One of the studios where I work asked me to build them a railing for a staircase. I have never done this before and I’m having a hard time finding a tutorial or anything. I was hoping some members could give me some pointers/advice/etc.
It’s in an open space, not a home, but this pic illustrates almost exactly what the stairs I will be working on look like. I do have access to the underside as well.
does that even pass code?
i just did this at my house a few months back, if i remember i will grab some pics and post up how i did i tomorow.
Handrailings are probably one if the most difficult things we do. You need to do a fair amount of pre planning and I would not recommend it if you are not familiar with this type of work.
I just did a quick google search and found a ton of info. This link should give you some ideas of what is involved. This is quite a simple setup, you may have to make yours a bit less “rustic” as it is a commercial space.
A business hiring someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to install a major safety device. What could go wrong? 
Just make sure it’s solid when you’re done. Railings are important, and they’re easy to do wrong so that forces don’t get transferred properly.
Thanks for the tips so far. I don’t have access to a lot of those tools… only basic hand and power tools. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this after all I didn’t realize there was so much involved in doing this.
i think all you will need is a chop saw, angled nailer, wood glue (if it’s wood), screw gun, drill
all the posts are the same height , you just need the materials. building a staircase is a lot harder than building the rail
Well jeeze, you should’ve said before that they didn’t care if it looked good or was even evenly spaced for that matter. haha. function > form I suppose right?
looks scarey
It’s the best that could be done with the spacing. For some reason the cam-phone shots make the actual rail look warped.
It’s far more sturdy than it looks. The wood supports are very thick and they’re each being held in by 2 heavy duty bolts.
No, I mean you have the uprights 3 treads apart up top, but only 2 treads apart on bottom. Wassupwitdat?
Hahahahha, this is awesome.
Oh boy…
That’s got to be the least professional thing I have ever seen lol.
submit this to ThereIFixedIt
LOL. why bother drywalling the side of the staircase if you’re just going to bolt 2x6’s onto the side and a metal bar for a railing? you could have made a SUPER nice railing with some basic 1" square stock, some steel plate, and a welder that would look WAY WAY WAY nicer and artsy that those 2x6’s and keep the metal railing (by also welding).
the way I would have done it…is drill holes through the tread so that you could pass some metal tubing through the tread and have it end up about 1/8" or so away from the diagonal joist the treads are mounted to…the weld those tubes to an 1/8" metal plate and use those same huge bolts to mount it to the joist in the same fashion you did there, but with eveything on the other side of the joist so you can’t see it from the outside. cut the tubes to proper length, and then drill at the correct angle the diameter hole of the tubes into the railing so that it slides over the tubes, then weld the joints and be done…cool looking railing doing similar to what you have done there. You could make like I mention and put one of them every other tread for a cool industrial look.
here: schematic lol.
Dear God. That’s really fucking poor.
The last two steps don’t count? How much of the 1 1/2" inch thick wood did you have to notch out to fit it to the step?
staircat does not approve
