Are rosettes necessary for wall handrail installation ?
philvos
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Hi,
Is it necessary to use rosettes when installing a 8′ wall mounted handrail on a staircase over drywall. The hand rail will have a quarter turn wall returns on each end. If rosettes are necessary, then where to install them? under wall brackets ONLY or at the wall returns or both? I prefer not to install them but my concern is potential damage to the drywall where brackets or rail will be touching the wall due to regular wear and tear especially considering that children are present.
I search on-line but could not find a straightforward answer. Some install them some don’t.
Please advise.
Thank you.
Replies
How badly are you planning to botch the bracket install?
Wanna make it right, "perfect" sort of speak, that's why I asked the question :-)
We typically install bracket right to the drywall. On heavy use projects (like shared stairs of an apartment building) we install a continuous board to follow the rail all the way with no interruption and mount to that. We router the edge of the board to finish off nicely. It looks a lot better than rosettes everywhere and is stronger. It’s kind of nice b/c you can install the brackets anywhere, just need to make sure the board is nailed to the stud.
Thank you!
Not at all necessary unless you're using an unusually wide hand rail and you need to maintain finger space between it and the wall.
An "unusually wide" handrail that did not allow finger space between it and the wall would not meet code...which makes it a moot point in terms of an exceptional condition.
That's a good point, although around here, such things are often ignored.
Thank you!