Replacing Balusters

By: Hope Reeves, This Old House magazine (Page 1 of 2)

Kolin Smith

Kolin Smith

Broken, missing or mismatched balusters make a staircase look like a hockey player's grin. Replacing bad balusters with newly turned ones restores a sense of elegance and makes the staircase safe.

Unlike a screwdriver or chisel, a small cat's-paw with a wide, fan-shaped blade is ideal for the delicate prying needed to remove a tread return.

measuring the distance between stair spindles

Before trimming a baluster, carpenter David Raymond first measures the horizontal distance between neighboring spindles, splits the difference and marks the rail where the new baluster will go. He measures from that mark to the tread and transfers the measurement to the baluster.

To find the angle of the cut, he places a bevel gauge against the bottom side of the rail, aligns the arm and tightens the wing nut so the arm stays in place. He then lays the gauge against the baluster where he's marked the length and scribes the angle with a pencil.

sawing in the miter box to match the angle on the baluster

Next, he sets the saw in the miter box to match the angle on the baluster and lops away. Raymond recommends cutting the baluster slightly on the waste side of the pencil line because, if you make a mistake, "you can't add wood."

securing the top of the baluster to the rail using 2-inch hardwood trim nails

He secures the top of the baluster to the rail by toenailing—using 2-inch hardwood trim nails—so more of the nail rests in the banister than in the baluster. For a tight lock, he makes sure that the nails actually cross each other. To avoid damaging the wood, he uses a nail punch and sets the heads just below the surface.

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Despite appearances, the pillars between the treads and banister on a staircase are not there for support. Usually spaced about 4 inches apart, balusters protect people — mostly small people — from tumbling off the side of the staircase. A loose or broken baluster won't jeopardize the whole railing, but fixing it properly is a good idea for the sake of children and pets, not to mention aesthetics.

On a 1-to-10 scale of home-improvement challenges, baluster replacement rates about a 4. The first step is to remove a baluster that's intact and take it to a woodturner to copy. When it comes to demolition projects, pulling out the broken pieces of a baluster has to rank as one of the fastest and tidiest. A baluster is attached with little more than a mortise and tenon rig at the bottom and a couple of nails at the rail. (Don't be alarmed if you find as many as five nails — maybe your predecessors were slightly compulsive.) Getting a prototype out in one piece often requires you to remove the return on the end of the tread. To do this, rake a putty knife through the seam between the return and the tread to break any seal, then insert a small cat's-paw and wiggle the return loose. If the tenon is thicker than the mortise path, carefully chisel a larger hole. A less taxing but potentially more damaging method is to simply whack the upper portion of the spindle with a dead-blow hammer to loosen the nails and then ease out the baluster. David Raymond, a carpenter who is based in Fairfield, Connecticut, suggests using a piece of scrap wood to reach narrowly spaced balusters, resting the wood against the spindle and then striking it with a mallet.

When you send the prototypes off to the turner, have extras made. You may need them later. As This Old House contractor Tom Silva half-jokingly points out, many things besides careening furniture and roughhousing kids can break a baluster: "an ax, a baseball bat, a saw..." When you go over the specifications with the turner, be sure to note the species of wood you want (the harder the better). There are usually two or three balusters per riser, each a different length, so send samples of the appropriate sizes. Also, request that the ends of spindles be left long. Although it makes more work, trimming balusters yourself reduces the chances of ending up with a misfit.