How to attach balusters to stairs - several ways and their nuances

The staircase is indispensable in a building with several floors. Moreover, if the staircase has more than five steps, then a fence must be provided for it. A number of requirements are imposed on balusters (vertical racks) in terms of quantity per square meter and height.

In this article, we'll take a look at how to attach balusters to a staircase to get a truly reliable stair rail.

Installing balusters

If you are guided by the rules, then the staircase should have the following parameters:

• The height of the stair rail should be not less than 0.9 meters from the step to the top of the handrail.
• There must be a distance between the posts no more than 15 cm.

Advice! If there are small children in the house, then the distance between the racks should be reduced. up to 10 cmso that the child cannot squeeze between them. Also, pay attention to the special safety ladder barriers for child safety.

When installing a ladder with your own hands, you will probably be interested in how the balusters are attached to the ladder, on the railing or bowstring. These posts can be of different shapes: square, round or flat. They can be both smooth and textured, made of various materials: stainless steel, wood, tempered glass, or be forged.

Advice! When thinking about the shape of the balusters, you should consider not only the appearance of the elements, but also how the voids between them will look, since they should also have an attractive silhouette.

The most popular are wooden products, and their price is acceptable for the consumer. However, their main function is still not aesthetic, but mechanical - to prevent falling from stairs, so the main thing is to properly fix these elements.

How to install balusters

Wooden balusters have three parts:

1. Base.
2. Central part.
3. Handrail support.

The central part is the main decorative element. The support and base are made in height with a small allowance, which allows the elements to be adjusted “in place”.

The base should be fixed on podboles (special rail) or on step... The supports are attached to undersheath or yourself railings.

Now let's figure out how to install the balusters on the stairs. The instruction provides several mounting options:

1. Installing balusters on a ladder using hairpins on a bowstring:

• First you need to drill a 12 mm hole in the middle of the bottom end of the post. Hole depth - 80 mm.
• Cut the bottom and top edges neatly at right angles depending on how the post will fit on the string.

Advice! It is advisable to cut with a miter saw.

• We glue the studs into the holes. To do this, use standard galvanized studs with an M6 thread. We use PVA glue. The ends of the studs should protrude 6-7 cm.
• We drill holes in the bowstring (diameter 14 mm, and depth 80-100 mm).
• We install wooden balusters with studs installed in the holes. First, the two extreme racks are installed, and then all the others.

Advice! Before you start gluing, you must accurately mark the place of installation of all the posts.

• From above, the racks are fastened in the same way into the sub-sill or into the groove of the handrail. A sub-sill is a wooden plank that should be glued into the groove of the railing from below. First, you can put it on the rack, after which the whole structure is glued to the rail. However, some craftsmen attach directly to the railing, without using a sub-railing.

2. Fasteners for dowels.

Since the racks will not experience heavy loads, they can be attached to dowels. A dowel is a wooden thorn. With this method of fastening, the main stages of work correspond to those described above. The only difference is that larger holes must be drilled for the dowels than for metal studs.

• Wooden dowels coated with glue should be driven into pre-drilled holes in the ends of the balusters. We use PVA glue for fastening.
• Further, the base of the first support with a dowel should be attached to the string.
• For additional fastening of the ladder to the floor, you should put the support baluster on the anchor, which is mounted in the floor.
• We put a rail (underbalyasennik) with drilled holes on the string and fasten it with screws.
• The racks should be inserted into the grooves with the lower end, and the upper end should be attached to the railing.

3. On self-tapping screws.

There is an even faster way to attach balusters to wooden stairs. In this case, they are mounted directly to the treads. This option is suitable if the ladder is installed on stringers.

• We fasten the screws to the steps in such a way that their tips stick out by half.
• We make a mark in the middle of the lower cut of the column, after which it is necessary to carefully screw the support onto the self-tapping screw.

How to attach the support leg to the floor

Conclusion

In this article, we looked at how to put balusters on the stairs. As you can see, in general, this procedure is not particularly complicated. In the video presented in this article, you will find additional information on this topic (also find out how the safe steepness of a staircase is calculated).