Fitting a stair Balustrade

[Thomarse]

Hi,

I currently have a very ugly circa 1980's? stair balustrade with three wide "planks" of wood which run in parallel to the angle of the stairs. I want to replace these with spindles and a new Balustrade to restore some charachter back to the house.

The problem is that the current 3 planks are attached to the inside of the newel posts and so run right the way from the bottom to the landing. The landing, like most victorian terraces goes back on itself at 180 degrees. So the floor of the landing is above the ceiling in the hall downstairs (very hard to explain, but the photos should make it a bit clearer). Now I want to fit spindles, these will sit in line with the middle of the newal post, but this line means that they will disappear into the ceiling (see photos). This will also be the case for the balustrade. I know there is a way of doing this, as I have seen it before, but I cant recall how.

Has anyone done a similar thing or have any advice on what to do. Obviously if it was newal post to newal post it would be straight forward, but I dont kwno how to attach to the ceiling securly and neatly, also what will I have for a handrail above where it disappears into the ceiling?!

any advice gratefully recieved... photos are here:

[Andrew Gabriel]

Have you got neighbours with same design of house? Could you check if they have their original balustrade?

An 1870 house I know simply has the handrail vanishing into the ceiling at this point, and there is no further handrail. You could attach a pig's ear rail to the wall on the other side.

[Franko]

I had the same problem with my stairs, I have attached a link below to a quick snap of my effort at getting around this - hope it is of some help ... please ignore the artex as it is on my list of jobs to plaster over it :)

[John Rumm]

The spindles can be cut down - the trick is to take a bit out the middle of them though so you keep the progression of the bases sections matching.

The handrail can have a quarter cut longitudinally out of its profile and fitted to the ceiling such that it carries on along from where the handrail meets the ceiling.

The pictures are not ideal, but you might be able to make out what I did on mine: