Wood Handrail Q?
 

Hey guys,

I'm putting on hand rails for my basement project. My stairs take a 90 degree turn as seen in the picture below. When I put the railing in, should i make it one continuous piece and miter the corner, or make it two pieces?

hope this makes sense.
http://i39.tinypic.com/28b8zr8.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/33wp7x0.jpg

One continuos rail would be best, but if you do it in 2 sections you will probably be required to do a return at each end.

Yes. One continuoius piece will look nicer,but it will take more skill to build. If 2 pieces, you need to return them to the wall to meet codes. You can buy standard fittings to accomplish the 1 piece build. There are some good resources on the web to learn more. Search stair building codes. Also visit LJSmith.com. They have a good stair and handrail building guide.

I would keep it continues, people who need the handrail would rather keep their hands on something the entire journey up or down the stairs.

Hey thanks for all your replies.

I would want to make it one continuous railing, but there doesn't seem to be a way to miter an outside corner on an angle like that.


Any ideas?

What do you mean by standard fittings?

people do it all the time. Compound miter saw or buy fitings. Google stair railings and you will find pictures. You can also buy fiittings for making turns. You can see them on the LJSmith web site. Doing this is actually very common. Using premade fittings will give you a nice curved turn. You can even buy everything at the big box home centers.

I have looked online for a few hours today and cannot find anyone that shows how to make an outside corner turn down stairs. any insight into this?

HEre are some fittings
http://www.stairwarehouse.com/6010-p...-fittings.html

application aexample
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...26tbs%3Disch:1

http://greeffsteelworx.yellowpages.c...and%20rail.JPG

Hit the library. There are plenty of good books on building ballustrade (hand railing).

you could do it several ways.

1. use a quarter turn (90 degree) fitting.

2. combination of 90 degree turns and over and under eases. Eases are a type fitting.

3. custom compound miters. Usual approach is to use fittings though.

Remember that building custom ballustrade is one of the more difficult fields of carpentry. It requires perfect cuts and measurements. You might want to get it quoted unless you really want to do it yourself.

if the city is going to inspect this job and if they require a continus wall rail, then you are gonna have to do it via miters, and if this is a simple wall rail then will be a lot easier you can ret a way in doing it in 2 sections and each wall rail you can return each end with 45* degree miter cut return it to the wall, by the way the wall rail has to be a least 1 1/2 a way from the finished wall.

hey thanks, I am def going to do this in 2 sections. i don't see a way that i would be able to do it on continuous section.

look at the picure link I attached. It is your same application. You can do it. but 2 pieces would make it very easy.

this is the real thing that you have to do is simple