New spindles and hand rail

[craig51]

Hello all.

Go easy on me as I am quite good at DIY, but not a Pro.

At the moment, on my second floor between the walkway and the stairs, a rectangular wall (3.5ft high) made of some pine by the looks of it acts as a barrier. Its completey solid, as in the structure is hollow, but you cant see throught it at all.

My plan, is to remove this, nip to B&q, buy a foot plate, a hand rail, some spindles, and two end pieces, with one being a half as it will be attached to the wall.

I have two questions.

1/ The end pieces, how do i attach the one to the wall, and the other to floor, without seeing the screws. Is it just a matter of counter sinking some long screws, and filling the holes with some filler?

2/The spindle are kept in place by spacers, but how do i physically attach these to the footplace and bannister without screws being on show??

Hope this all makes sense.

 

[morrik27]

would you be able to counter bore the screws slightly, cut some plugs from the side attached to the wall, then plug the screws on the faceside?

you could use small panel pins fin the spacers, sink them with a parrellel punch and fill the holes.

 

[xerxes]

As Morrik suggests, cover the screws with wooden plugs. Use a matching plug cutter and counterbore. Align the grain when inserting the plugs, and pare them off carefully to avoid tearout.

 

[craig51]

excellent, so to recap.

For spindles, use the small panel pins for spindles aswell as wood glue.

For the 'end' peices, bore and plug as suggested. What would the the best size screws to attach these end pieces to wall and the floor?? Also, i take it the hand rail would just be screwed onto the end piece as well?