Stairwell Railing

[David Jordahl]

I have a project to build a U-shaped railing around the top floor of a stair well. I have some good ideas, but want to get other opinions to make sure that it's strong enough to with stand people leaning against it. Does anyone have recommendations or websites that would be helpful and/or show details of the key aspects of basic railing construction?

The railing is around the top opening of a stairwell, going up to what used to be an attic, and now is remodeled into a bedroom and office area. It's a simple U-shape in the middle of the room, so there's no walls to attach the railing.

Specific questions are: What's the best way to attach the end and corner posts to the floor. My idea is to double screw from the center of the post at the bottom into the floor, then angle woodscrews at a 45 into each of the sides, and finally attach a support 1x4 on one side starting at about 8" up from the bottom going down into the stairwell.

Hopefully, this is descriptive enough, and I'm not too confusing here.

 

[noseall]

you would normally splice a corner newel onto a floor joist for strongest results, but as you are forming a 'u' shape then i guess its shape makes it fairly rigid.

maybe use some double ended dowel screws?

 

[Symptoms]

Richard - as your proposed design is '3-sided' it should have the structural integrity to be fit for purpose (assuming sound construction); your task therefore is to stop it shifting sideways. Lot of ways you could anchor the structure, from barrel-bolting, socketing, dowelling (or pegging) the newel posts, and screwing the base rails to the floor. If you can lift a bit of the flooring then fixing to the joists is another option.

A good website is:
http://www.richardburbidge.co.uk/main.asp?page=0
they have loads of info and a technical help area complete with downloadable instruction sheets for installations. Well worth a visit.