Stairs Phase 5: Installing Railing

There were a couple of areas around the stairs/posts that needed some work to make things look finished. These will be painted and partially covered by baseboards, but we still made them out of oak. The second piece was made out of multiple pieces of oak joined with biscuits and glue (much like the stair tread).

Then it was onto the railing. Installing this short piece of railing was actually quite easy (took less than an hour), but it required a lot of thought/planning, very careful measurements, and some prep time (2-3 hours to cut spindles, drill dowel holes, etc). I didn't take any photos during the installation as I did not want the glue to start setting. Basically, the spindles were attached to both the base and the railing by 3/8" dowels and wood glue, and then the spindles were attached to the railing in the same manner. You can see the dowel holes in the base, spindles, and railing in the photo below.

We ended up using the $3 railing that we found at the local ReStore, as it was the closest match we could find to our existing railing. We used a hanger bolt as the primary means to secure the railing to the posts; some finish nails and wood glue were also used to prevent twisting. A hole was drilled into the bottom of the railing to allow for the nut to be secured to the hanger bolt. This hole was then covered by filler pieces; this area will not generally be visible.

We are finally starting to see what the finished product will look like when we are done. We have a lot of sanding to do, some trimwork to install, and then we can finally stain and paint everything.

Renobabies

Mackenzie met her first little blogebrity yesterday - Chloe of Rambling Renovators! Chloe was a smiley cutie and such a good sport with our 2 big dogs... she was one brave girl because Owen wouldn't leave her the heck alone! Thanks for dropping by Wanderlauster & Chloe - it was fun meeting you both. :)

Stairs Phase 4: Installing Second Step and Post

There were a couple of areas in the old post that had been damaged over the years, so we repaired those by cutting out the damaged area, cutting a new piece of oak the same size, and installing it with some wood glue. These replacement pieces should not be very noticeable once they are sanded and stained.

We then built and installed the second step. This was done in the same way as the first step, but was much easier as this piece was not as complicated. Bending the riser was a bit trickier this time though (wood almost cracked a couple of times), as the curve of this step has a small radius.

We then installed the second post using biscuits, wood glue, and a few finish nails. This post was a bit tricky, as the wall is not perfectly straight, so I had to trace the shape of the wall onto the wood and then cut the wood to match that shape.

Well, the difficult stuff is done and it's starting to look like our mock-up. We need to do some sanding on the posts, install the railing, install some trimwork, and then sand everything to prepare for staining.

More Plaster?

For some reason I decided not to remove the plaster in the stairwell down to the basement when we were gutting the house. We decided that today was the day to get rid of it, so Meredith did the plaster and I did the lathe. Ugh ... so dusty and messy.




You can see the backs of the oak risers in this photo. We plan to try to reduce the amount of creaking on these stairs by doing some work from underneath.

We found some interesting stuff again during this demo, including a penny from 1912 and a Cadillac tobacco card.

Stairs Phase 3: Installing First Step and Post

Now that we have built the stair tread and riser, things are starting to come together. First, we built a base to support the bottom step. This was built out of 3/4" plywood sitting on top of 2x8's that had been ripped down to make the finished step the appropriate height. The plan is for most of the step to be supported by this base, while using the riser to provide additional support to the edge of the step (especially around the curves).

Installing the finished stair tread and riser was a little tricky. Because the one post was surrounded by tread on 3.5 sides, the tread had to actually be lifted over the two posts and guided down to the ground ... with about 1/4" of forgiveness. The tread and riser were secured by applying construction adhesive to the base, and by drilling screws from the basement up through the floor and into the riser.

The oak components of the first post were then installed using biscuit joins and wood glue, as well as a few nails in places that will be covered later (we want to minimize the number of nails showing in the finished product). I used simple right angle joints instead of 45 degree miter joints because this is the way the existing post was installed 80+ years ago.

Stairs Phase 2: Building the Curved Riser

Now that the stair tread was cut, we needed to create a curved riser to fit. Since we plan to paint the riser, we had a few options for its construction, but I decided to make it out of a piece of oak so as to match what would have been done when the house was built in the 1920's. We could have used snake ply and covered that with a veneer, but this seemed lazy to me and would not have been much cheaper or easier than using oak (and I don't know if veneers are available in a 10' length?).

The first step was to cut boards to create a form that the oak riser would wrap around. This was accomplished by tracing the curve of the stair tread onto pieces of 1" board and cutting them out with a jigsaw.

The boards were then lathered with construction adhesive, clamped together (six boards in total for a 6" form), and left to dry overnight.

The forms were then sanded with 60 grit sandpaper to make a consistent, round form.

The forms were then secured to the stair tread using construction adhesive, wood glue, and corner braces. We were actually able to use the form from the original stairs on the smaller curve; two forms that we created were used on the bigger curve, and then a piece of plywood was used for the straight portion.

Now for the fun part. The riser was created out of a 10' piece of 1" oak. I was sure to pick out a piece of wood that was quartersawn (grain perpendicular to face of board) so as to limit the risk of the board splitting when curved. I measured the length of the curved areas and marked those on the board. I then cut hundreds of little kerfs across the back of those curved areas, spacing them 1/4" apart and leaving 1/8" of board on the uncut side (I probably could have gone with 3/8" spacing since our curves have a large radius, but I wanted to be conservative). I had originally planned to do this with the table saw, but it was just too difficult and slow to cut across a 10' board, so I used the circular saw instead and that worked fine.

We then secured this board to the forms using a ton of wood glue, as well as some 3/4" screws on the straight portions. This was clamped and left to dry for 24 hours, and then the overhanging board was cut off.

The Odd Room Out

I find it fun to occasionally look back at photos from early on in our renovation. I was doing this a couple of days ago, and found that the photos from the sunroom are kind of fun because it is always the odd room out. Here is a look back at the sunroom over the last 20 months.

June 2008 - The calm before the storm.

June 2008 - Evaluating the obvious sag in the sunroom floor.

June 2008 - Demo in progress throughout the house; meanwhile, the sunroom is used for trim storage.

July 2008 - The sunroom is the last room in the house to lose its plaster.

October 2008 - The sunroom is the only room in the house not to get spray foam insulation, so Meredith temporarily installs batting to keep it warm during the winter.

October 2008 - Meredith's Mom and brother help install vapour barrier on the sunroom ceiling ... at least I think that is what is going on here.

November 2008 - The sunroom is the only room in the house not to get drywall, and is once again relegated to trim and door storage. That is one of our nephews napping on the dining room floor after what I can only guess was a hard day of renovating.

September 2009 - The poor neglected sunroom finally gets some much needed improvements.

October 2009 - The sunroom with its new patio doors to the backyard.

February 2010 - The sunroom is again being used for door (and junk) storage. However, it has a lot more fun serving as the waiting room for wet dogs, and as the sitting room for little girls who like to hang out with wet dogs.