# redoing the railing in a split-foyer



## Just Bill (Dec 21, 2008)

The short wall with the wood top should be easy, depending on how much you leave for the step finish trim. Not sure about the high wall, I suspect it is load bearing. You need some on site expert advice for that.


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## AndyH24 (Mar 18, 2010)

well on the short wall I'd like to do something like this









on the big wall, I only want to remove the upper part down to finished floor.


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## justincase123 (Oct 24, 2010)

I agree with Bill you probably will have to put in a beam for support if you try and remove the tall wall because it looks to be load-bearing to me as well. You need to definitely have a structural professional look at it before removing any part of it.


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## AndyH24 (Mar 18, 2010)

Well it's been a year and I finally got around to doing this project! I thought I would update you all with some pictures. Here's is a link to my picasa album.

https://picasaweb.google.com/AndyHawks/RailingUpgrade?authuser=0&feat=directlink

I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Let me know what you all think!

Thanks!
Andy


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## Ler0y Jenkins (May 5, 2008)

Andy, 

That looks great! I wanna do the same style railing. I don't have the half-wall style, so I'll just have to remove the old railing and install the new railing and balusters. Did the top of your balusters have a round or square end? I ask becuase the ones in Home Depot are square on top and I can't figure out why. It's sort of hard to drill a square hole, if you know what I mean. I'm guessing you could just drill a round hole that's enough to accept the square end and then use the caps that you have used. Is that what you did? 

Also, it looks like you just screwed the bottom plate to the floor, plugged the hole, sanded the board and stained. Is that correct? 

Thanks, 

Kevin


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## mae-ling (Dec 9, 2011)

Looks Good!


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## AndyH24 (Mar 18, 2010)

Ler0y Jenkins said:


> Andy,
> 
> That looks great! I wanna do the same style railing. I don't have the half-wall style, so I'll just have to remove the old railing and install the new railing and balusters. Did the top of your balusters have a round or square end? I ask becuase the ones in Home Depot are square on top and I can't figure out why. It's sort of hard to drill a square hole, if you know what I mean. I'm guessing you could just drill a round hole that's enough to accept the square end and then use the caps that you have used. Is that what you did?
> 
> ...


I got the balusters at lowes. They are round at the top and square on the bottom. I used forstner bits and drilled a 1/2" hole for the top and 5/8" for the bottom. For the bottom plate are you talking about the oak 1x6? If so, I used a 15 gauge nail gun and nailed it to a 2x4 cap I screwed down. I then filled the nail holes and sanded and stained.


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## Ler0y Jenkins (May 5, 2008)

AndyH24 said:


> I got the balusters at lowes. They are round at the top and square on the bottom. I used forstner bits and drilled a 1/2" hole for the top and 5/8" for the bottom. For the bottom plate are you talking about the oak 1x6? If so, I used a 15 gauge nail gun and nailed it to a 2x4 cap I screwed down. I then filled the nail holes and sanded and stained.


Andy, 

Yes, the 1x6 is what I was referring to. Thanks for the info. Again, it looks fantastic. 1000% better than before. 

Kevin


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## Ler0y Jenkins (May 5, 2008)

Andy, 

One more question... how did you go about drilling the 5/8" holes in the bottom plate for the stair section that's slanted? I imagine it might be kind of hard to drill on an angle with the forstner bits. Any tips? 

Kevin


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

AndyH24 said:


> well on the short wall I'd like to do something like this
> 
> 
> 
> ...


LerOy J if you look at this picture you will see the spindles are square at the top and bottom. This is a hampton style rail system, the bottom of the rail is plowed out and has a shoe on the bottom that is plowed out. Plowed means there is a recess in the bottom of the rail and shoe. 

The hampton rail is the easiest of rails to install for me.


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## Ler0y Jenkins (May 5, 2008)

Jim, 

Thanks for the response... I was actually thinking of doing that style of railling before I came across some pictures of the wood/wrought-iron style. I just really like the look of the wood railing with the wronght-iron spindles. 

Kevin


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Ler0y Jenkins said:


> Jim,
> 
> Thanks for the response... I was actually thinking of doing that style of railling before I came across some pictures of the wood/wrought-iron style. I just really like the look of the wood railing with the wronght-iron spindles.
> 
> Kevin


I agree with you, the rail with the wrought-iron spindles does look far better and up to date. That style rail is a little tougher but it is for sure doable with some instructions. You will want to be sure your posts are set firm and the rails connected by stair bolts as the spindles don't contribute much support to the system at all.


