I’m building a new two story salt box style home with a straight stairway to the upstairs. At the top of the stairs, there will be an open railing wraping around the second story hallway looking down to the main level.
I’m looking for much needed help on framing the stairs to make railing installation the easiest. The stairs will have carpet on them, and I don’t need to have the treads showing on the ends. Any photos, links, etc… to the details of this framing would be greatly appreciated.
Also, any tips/suggestions to anchoring the railing to the stairs and second story floor to make it sturdy would be appreciated.
upnorthframer
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!!!”
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Not sure if i understand the Q, but if wood railings, the turned newels from AJSmith, Coffin, and other makers are available in different lengths so you can lagg them into the framing.
Google "stair parts" They have design assistance at the sites to help you select the right stuff when you order. If you are just using 4x4s then you still gain from their education
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Heres a picture to get things started. Unfortunately, this does not have an open rail up top. The rail is only open on one side for the first five treads.
The stairs shown will get a carpet wrap on the ends of the treads where the rail sits.
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Thanks for the pictures/input. Would it make sense to frame a wall next to the stairs with the top plate having the same slope as the stairs to attach the railings to? Or do i need to make my stairs wider than 36" so I can screw the railing system to the treads? This is where I am really confused?
Any good stair railing packages from HD or Menards?
upnorthframer
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!!!"
either way works fine just depends on your taste but if you're looking for easy a wall next to the stairs for the spindles to set on is the way to go.
thanks mikeroop, do you have any pictures/diagrams of this method? Framing and finished product?
upnorthframer
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!!!"
somewhere on paper will see if i can find and scan then in i seen basswood at the fest and know he has one he did recently maybe when he gets home he will post his as well.
hey brian did you already post the pictures of the stairway you showed me at the fest?
it looks nie to me when the stairs are wide enough for hte railing lands on the stairs. Tried to pretty up an abomination where the framers made the top of the angles wall not on the same angle of the stairs and neither the left or right side matched. Even in the end of reframing and rerocking the walls it was fugly.
i've never used this method but i've kept the thought... only saw it once... where they used metal pickets/balasters each one had a lag bolt welded to the bottom of it... and the guy just pre drilled the holes and screwed them in... the tops of them were square and fit into round holes on the bottom side of the wood handrail... with about every 4th one have'n a small flange to run a screw into the handrail...
now this guy had done this before and had his stuff layed out and marked pretty well but he was done in about 4 hours... all of it was prepainted and finished so... i don't know his prep time... but the install went fast...
p
framing will usually be the same no matter what finish materials you use. Stair building takes a lot of skill and experience, so be sure that you want to get into it. One good idea that I like, that has never been realized on the projects I've done, is to extend that upper newel to the ceiling to make it rock-solid. This method could also be applied to pony walls in general, bottom newels . . . I've been suggesting this for years to my employer, but it always seems to be written off due to design or material considerations. My impression is that the things we do aren't that 'designed' to begin with so why not do something that would be faster and easier than engineering a sturdy post (more like regular framing), incorporate it asthetically and spend the same or less on materials? But people don't like doing different things. Thanks all for the space to vent.
Brian