Changing stair handrail.

IF it is nailed on (doughtful)Drill holes around the nail holes (find them first obviously )
Pepper the nail area with holes and you will not damage the wall as much as it should come off easier

How old is the house?is it dot and dab?
 
ANDARIAL said:
IF it is nailed on (doughtful)Drill holes around the nail holes (find them first obviously )
Pepper the nail area with holes and you will not damage the wall as much as it should come off easier

How old is the house?is it dot and dab?
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House is 1998 (I think) and I believe it is dot and dab yeah, from what I can tell.
 
Would a stud/metal detector be worth getting? Looks like they are dead cheap to find the screws?

bremen1874 said:
I think you need to be prepared for some substantial repairs after it's removed. I doubt it's going to be a few dabs of filler and paint over.
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413x said:
Have stripped some more wallpaper off. And the wall, yet again, needs skimming. Decided I want to change the kind of cheap stair rail. So I need to get the rail off

Problem is I have no idea how its. Fitted to the wall!

It's one of those that makes direct contact to the wall all the way along. Like one long piece of wood.

I cannot see any screw points. Any ideas?

FYI, the walls are plasterboard



Underside

Top-full length
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This looks pretty identical to our one that i removed just before Christmas.

The handrail was made up of two parts, the curvy rail part i think was nailed into a backing/support bit of wood, which was then screwed into the walls.

I wouldn't just crowbar it off, because if it has been screwed into the walls then it'll leave a huge mess to repair.

Have a good look at the handrail, and you should be able to see imperfections, scrape away and you'll hopefully see a screw/nail that you can remove. Once you've removed them all, i got a chisel to tap between the backing board and the handrail - years of being painted means it's stuck to the backing board like glue. Once you've made a bit of a gap though, it's quite easy to prise it apart.

Once the handrail is off, you should be able to see the backing board much easier, and the screws that went into the wall were completely visible - they were hidden behind the handrail.

I managed to get ours off with absolute minimal damage and i've filled and sanded down level. At a glance you wouldn't see any imperfections, but closer look and you can obviously see where the layers of paint are higher on the visible part of the wall. It'll do us fine until we install a nicer looking handrail at some point in the future.
 
OK I'm going to get a stud/wire/metal detector (I'll need this elsewhere too) and see if that makes this easier.
 
Semple said:
This looks pretty identical to our one that i removed just before Christmas.

The handrail was made up of two parts, the curvy rail part i think was nailed into a backing/support bit of wood, which was then screwed into the walls.

I wouldn't just crowbar it off, because if it has been screwed into the walls then it'll leave a huge mess to repair.

Have a good look at the handrail, and you should be able to see imperfections, scrape away and you'll hopefully see a screw/nail that you can remove. Once you've removed them all, i got a chisel to tap between the backing board and the handrail - years of being painted means it's stuck to the backing board like glue. Once you've made a bit of a gap though, it's quite easy to prise it apart.

Once the handrail is off, you should be able to see the backing board much easier, and the screws that went into the wall were completely visible - they were hidden behind the handrail.

I managed to get ours off with absolute minimal damage and i've filled and sanded down level. At a glance you wouldn't see any imperfections, but closer look and you can obviously see where the layers of paint are higher on the visible part of the wall. It'll do us fine until we install a nicer looking handrail at some point in the future.
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Are you saying the visible rail is two pieces ??

Ah, I think I see what you mean. There is a piece of wood ever so slightly visible just a few mm above the door frame in the pic.

On the underside of the curvy bit there will be screws/nails through the curvy bit into the support bit?
 
413x said:
Are you saying the visible rail is two pieces ??

Ah, I think I see what you mean. There is a piece of wood ever so slightly visible just a few mm above the door frame in the pic.

On the underside of the curvy bit there will be screws/nails through the curvy bit into the support bit?
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Even under the curvy bit. You'll notice it doesn't go straight from the curvy bit to the wall, there's probably a sub-10mm bit of wood there. I would almost be certain that's a supporting bit of wood, so is actually separate to the handrail/curvy bit.

But yes if it is like that, then it's a case of removing the handrail from the supporting board, and that then exposes the screws that hold the supporting board to the wall, which allows for a much cleaner removal.
 
I've got two flights of stairs in my house with a lot of the same looking handrail. I agree they look awful! I would loved to have removed it and put something fancy up but I could not face all the repair work to the wall.

dFgBWrbh.jpg


I decided to just paint it a different colour (after a good sand) and I am quite happy with the results. Maybe if this was a forever home I would have replaced it.

q12sNEYh.jpg
 
fobose said:
I've got two flights of stairs in my house with a lot of the same looking handrail. I agree they look awful! I would loved to have removed it and put something fancy up but I could not face all the repair work to the wall.


I decided to just paint it a different colour (after a good sand) and I am quite happy with the results. Maybe if this was a forever home I would have replaced it.
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My gripe with them was that they were a massive dust collector.

I believe building regs state that there must be a handrail, so we'll need to put one back at some point, but i would just like a sleek one that is only connected to the wall with mounting brackets rather than every part of it.
 
fobose said:
I've got two flights of stairs in my house with a lot of the same looking handrail. I agree they look awful! I would loved to have removed it and put something fancy up but I could not face all the repair work to the wall.


I decided to just paint it a different colour (after a good sand) and I am quite happy with the results. Maybe if this was a forever home I would have replaced it.
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Semple said:
My gripe with them was that they were a massive dust collector.

I believe building regs state that there must be a handrail, so we'll need to put one back at some point, but i would just like a sleek one that is only connected to the wall with mounting brackets rather than every part of it.
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Both ring true.

It's not nice. But is it nasty enough to replace? This isn't my forever home. And it's not falling apart. It's just unpleasant.

It is a dust collector. I was planning to replace mine with a bracketed one as well.

Condition of mine is worse. But at least its one piece. I'll see if I can find the screws! But yeah I absolutely do not want to ruin the wall!
 
Ah yes it is a dust collector! It's an extra job I have to do :(

To be fair I had not planned to do anything to the stairs but the old carpet was really awful and dark so I thought I might as well do the glossing before replacing it which led me to tackle the handrail in the least aggressive way.
 
413x said:
Both ring true.

It's not nice. But is it nasty enough to replace? This isn't my forever home. And it's not falling apart. It's just unpleasant.

It is a dust collector. I was planning to replace mine with a bracketed one as well.

Condition of mine is worse. But at least its one piece. I'll see if I can find the screws! But yeah I absolutely do not want to ruin the wall!
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I think that question could be applied to everything though. If you're planning on moving in the next 12-24 months, then yes it's probably not work embarking on such changes. For anything longer than that, then smaller DIY jobs are probably okay.

If you're not actually sure when you'd plan to move, you just know it's not your forever home, then you'll forever be in the mindset of never undertaking any DIY projects just in case you move soon.
 
@ristac That looks great! With the added bonus of a huge reduction in the amount of gloss work required :D Be interested in seeing the finished look with the flooring down.
 
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