DIY Cable Railing Installation

why all there Brent here to bring your own tools on today's episode if you want to see how we can play transform this old sad railing from this too this if you don't know how to do it keep watching let's get started [Music] in my last video I showed the entire process of how I demolish this small little wool as well as framed it and trimmed it out appropriately I'll make sure and leave a link in the description if you want to watch that but let's get right to the railing because that is the star of this build the railing on this project that we're using is from viewrail and this is their Express line which means that this product is readily available and can be shipped to you within a matter of days with my speed square I'm easily able to position these posts right in the dead center of our trim and then Mark four Fastener locations so they're easily able to be pre-drilled now the v-real package did come with fastening Hardware however I wanted something that was actually deeper than the ones they provided which is why I went with these six inch long Power Pro lag screws now there's a few different reasons why I wanted to use these screws more than the ones that came with the kit but mainly because we're going through trim base plate Framing and structural blocking not to mention the blocking that we still need to create for the downward stairwell angle as I'm tightening these screws down I am very diligent about the leveling process because if they're not level then it's never going to line up properly with all the other posts down the line I'm measuring two inches away from where our post base plate hits a wall or a change in trim Direction and a great feature that comes with this viewrail kit system is a perfect cover plate to cover up these unsightly Fasteners very easy and quite satisfying at least in my perspective the span from post to post should be no more than four feet wide which I have accounted for and the first ones I suggest installing is of course the very first and last one in the row because then you can determine exactly the space you needed for all the other ones there were some slight adjustments that I had to make on this row specifically to make sure that all four sides were perfectly level but the kit system does come with composite shims which makes it really easy to level out properly once we experience true level on all four sides I can then cut off any of the excess shim and put our cover plate right on top once I have both end post fully installed I can then grab my tape measure measure out the entire span then divide that by five because there are five spans between posts and that will give us a perfect Center Point location at each individual Post in this circumstance we have a span of 222 and a half inches and divide that by 5 gives us 44 and a half inches just remember that that is the center Mark at every single post location and I did want to note that viewrail is not the sponsor of this week's video but I still have a link in the description box below if you want to check out this viewrail system for yourself with a situation like this where we have a downward section but we have a flat post we need to get some type of blocking at this location and you might need to take a moment to figure out what that correct angle is because it does get a little bit interesting to figure out that perfect angle to cut at but once you do you should have something like this where it is a nice flat surface and level but that way we can also guarantee that we have a perfect surface to lay upon our post now we just need to get these actually installed correctly and painted in order to find that angle I just took some 4x4 and cut those down to different angles to figure out exactly which one was going to work best but because our post bracket is actually four inches by four inches we can't use a standard 4x4 post we have to go with a six by six and that makes it a lot more difficult to cut basically meaning I have to cut each individual one twice and then sand it down as needed with 120 grit sandpaper what I actually found was that it's not easy to sand down a triangle no what actually is a lot easier to sand down is to strap down your sander to your table and by using pressure on these blocks you can easily smooth down all sides by just maneuvering it from one side to the other and the other and the other this really did save me a lot of time energy and hassle so keep this in mind on your project and if you actually know a place where you can purchase these without making them please let me know because I couldn't find a pre-made version of these anywhere I applied two coats of trim paint to each one of these blocks let it dry and once they were dry I could start the installation process layout and positioning was key on this project because we have a stainless steel wire going through every single one of these posts which basically connects all these posts together now I'm measuring the same two inches between the trimmed transition point to where our base plate starts and once I have that taken care of I mark it on our trim then apply a little bit of glue just to add a bit more of a stabilizing Factor as I apply one screw in the very center I'm obviously applying that one screw in the very center because there are screws that are going to go all around the edge of our base plate and not in the dead center I use my speed square to line up the post and make sure that there's equal spacing on all four sides then make some marks for my Fasteners pre-drill and once we're pre-drilled we can fasten accordingly this is where those six inch long Power Pro lag screws really come into play because you're going through a very long span just to get to our blocking with our first top post in I can then install the very bottom post and once that post to take care of we can measure the distance between post to post and then determine where our Center Mark is going to be now that we have our Center Mark I just need to make sure that our wood block is dead center between the two full disclosure doesn't have to be dead center to make sure the railing works but having cohesive space in between post to post is always eye appealing in my perspective once the lower stairwell is taken care of I move on to the upper sterile performing the same exact process as I previously showed once all the posts were in we can move on to some bracketry our stairwell posts are slightly different than the other posts that we install on a flat surface and that's because we have an adjustable angled bracket at the very top so our posts can account for different stair angles as for the posts that we installed on a horizontal terrain that receives a completely flat bracket with perfectly countersunk Flathead screws and that makes sure aurelian lays flush right up against the bracket and speaking of railing we're going to be doing a custom railing with my favorite wood which of course is Black American Walnut I picked this up at my local specialty lumber yard and this is S4s which means it's surfaced four sides that means we have very straight and very high quality boards that have perfect 90 degree angles on all four corners there were a few