DIY wire railings for the stairs-part 1
As you remember on my pics for the homemade baby gate, my stairs had the traditional wood stairs, stained by the previous owner in shinny cherry color. Very nice but it doesn't go together with our decor. So we went in a two fold project. First part was the semi-hallway to Isabella's room. Originally we wanted to go with 1/8" steel wire for this section but I needed to reinforce from the other side of the wall, so the tension of the cables won't rip the drywall apart. So we decided to take the tempered glass route. I got a 3/8 aluminum rail for the bottom and 2 "U" shaped rails for the top so I was able to sandwich the glass between these two. The glass is a clear, 3/8" tempered glass. We are so happy with the results. Lot's of clarity and makes the space to look bigger, cleaner... before we had to place white panels to avoid Isabella from falling down... (see old pics) As a side bonus, the glass reflects a window on the opposite wall...
added pics of the turnbuckles and loop holders (all sourced from homedepot) for Kara:
8 comments:
Great jog on the railings and stairs ! can you tell me a little about your risers and treads? I have some flugly steps left over from my reno and I would like to do something similar- thanks in advance
Thanks! We did the rails only. We contracted some guys to do the stairs. We used to have carpet but we are so happy to have wood now.
Joel/Maria,
I absolutely love what you did with the baby gate and the railing. I was doing research on modern railings because we need to re-do ours, we are actually using a designer but she is charging us over $12,000 for it! and that does not include installation (we live in Manhattan if that helps any) the top will be a wood banister but the bottom part is similar to what you did, but istead of stainless steel wire it will be just thin brushed stainless steel bars. I am now in the process of looking for some other railing manufacturers that can do this job without spending 12M for it! if you have any tips on it I would appreciate it. We are not handy so dyi is not an option for us.
Thanks for your help and keep up the amazing work!
Hi Monica!
I know what are you talking about and that's why we did the DIY approach. The bones of my existing stair was good and I was able to salvage it. That means the two big square posts and the top rectangular banister. I chose the 1/8" steel (uncoated) wire for the transparency. It's evenly spaced at 3.8" between the wires to be code compliant. The wire itself is rated as a 150LB load (which is never what the railing is going to get!) the turnbuckles are 30¢ each (total of 8) and rated at 300LB load. now, for attaching the turnbuckles to the square posts, I decided to use a drop ceiling attachment points. The box was $40 but it came with 100!! They are low profile and I chose those instead of the traditional self drilling "O" rings because they are totally close and they can't be broken or pressure open. The only drawback was the need to buy an special drill attachment for those little guys in order to secure them to the post. The wire cutter that I used was a dremel tool which make the job easier and faster withour splitting the ends of the wires. After a lot of measuring and cutting the wires, It was a matter of minuted to put everything together. I surely beats the $12K bill!!!!
I hope this helps!
regards,
joel+maria pirela
Can you post a close up of the hooks and turnbuckles for the wire railing?
Also, where did you source the attachment points.
BTW, looks awesome.
A lot of people have likely found this when searching for a wire stair solution, but I can tell you there is NO WAY that thing is code in ANY state. Wire railings require EACH wire to have a 300lb tension minimum which is measurable only by a special tool. This explains why they are almost entirely made of steel framing- to withstand the tension. Why the tension you ask? Well, one reason is that children can easily slip their heads between the wires (if it isn't tight enough) and suffocate.
Your glass isn't code either....anywhere.
If anyone wants to DIY a wire railing with the right stuff, there is a company called Johnson Marine (in CT?) which sells the Proper wires and accessories- all designed to meet or exceed code. They are very expensive, but it is the only place I could find who sells direct to the public, and without resorting to contracting it out. Skip the wood newel post and go for oversized angle iron (prime and paint) at your local home improvement store. It isn't that hard to fabricate- you can even use a wood handrail with some crafty DIY brackets.
I hope people aren't butchering their stairs to model this- it is unsafe and a huge expense to rectify when it comes time to sell. No home inspector will let that slide!! It is dangerous.
Hi
We really like the "loop holders" you used but we were at Homedepot on the weekend and couldn't find them. Do you know exactly what they were called and who manufactured them?
thanks
go to the drop ceiling section.
They have a bag with more than what you will need. You will also need an adapter for the electric screw-driver.
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