copyright ©1999 Peter S. Hudy

This is the second article dealing with repairs to my sweet old house. The first portion can be found in Issue 5 and covers some basic thoughts on porches and the initial rebuilding of the framing.

In the process of rebuilding the front porch on my 1908 American Frame Vernacular home in Lansing, MI, it became obvious that the railings also would require some attention.

Mock-ups! Or: Build twice for insurance sake In the process of rebuilding the front porch, I decided to sacrifice my desire to finish quickly to the desire to make things look good. For me, it was a first. One step in this new process was to make models and mock-ups of design features about which I had doubts. Although this took a little more time, I was able to avoid costly and ugly mistakes that would have otherwise occurred. Two key examples of this were in the design of the peak on the roof and of the design of the railings. For the roof peak, my mock-up was nothing more than a triangle made of paper shopping bags, furring strips, glue, tape, and string. It was constructed to the desired width and height and gingerly placed on the roof to determine the best placement. Two different locations were tested: centered on the gable of the house and centered on the porch columns. It was readily apparent that the porch looked funny if the peak was centered on the gable of the house. So if you look closely you will notice that the peak of the porch is actually 8" off-line with the center of the gable of the house. The second mock-up was a full-scale model of a section of the proposed railing. Boards were glued up to give representations of the actual pieces that would be used (or reused). Different styles and arrangements were tried and bad ones rejected (like the one that had a sharp point in the center of the top rail that made sitting impossible!). Finally, the desired appearance was achieved.

The original railings, as best as I could tell circa 1908, were constructed with 2x4 top and bottom pieces connected by 2x2 balusters. Because of the lack of vertical strength, the railing could easily deflect up to 1" in the center of a 7' span if someone decided to stand or play on it (as little kids are wont to do). Aesthetically, the horizontal members offered a weak visual line leaving the impression of the balusters floating in space.

On the other hand, the clean lines of the rectangular elements offered a simple elegance despite the scores of past years. The wood itself, a hard cedar that still retained its original scent, was solid and relatively unaffected by its age.

My goal was to retain much of the simplicity of the original, add structural reinforcing, and add a stronger visual component. Also important was to keep costs to reasonable limits.

Based on another railing found a couple of blocks away, I made a prototype of the modified railing I would construct. The major changes were in the addition of a 2x3 beam under the top cap and a 2x2 beam under the bottom cap. Other changes included shortening the length of the balusters and connecting the balusters to the 2x3 first instead of nailing directly through the top cap into the balusters as was originally done.

The advantages of these changes were, first and foremost, to increase the structural integrity of the railing. The addition of the 2x3 beam to the top cap would produce an assembly equivalent to a vertical 2x6. The addition of the 2x2 to the bottom cap would produce an assembly equivalent to a vertical 2x4. It was expected that the completed railing would exhibit almost zero deflection under normal usage, unless my brothers-in-law all decided to use it as a resting place at the same time.

Adding the two reinforcing elements also enable me to trim off any rot from the ends of the balusters while maintaining the same final railing height. All original pieces could be reused and only minimal new ones would be required.

Lastly, enhanced visual cueing would be provided by the strong horizontal lines while maintaining the simple appeal of the original.

The decision to reuse the original pieces influenced construction techniques and material selection. The original "2x" material was 1¾" thick. Modern "2x" material are between 1-1/4" and 1-1/2" thick. For some applications, balusters for example (a true 1¾" square), the 1/4-1/2" difference is noticeable. In other applications, such as the 2x3 beam for the upper cap assembly, the balusters would actually have extended out beyond the thickness of the beam (using modern "2x" material it would have been 1½x3"). Thus, I had to thicken some pieces (since I couldn't locate cedar in true 2" thickness) or scratch build others (balusters for example) to maintain a consistent "logical" appearance.