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## prismfisher (Jan 13, 2012)

*Looks good*

Actually I took some of your photos to show our contractor as we have a split level that we are remodeling for resale / rental. We had already taken down the upper wall to open that space but the lower half wall will be coming down today in order to accomodate the look as well.

thanks for sharing.


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

jiju1943 said:


> I agree with you, the rail with the wrought-iron spindles does look far better and up to date. That style rail is a little tougher but it is for sure doable with some instructions. You will want to be sure your posts are set firm and the rails connected by stair bolts as the spindles don't contribute much support to the system at all.


Like this:


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

titanoman said:


> Like this:
> 
> 
> View attachment 45178
> ...


That is really nice, and the bending rail looks great, is that one of your jobs? Over the post like that is a little tougher than into the post.


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

jiju1943 said:


> That is really nice, and the bending rail looks great, is that one of your jobs? Over the post like that is a little tougher than into the post.


 It's the same house I posted earlier showing the roof and the outside.
12,000 sg. ft. house. Over 170 lineal feet of railing including 5 curved stair cases.
There's not a straight wall in this house.
I can't take credit for this interior; this is the house I got hurt on framing.
Sorry about the quality; they're pictures of pictures.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

titanoman said:


> It's the same house I posted earlier showing the roof and the outside.
> 12,000 sg. ft. house. Over 170 lineal feet of railing including 5 curved stair cases.
> There's not a straight wall in this house.
> I can't take credit for this interior; this is the house I got hurt on framing.
> Sorry about the quality; they're pictures of pictures.


I'm sorry you got hurt, that is the pits.

That is a pretty fair size house, some houses that size looks more like a hotel than a home, I don't remember what the outside of that house looks like.


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

jiju1943 said:


> I'm sorry you got hurt, that is the pits.
> 
> That is a pretty fair size house, some houses that size looks more like a hotel than a home, I don't remember what the outside of that house looks like.


These:




















It took me and 4 guys 5 months to frame. All that was left to do when I got hurt was to put in a few huge windows.
The whole perimeter was framed with 32 foot 2x10's, and some 2nd and 3rd floors were cut in later.
It took a year to finish the interior (they had to bring in another crew to finish the interior for me since I got hurt. And I looked forward to the trim work since the inception of the beast).
It was sold for $2.3mil.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

titanoman said:


> These:
> 
> 
> View attachment 45201
> ...


That is one heck of a house, I know y'all spent some time on that roof. I think some architects just try to see how many different runs they can draw on a house sometimes. I know you were looking forward to that trim job, I know I would have been. Y'all did a great job on the house for sure, it really looks good, that house was no pushover.


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

jiju1943 said:


> That is one heck of a house, I know y'all spent some time on that roof. I think some architects just try to see how many different runs they can draw on a house sometimes. I know you were looking forward to that trim job, I know I would have been. Y'all did a great job on the house for sure, it really looks good, that house was no pushover.


The plans only consisted of a North and South elevation with no roof, and an 1/8" scale of the footprint.
They said, "put a hip roof on it".
(No permits required at the Lake of the Ozarks)
The lumber salesman showed up, and started laughing when I gave him a real rough sketch of what I came up with to figure the lumber from.
I just ordered 2 "units" (didn't matter how many sticks were in it)
of 2x8x32 and 20 65' 12" micros
and told him I'd order more when I needed it.
The cul-de-dac looked like a lumber yard.
Sorry to ramble on.


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## Dave88LX (Nov 10, 2011)

Looks phenomenal. I need to look at this closer at home. I have to do a similar thing at my house. I hate these split-levels. If anyone has a good "how to guide", I'd love to read it!


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## Faith1112 (Aug 3, 2015)

Found this through a web search, Andy any chance you have more pics about how to do the bottom part? Installing the bottom post and getting solid support for that railing is my main concern.


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## Faith1112 (Aug 3, 2015)

Andy any input on a how-to for bottom rail?


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Faith, Andy hasn't been on the forum in a good while, if you start a new thread you should get all the information you need, to do what to are trying to do.


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