Home Improvement Today?

Nice. I've seen floors and walls out further then your dealing with. You start to learn all the little tricks and also learn that it's never gonna be perfect. Make the compromises that make the finished product look as good as possible under the circumstances. When dealing with tough installs I step back and look at the work a lot. If it looks good to my eye there's no way a home owner is gonna notice all the little cheats I had to make. lol

 

Thanks. Just got a text from my customer and he said "everything looks awesome!". So that's nice to hear.

 

Happy homeowners are what it's all about. Getting that verbally is always awesome.

 

are you referring to the newel needing to rotate in order for the railing side face to present itself square to the railing ?

 

I’m referring to the stairs themselves not being square to the landing there. So when you square the newel to the nosing of the first step and square the newel to the nosing of the landing, they will be offset. So one newel needs to be rotated in order for the railing to land in the center of the next newel. Does that make sense?

A little exaggerated:


There will be a half newel on the landing as well, so everything kind of has to line up.

 

electrical code is 2' start, 4' between, with one required on the end of the peninsula. i see roughly 6 outlets minimum for the counter in that layout.

honestly, i really like the layout as it is. i've been in a few houses where the eat-in area is the pantry/mud room because it's off the garage and a convenient place to dump everything while walking in-- but that great big window messes with that. but then the existing pantry needs to become a walk-through bar area. otherwise, the supporting wall part of the double-living room thing messes up any alteration to the rest of the layout.

 

I would just go ahead and rotate it , nobody will ever sight the base of the newel to the tread but your eye (or at least mine would be ) will be drawn to the faces of the newels and railing

 

Sounds good. I have the first newel set and left to right it’s plumb. In and out (in line with the handrail) the bubble is touching the line. I imagine that’s okay because we can bring it in with the rail?

 

Very long couple of days. I got my rake newels cut to length and the mortises cut for this stupid blind fastening system.




Big fail when I brought home the screws though. It essentially tightened the whole landing down and I cracked a finish riser. I think I can just sand it, drydex, sand, and paint… but man what a pain


Then I set the newels. It took a couple of back cuts to get them plumb to each other. One is still slightly bowed outward, but I doubt you’ll ever tell. Finally I got the handrail installed and mocked up the rake line for my balustrade. I set the bottom baluster 1” off the bottom and a 6” ball JUST touches inbetween the baluster and the nosing… so I think I’ll keep it there. Anyway, got a sneak peak at what this thing will look like.



Tomorrow I’ll install the landing half newel and hand rail. Then hopefully get to breaking the edges over on the newels and do some finish sanding. If I’m lucky maybe I’ll get the story pole for the balustrade made up and ready for Sunday.

 

Thanks for the referrals. This is for a rental, I'm looking more for value.
I've received a few quotes, seems nobody wants to sell single hung windows anymore; one of the companies charged more for the single hung.

 

I recognize some of those as words. You did use all letters, though.

 

I just realized how much jargon was in that post. It gets even more intense…

 

So half newel post and half post mean the same thing?

 

Appears that way.

 

Looks great!

Used 5/8 rebar painted with Rust-Oleum hammered finish paint verticals on a client build in Alaska.

 

how do the newels key into that hidden fastening plate and what retains them in position once there ?

 

newel post usually is a post that accepts the sloping part of the railing , regular post is only accepting the level railing

 

There’s a 5/8” lag that is 5” long in the bottom of the newel. The head is left about 1/2” proud and goes into the key hole. Then you strike the newel and it falls into a tapered slot pulling it tight. You install it so that it tapers toward the open part of the straircase — so if anyone braces against it it’ll pull tighter. Takes a lot of force to pop it out the other way. Idk if I trust it though. I think I’ll fill the keyhole with PL Premium when I do the final install.

 

I see , so it essentially retains the base of the newel and the top is braced by the railing ?

 

I was interested too, found these. The angle on the bottom side makes sense, I was imagining a flat keyhole rather that a keyhole with a wedge to lock onto the bolt head.