Original pieces were disassembled, stripped of paint, and sanded with 150 grit paper. The 2x2 was milled from a cedar 2x4. The side faces were ripped at 7½ degrees. The final piece was a trapezoid 2" wide by 1-1/2" high. This was centered on the bottom of the original bottom cap and glued (using polyurethane glue) and screwed (2-1/2" galvanized deck screws) in place. For the 2x3 beam, a 1/2" x 4" strip was laminated to one face of a cedar 2x4. This composite was then trimmed to a true 2" x 3". It was not connected to the original top cap at this time. Original balustrades were trimmed to 21-1/2" long. Replacement balusters were cut from a cedar 2x6 and measured 1-3/4" x 1-1/2" x 21-1/2". When these were used, they were oriented to leave the 1-3/4" face outward.

Polyurethane Glues One of the best inventions for DIYers is polyurethane glue. Although expensive, it offers possibilities that other glues do not come close to matching. As one manufacturer claims, "It is every glue you ever wanted in one bottle." [Lutz File & Tool Company] Polyurethane glue is sold by various companies under various names: Gorilla Glue and ProBond are a couple readily available ones. Regardless of the supplier, it has some very desirable characteristics: It requires moisture to cure and can glue even wet boards together; As it cures, it expands to fill gaps and crevices (about 4 times the original volume of glue); It is 100% waterproof after curing; It is very strong. It also can stick to your hands and discolor them until the skin falls off, but that was a minor distraction! For this project, I had several pieces that I needed to glue together and have function as a single, intact unit (like the top cap and 2x3 beam). Additionally, because the railing would be in an exposed location, subject to moisture and the weather, the glue needed to be waterproof. Lastly, some of the pieces being glued together had dings, gouges, cracks, and splits that would have weakened a traditional glue joint. Despite all of these demands, polyurethane glue let me achieve these goals. It filled up the empty voids caused the cracks and dings, it solidly connected the pieces together, and it should last for a long time. Its cost ($8/pint) was more than worth the expense.

The lower cap assembly was then connected to the columns and/or wall. Incorrectly, I spaced the balusters 1-3/4" apart as opposed to the original spacing of 2-3/4". Spacing between the balusters was adjusted as needed so that an even gap was left between the last balusters and the columns and/or wall. The pre-primed balusters (all 6 sides) were toe-nailed in place to the bottom and connected to the 2x3 beam with 3" galvanized decking screws set into pre-drilled holes. Once all the balusters were in place, the 2x3 was glued and screwed to the upper cap. The 2x3 and upper cap were also connected to the columns and/or wall with multiple 8d galvanized casing nails.

The final railing looked good and worked well. Its final height was 30-1/2" above the floor level.

The stair railing was all new construction. All pieces were made of western red cedar except the newel post which was 1x6 pressure treated southern yellow pine.

Construction techniques were identical except that the 2x3 beam was really 1-1/2" x 3" and the balusters were 1-3/4" x 1-1/2" with the 1-3/4" face outward.

The major contrast was that a flat 2x4 was not used as the top cap. According to BOCA (Building Code of America), a 2x4 is not a suitable surface for the top cap of a stair railing.

In order to conform to this, a graspable portion was machined into a 2x2 by in-beveling the sides 7½ degrees forming a trapezoid. Onto the sides were then milled beads using a molding head cutter and the table saw. This piece was placed on top of a spacer and all this was set on the upper cap assembly. Although the final upper assembly is 6" high, it does not apparently differ from the other railings.

I also wanted the stair railing to curve, but didn't have access to a shaper to mill it. My solution was to cut the sections with angles and then glue them together. The result approximates the curve and provides better visual appeal than abrupt angles would have.

Here are some relevant code issues that should be addressed. If you have questions about what all this means, please contact your local building inspector/office of code compliance. In many cases, these officials are more useful than not; however, they are usually not impressed by people who think they know more than they really do. When that happens, almost invariably, the inspectors are able to find at least one issue that does not conform to code and can require needless revision and aggravation.