's not beyong reach of a decent router table and router. You could quite easily make the groove in a couple of passes and even add whatever edge shape you want. The main challenge would be making sure the table is properly secured in position and handling the piece of wood through it (because of the length).