Baluster and Handrail DYI?

[sugardumpling]

Hi All.  Our home needs a new handrail along with balusters and newel.  Have you DYI'ed this type of project?  Any tips would be grand.  Thanks.

[lys]

IMO this is not a DIY for the unskilled.

[simpsongal]

Ditto, I don't think this is DIY friendly. We hired someone for this. There's a good tutorial on This Old House re: handrail installation (basically, measure, find the studs, mount the brackets, cut handrail to size, and square the ends w/reverse 45 degree mitres).

The newel and spindles side is tricky though. We hired a stair & rail contractor to do ours. 1 Day but it was 2 guys working for about 6 hours (and we have a 5 ft length of spindles & newel, so not long. I think we paid about $900 (HCOL) and I did the finishing work (stain, poly, etc.).

Definitely get a quote. Materials are expensive and you don't want to miscut - it may be worth it to get a contractor and shave the price by doing the finishing yourself.

[kristilynnmy]

We're doing ours soon...with the help of my step dad who is a general contractor. He picked up an old old thing from a house remodel on the job and we're tweaking it to fit into our home. We've been handrail/baulster/newel-less for a year now. I wouldn't do it yourself.