Smallest Gap Between Spindles

[powerst]

Hi all,

Going to be installing a new handrail, baserail and spindles on our staircase as currently it's a panel and looks terrible.

From reading what the website says where I ordered the wood it says to have two spindles per tread. Measuring it all out the other night it makes the spindle spacing between each 55mm.

I know the regs say no greater than 99m but would just like your views on whether 55mm is too small or ok. It looks ok from what I've drawn on the current panel..... sad I know!

Cheers,
Steve

 

[big-all]

its fully your choice as its within regs

 

[foxhole]

Two spindles per step is the norm when following the steps but with a base rail option then they can just be evenly spaced.

 

[powerst]

thanks gents. That was my assumption, the old Victorian ones would go down to the step but with a riser you might get away with it.

I'll put a couple up temporally and see what they look like before I decide. Don't want to cut all the fillets and then realise it looks naff!

Cheers,
Steve

 

[chirpychippy]

The way I do this on the stairs when you have a base rail is measure the distance between the inside of the bottom newel and the inside of the top newel horizontally. Say 3000mm hypothetically, spindles 32mm so 23 spindles at 32mm equals 736mm, deduct 736mm from 3000mm, 2264mm divide this by 24 "number of gaps" equals 94.????mm. Cut two spindles at correct length at the correct angle somewhere around 42.5 degrees put them in with a gap of 94mm horizontally then this will determine the length of your fillets/spacers on the rake.

 

[powerst]

Finally got round to putting the new rails and spindles in. Went for a 75mm gap in the end..... after a hell of a lot of time spent on the calculator and drawing lines on the baserail to check, holding up spindles etc! Still need to fill, sand and paint the newel posts.....

Before

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• powerst
• 14 Oct 2013
• 1

After

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• powerst
• 14 Oct 2013
• 1

[/img]

 

[chirpychippy]

Looks like a job well done, well done

 

[powerst]

Thanks mate. Took a bit of time, did the set on the landing one day and thought it best to start with the easy ones. 😀 Then did the rise on Saturday.

My wife commented on how little I swore while doing it, she was very surprised! I did get halfway up fitting the spindles, glueing and pinning at the top, and then panicked that the fillet spacers maybe wrong.... So I started marking lines the rest of the way to check. It was going to be about 5mm bigger gap at the top so just added 1mm to a couple. You obviously can't notice.

A lot of people ask how I can do stuff like this. I simply tell them it's a lot to do with having the correct tools and a hell of a lot more to do with getting good advice from people like yourselves! 😀

Cheers,
Steve

 

[big-all]

excellent job well done
i like the 2tone effect are you keeping it

no need to be paranoid about the spacing as long as your spacings are less than say 90mm you do 65-75% then check then decide iff adjustment is needed sooner rather than later and act accordingly
you wont notice any difference if its less than 5mm so make adjutsments before they need to be greater than 5mm

 

[powerst]

Thanks vm. Yep keeping the newel posts white as we quite like the contrast as we'd seen it when planning to do it. Plus a lot less effort having to cut them down and add new etc.

Still need to fill a few bits and paint them so they'll hopefully look a lot nicer when finished.