Replacing Ugly old boards with balusters

[evansg81]

Sorry if I got the terminology wrong...

I've almost completed the renovation of my house, but the staircase banister still looks ugly. It's heavily overpainted in white gloss, and appears to consist of base and handrails, newel posts at both ends and one in the middle, and the rest (where the balusters would be) is just 3 large pieces of board. Again, all these terms are new to me but hopefully you get the idea!

I'm thinking of knocking out the boards, stripping off all the paint and getting a joiner to stick some balusters in their place, therefore opening up the hallway and looking part of the modern-ish theme. If the wood looks crappy after stripping I can always repaint it.

Is this viable? Has anyone done this before? I presume a joiner will be able to fix the balusters on fairly easy if I knock out the boards?

Thanks

 

[neyleopc]

Have you managed to get any answers re this yet? I've got the same kind of thing, but I'm worried about doing this as the spindles (balusters) would have to be quite short (cut down to size) for the handrail to fit on my bottom newel post. I'm hoping not to have to remove the bottom newel post as once did this in another house (long story) and couldn't solve the problem.

Are you looking to replace the newel post?

 

[lemons]

Ive been trying to do pretty much the same as you guys and I havent had much luck in getting any info here ... did you guys find out anymore info especially removing the newel post...thats my big concern !!

 

[2scoops0406]

It's a pretty standard procedure, but it may be best to get a joinr to do it, reason being is that the newel posts will probably have to be altered, these must be solid otherwise the staircase integrity is compromised. I would advise getting a few quotes, it not a particularly cheap job.