knotholes that I had to fill prior to installation but that was easily taken care of with some star Bond once it was fully dry and it does dry quickly especially with accelerator I can move on to cutting and installation just keep in mind the mitered corner angle that we did previously for our trim is actually the same exact angle that we need here that means I'm making an 18 degree angle cut on both the handrail at the very top that's flat as well as the handrail going down our stairwell in order to guarantee myself that these pieces are going to meld together perfectly in position as they're drying I actually positioned them on the handrail and then clamp them together I did want to provide a bit more pressure as this glue dried which is why I secured both pieces of handrail to the bracket underneath and then used a secondary clamp to squeeze both posts together once our glue is fully cured I then removed the clamps and sand down this area smooth and yes I could remove this entire railing and sand it in the garage and keep it there however I can't do that to the upper railings so I'm just going to sand these Joint locations in position and then make sure we do a deep clean in the end I'm using 200 grit sandpaper to make sure that these areas are completely flush and clean and just note that I did pre-sand all these boards ahead of time prior to installation S4s does come extremely smooth however this is a handrail so your hand's going to be going over it numerous numerous times and we want a buttery smooth finish in the end I install the upper railing as I did the lower one however because we have such long spans at the top I need to make sure we have a couple different seams by cutting these connection joints at a 45 degree angle provides a more seamless look I feel in the end as well as providing more surface area for glue up compared to a butt to butt joint I measure cut and install each individual section and as I'm going down the line I'm checking the handrail for straightness in order to guarantee that we have a cohesive look all the way down the railing after the handrail was fully installed I did realize that one transition joint did come apart slightly which is why I filled it up with a little bit of homemade wood filler which is just some sawdust that I made previously and some tight Bond 2 glue mix it up and it makes a perfect wood filler to match accordingly I let all of our joints dry overnight and then come back to it the next day and sanding away any excess filler to make sure we have a perfect smooth transition with a clean cloth and some mineral spirits I'm easily able to wipe off the vast majority of the Dust created from the sanding process and I do want to make sure that all this wood dries prior to finishing so while we're waiting for it to dry we can move on to our wire cable the wire cable does come in a perfect coiled roll however as you can see it does become a little unwieldy once you start removing the protective plastic so keep that in mind and watch out the system comes with threaded crimp fittings that perfectly fit over a wire and once crimped they are extra extremely tight and cannot be removed once you have one actually crimped and installed you feed it through each individual hole just make sure that it's going through the very top hole in every single location at the end you install their tension receiver but don't go all the way in A good rule of thumb is to screw down until you can't see any threads I then go back to the very first post that I threaded the insert through apply a piece of tape where the wire meets the back side of the post then make a mark at an inch and a half from that tape Edge to where you want your next cut to be made I use bolt cutters to cut our stainless steel wire and once I like the length I crimp that end and then screw on our second tension receiver the one unique thing on this side compared to the other side is that it actually also gets an angled washer it's an ingenious way for the system to work because it allows you to use the same tension receiver but it still lays perfectly flush against the angled washer even though it's going up a unique angle which is our stairwell through this entire process I'm basically just hand tightening each individual one not putting too much strain on the entire system because I want everything lined up appropriately until I get to the very bottom rungs once I get to the very bottom runs I secure them down with my drill as well as making sure that each individual wire is perfectly taut this entire process is very straightforward and simple as well as gratifying because you're really able to see this entire system come to life just keep in mind the fact that this is not a short process this does take a lot of time and energy to do even if it's a very simple process as I was working my way down this railing system getting all these wires fully installed I did realize the angled blocking I installed for the stairwell did need a little bit more upkeep and to finish it off in a more professional look and feel I caulked around all the seams making the transition from the original trim to our angled blocking a much more cohesive look and feel and once that was taken care of I wiped off any of the excess and felt that one more coat of paint wouldn't hurt at these locations specifically so I applied one more coat of paint and just be well aware to maneuver that top cap up prior to painting so you don't have to worry about any taping along the way now it's finally time to apply our finish to our Walnut now this finish is my go-to finish 4 Walnut it's armiseal oil base finish one of the best things about this product is that it's so easy to apply just take a clean lint-free cloth and make sure we have a cohesive layer of finish all the way across the wood grain I go over all sides even the bottom and I let it sit for approximately 10 minutes then I go back and I wipe off any of the excess and that is a very important step with this finish because if you don't wipe off the excess it tends to become a bit more tacky I let that coat dry and then proceed to applying a second and third coat the same exact way just make sure we're removing any of the excess approximately 10 to 15 minutes after application and guess what after that's done we are done with this amazing transformation [Music] something about completely transforming an entire space in such a short amount of time really provides a large sense of Pride as well as just perfect eye appeal in person the space really does feel completely wide open compared to what it was previously and feels just more open and spacious and that's exactly what we're going for as you can see from the before and after this is one amazing transformation and one that I'm proud to say is one beautiful sexy beast oh yeah [Music]

Channel: BYOT

Views: 83,089

Keywords: byotools, diy, do it yourself, how to, bring your own tools, start to finish, byot, cable railing installation, wire railing, diy wire railing, diy cable railing installation, cable railing system, cable railing, diy cable railing, diy wire railing installation, stainless steel wire railing

Id: wicr4kT_IYM

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 26 2022