Outdoor stair railing project

[Alexander Janoszek]

Hi there!

As I mentioned in the other thread about my fireplace mantle, I'm currently building up some stair rails for our house.

I've actually built 10 posts and a few handrails. What's missing is the vertical panels, and that's quite a lot.

But, on the front side of the house the posts are installed and the rails are right in place and I've coated everything with the first layer of teak oil as well. A second will follow as soon as all the parts are installed.

Everything is made out of massaranduba decking boards and 2 by 3's because both of it's durability and availability. Allthough it's one of the hardest sorts of wood, it turns out to be very handy to work with. Actually I've done all the cuts and dados with the mitre saw and on the table saw.

The posts are a rail and style system with flat panel inserts and for the handrails I simply used a horizontal handrail bit on the router table. To mount the handraisl to the posts, I made 2 pocket holes on every side of the rail and screwd everything together. The inner parts of the posts are 4 by 4's out of pressure treated fir.

There's a lot of work still left, so I'll come up with new pics of the project as soon as there's some progress to show.

All comments are more than welcome. I started this project without any idea how I'm gonna end up, cause I didn't find any suggestions or how to's for something like that. So everything I've here is sort of a home made solution.

//alex

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[Alexander Janoszek]

And a few more pics....

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[Alexander Janoszek]

And here's the last one I have.....

Enjoy!

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[Kent A Bathurst]

Very nice!!

You say..." I started this project without any idea how I'm gonna end up". I have been under the impression for 15 years that is how you are supposed to do it???

Last..........Vienna.....We were in Vienna + Budapest for Christmas and New Years about 8 years ago. Your city is beautiful. Christmas was over-the-top....Christmas marts, gluewein [spelling?]. I did not turn in my mugs to get the 9 shillings back - they were souvenirs - have a dozen or so with stenciled photos of many parts of the city....Schonbrunn Palace, downtown, others.......... Stayed at the Trieste hotel, if you know it - lovely place - I highly recommend it.

Christmas eve service in the chapel inside the Imperial Palace.............the choir was the Vienna Boys Choir along with the men's choir we had seen three days earlier in The Marriage of Figaro at the Opera House..........at midnight, all of the church bells in the central city were ringing. The kings and queens in the Imperial Crypt......................I could go on for an hour.


You are killing me. I would be on a plane back to your wonderful city in a heartbeat, if I could.............I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Now I am depressed, stuck here in the colonies.................

[Alexander Janoszek]

Hey Kent!

You've just putted a smile on my face!

You're more than welcome to come back to Vienna! I know, Christmas time is so beautiful over here. BUT, you've gotta pay 2.50 to 3 Euros for your mug by now which is about 35 to 50 Schillings or 3.50 to 5 USD. The Schilling became part of Austrian history - sadly.... I loved it and since we don't have it anymore, everything got more and more expensive.

Maybe next time you should pay us a visit in Summer. Just drop me a line and we'll arrange someting. We can make a tour to some of our "Heurigen" restaurants. That's probably nothing more than winemakers, selling their wine in their own restaurants along with some classic, wonderful and tasty Austrian food. We've a lot of these over here, and I tell you, I tested a lot of them as well!

[Alexander Janoszek]

Okay, not much of progress to show, but I have the first vertical panels installed. It actually took more time to think about the how to than to actually mount everything.

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[Alexander Janoszek]

Hey everyone!

Last weekend we've finished another part of the project. I was more than surprised about the overall look of the railing.

I've to fab up a few reinforcements but over all we're making good progress.

So here are the latest pics

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[Jeff Monson]

Thats a great looking staircase Alexander!! How long will 2 coats of teak oil hold up outdoors?

[Bruce Page]

Alexander, that turned out really nice!
Thanks for posting!

[Alexander Janoszek]

Thanks a lot guys!

Well Jeff, I was told that 2 coats will last about a year, depending on the weather conditions. I think, I'll see after the winter how it'll look like and evetually "oil it" again in spring, but I can post an update here as soon as I find out.

Most important to my girlfriend was, that the handrails were smooth, so I took some water proof sand paper (think it was a 360 or so), putted some of the oil on it and sanded all the handrails a little. That gives a very nice and smooth surface.

Next weekend we'll start with the railing on our balcony. Same procedure here. Then I'll take care of the post caps and base boards for the posts. That has to be right in place before it turns really cold.

As always, pics will follow.