How to Build and Install a Decorative Railing

Ron Hazelton visits the Benner family in Vermont to help them build and install a porch railing. Ron highlights details on an assembly jig as well as construction tips, materials, and tools lists.

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Transcript:

Today's house call takes me to Bennington, Vermont. From the old fashioned barbershop on Main Street, to the brilliant fall foliage, Bennington looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. So it's no surprise that Rockwell, as well as artists Grandma Moses and poet Robert Frost, have all called this area home. So do Todd and Kim Benner and their children, Alicia, Emily and Elijah. Now, the banners are not new to home improvement. They recently built this wraparound porch themselves. Now they'd like to make one more improvement by adding a railing and that's why I've come to Bennington.

Hey, guys, how are you?

Hi Ron.

Hi Todd

Hi Kim.

Hi Ron.

So this is the project huh? This is a by the way.

I think it's a porch, this is what, Mahogany?

It's Mahogany, yes.

OK, so tell me what you were thinking.

Well, ummmm we've gotten everything completed except for the railing and ah we spend a lot of time out here with the kids and ah we just wanted something that was safe and just to be able to complete the project.

And this is a great porch and you're right here on a cul de sac, so you can really use it a lot. Ummm what I'm thinking of is something fairly simple, clean lines to go with what's already here and I believe what we will do is set up some tools in your driveway out here.

OK.

And we will begin by taking some measurements and then cutting some of the components and then install them and set them in place.

OK, great.

So I follow you guys.

Good.

OK.

Now we're going to make up our porch railing with three pieces, starting with this top or handrail right here, it has a groove cut on the bottom side and into that are going to go the spindles and then the spindles are going to sit on top of a bottom rail. Now we're going to make these up in sections that are going to fit between the columns up there. So what Todd and Kim are doing right now is measuring each section so we can get a good fit.

So guys, how are we coming? You want to get one measurement at the top and one at the bottom?

Yes.

Great. Well, here's a piece of the top of the hand railing here guys. So Kim, yeah, you do that and what's your first measurement there?

Fifty six and a half inches.

You can go ahead and mark it.

OK.

Great. Here's a combination square, just draw a line across there.

Todd uses my power miter saw to cut each top rail to length, then does the same for the bottom rails. Next, I adjust the saw stop block to 26 inches. Now, that's the length or height for each spindle. The stop block makes sure each piece will be exactly the same length.

Now we're going to make our bottom rail from this piece of two by four, we could use it just like this and put the spindle on top but I'm going to make a slight modification. I'm going to cut the corners off forming chamfer ends right here and here. Two reasons for this. One, I think it looks really nice, but more importantly, it allows any water that hits the top to more easily run off to the side. Now we're going to make this cut on the table saw, I've got the blade tilted over at about 30 degrees and I'll run the wood through on edge like this.

Alright, you guys got the spindles there huh?

Yep.

I've been laying out the position on the top and bottom rail where these are going to go, you know so lay them side by side, mark the position on both at the same time so we make sure the spindles are straight, right?

Now, we are going to deal with the bottom rail so I'll put the top one aside over here and I'm going to give you guys each a drill and you will see I made some marks here, some cross marks.

Ahuh.

Just go ahead and drill all the way through and just make sure that those holes are as straight as you can make them.

What we're going to do now is attach these spindles to this bottom rail like so with a long screw that's going to come up through the bottom and it will make this positioning a little bit easier. I've made up this temporary jig right here. So what you guys will do is lay this bottom rail on its side like this, take one spindle, lay it right in here and you see that mark, the pencil mark there, you want to get that just about in the center of the spindle and then while one person holds like this, the other can put in a screw. There's your screw. Well, there's one section that looks great, guys.