What’s supporting on staircase?

[Lows]

Hi, I don’t know anything about stairs or how their supported so I’m looking for some advice, I’m planning on putting in glass panels to replace the spindles & a new hand & base rail, but the top of the bannister is boarded up? Not sure if I’m able to open this up or not? Is this possible? Also I have a few newel posts mid stairs are these supporting? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

 

[Jake2021]

It looks like someone’s just put some board over it to cover up the rails on the inside of the stairs … my guess is it’s maybe 3 ply? If so it’s not supporting anything so can come off bang on it and see if it’s thin .

As it’s sounds like it’s going to be a diy job and the questions your asking ( no offence) sounds limited in knowledge in this To make it easier for you if keep everything in red and you can get rid of everything in green. Things in red you can strip or cover … it is possible to get rid of things in red but you need to know what your doing and is structural to an extent.
Jake

 

[Jake2021]

I’m actually in the middle
Of doing mine but mine was a lot more complex which meant getting rid of a wall or two lol . I’m getting there I can only
Do It in my spare time

 

[Lows]

It looks like someone’s just put some board over it to cover up the rails on the inside of the stairs … my guess is it’s maybe 3 ply? If so it’s not supporting anything so can come off bang on it and see if it’s thin .

As it’s sounds like it’s going to be a diy job and the questions your asking ( no offence) sounds limited in knowledge in this To make it easier for you if keep everything in red and you can get rid of everything in green. Things in red you can strip or cover … it is possible to get rid of things in red but you need to know what your doing and is structural to an extent.
Jake

Thanks Jake for the response you’re correct in my limited knowledge lol I’m completely clueless! Yeah I’ve knocked on the board and it does sound hollow so hopefully I’ll be able to knock it through to open up the staircase a bit more , I’m guessing the middle newel post is supporting? So I think I’m best leaving them lol. Oh goodness! That’s quite a project you have there! Looks brilliant thou, I couldn’t imagine having to take down walls ‍, thanks again

 

[Jake2021]

My wife couldn’t imagine those walls coming down either until she came home and they were gone lol I couldn’t see going up stairs it was so dark lol
The newel posts on your stair case aren’t holding the stairs up but they are securing the hand rails which you need ones will need fitting right and securing correctly with half lap joints etc so as mentioned unless You’ve done it before it will be probably be wobbly and dangerous for your new rails … where your removing the hand rail if you cut it right upto the newl posts neatly you can use your old rail
For the angles for your new one just to make it easier for you
It looks like the top of your stairs
With the 6x1 timber? spindles is the origion and someone wanted to update it so covered that but put spindles on the bottom part that’s viewed from your living room. If you do remove that piece of board at the top just post another pic and We can confirm all is good

 

[Lows]

My wife couldn’t imagine those walls coming down either until she came home and they were gone lol I couldn’t see going up stairs it was so dark lol
The newl posts on your stair case aren’t holding the stairs up but they are securing the hand rails which you need ones will need fitting right and securing correctly with half lap joints etc so as mentioned unless You’ve done it before it will be probably be wobbly and dangerous for your new rails … where your removing the hand rail if you cut it right upto the newl posts neatly you can use your old rail
For the angles for your new one just to make it easier for you
It looks like the top of your stairs
With the 6x1 timber? spindles is the origion and someone wanted to update it so covered that but and out spindles on the bottom part that’s viewed from your living room. If you do remove that piece of board at the top just post another pic and We can confirm all is good

Oh goodness I bet that was a surprise for her when she got home lol, I totally understand why u wanted to change it thou! I’ve had a staircase similar before and it’s so dark going up the stairs, it looks amazing hope the rest of the project goes well , thank you again for the advice, I really appreciate it! as soon as I knock that board through I’ll post a picture of what it looks like (hopefully a lot better than it does now lol at least all the bannister will match once I’ve had the glass panels installed not sure what to do about this thou! But maybe I could cover it with some sort of cladding? Thanks again

 

[Jake2021]

I’d put my money on it that the bottom stringer( black line) goes all the way up behind the board , the red is your newel post, blue is just a piece of trim and the yellow bottom rsil has been added on with the spindles … the bottom rsil is easy to remove just buy some more and replace it and then fit some the other side of your middle newel post so it matches if that makes sense?

 

[Lows]

I’d put my money on it that the bottom stringer( black line) goes all the way up behind the board , the red is your newel post, blue is just a piece of trim and the yellow bottom rsil has been added on with the spindles … the bottom rsil is easy to remove just buy some more and replace it and then fit some the other side of your middle newel post so it matches if that makes sense?

Yes that makes perfect sense, thank you so much, u have made everything a lot clearer for me , hopefully I’ll get it sorted by the ending of the month (with any luck) lol I’ll keep ya posted