Stair Railing

 Not a whole lot to show on this project, but I decided to finally fix the railing I tore out.  Funny story, I put a hall tree back in that storage area and I sold it.  Well, when I went to get the hall tree out...apparently it wasn't as easy to get out as it was to put in there.  So I had to rip out the wall partition that was there.

This was the only photo I could find of the original partition that I ripped out.  This was back when I was purchasing the house.

So here is what it looks like now.  I turned this room into a storage area.  There's really no other use for it.  You can see where the partition used to sit.

I decided to go with a wood railing, the reason was because I recently redid the handrail.  It was previously painted white.  Have you ever had a white hand rail in your house?  Worst mistake I have ever made.  I was recently stained in Minwax Early American.

For the railing I used metal conduit that I already had on hand.  I spray painted them a black matte color.

Taking some measurements.  I ended up by a 4x4 post and a 2x4.

If I were to do this project again, I would wait to paint the conduit until I cut them, because I ended up having to retouch all of them.

Staining all of the wood.

If you're starting to think this looks like a deck railing...I think so too.  I did use a lot of elements you would see on a deck, like the post cap.  I still think it looks better than it originally did though.

I used a 3/4" drill bit and drill 7 holes on each side (the post and the 2x4).  I measured them all out at 4" apart.  I read somewhere that 4" is the correct spacing, not sure if that's accurate or not.  I tried to hide all of the screws as best I could.  I also put a coat of polyurethane on the inside (where the 7 holes were drilled) because I knew it would be hard to do once everything was attached.

Projects are never as easy as everyone makes them look.  If you have a house like mine, nothing ever goes according to plan.  The problem I found when I went to install the railing was there was a big chunk of concrete at the bottom of the wall.  The concrete set me back a day as I had to chip away at it with a rock hammer.

I used a hammer drill to pre-drill holes into the concrete floor so the railing could be a bit sturdier than the wall partition that was up there before.

After it was installed, I put 2 coats of polyurethane on it.  Not perfect by any means, but I do think it looks a lot more put together than it did before.

I chose to go horizontal instead of vertical with the railing because I wanted it to be different than actual stair rails.  I also didn't want it to look like a jail cell 😂.

Hope you enjoyed this post.  I really enjoyed making this railing.