How to Install a Metal Railing | Ask This Old House

[Music] okay well here the stairs all right crazy I think they're just begging for a railing I have two kids they come barreling out the door I'm afraid one of them's gonna take a header off the edge and also I cook on the grill there okay and I have a big plate of burgers and dogs I open the door I feel like I'm gonna take a head yeah it kind of looks like it I get you anyway so you're 20 21 inches off the patio here code requirement is 30 inches okay but as we always say in the business safety first so I kind of agree that you need a railing here but as I was poking around see this Patrick I see that yeah I don't think this step went exactly this way I think they kind of fed you out that way okay but as you wrap yourself around look at that paint right there that's it again that indicates to me that that's where the tread was facing so again more evidence and that post was wrapping this way coming down this way and feeding you out to the patio that way which was probably safer at the time we know what this was like this one we bought the house but that makes sense to me right so I agree needle rail let's go get you one all right let's do it all right Mike okay so here's the rail I picked up from a local welder it's custom made so made to fit it looks nice you know sometimes I see railings like this and I'll grab on to it it'll feel kind of flimsy right well that's why we went to a local welder just take a look at this steel you can see how thick and beefy that is oh I see that substantial right well if you take them off the shelf you're gonna find that these posts are hollow gonna rust a lot easier gonna become flimsy quicker but not our case here that's why we bought it from the welder all right Mike so the first thing we want to do is take some measurements okay I want to be about four inches off this back wall so if you drive me back a little bit that'll be great keep coming right there's good now from the edge of the tread I want to be about four as well so if you hit me with that great now let's do the same thing over here bring me right in great let me take my pencil and I'm going to outline the post alright let me just do the back one all right let's get the drill and get going all right all right Mike this scrap piece of blue stone is going to act as a template to keep the drill aligned since a regular drill would bounce around and possibly ruin the granite I'm going to use a coring drill [Applause] once we get the hole started we can remove the blue stone and get down to our depth the coring drill leaves a plug behind what I'll use a regular drill to clean it out all right so let's make sure these rails fit nice and tight all right great minor and that fits great mine looks good too right okay so as you remember the post is probably the most important thing in the job that we're doing the other main component is going to be how we fill these holes we're gonna use anchoring cement which is a type of hydraulic cement except it's much stronger it actually sets up in about ten minutes so we're gonna work nice and quick and do one hole at a time we're gonna want to get a sponge on this other stuff soon as well it looks like it started out frappé and now it's beautiful exactly you got it that's great okay Mike can you pick me up a little and I'm gonna shim you alright so we've given it about a half hour and it's set up pretty well and just touch it and you know that it's set up but one of the issues that we have granite steel concrete block that's under the granite all kind of moving at different rates so what we're gonna do right now is actually install a shock absorber which is just caulking but it's going to allow for everything to move at different times and it's not going to crack so essentially we're gonna waterproof the set of the set of stairs and we'll be good to go all right what do you think looks great looks like it's been here for years all right do me one favor just keep the brick in place for another two or three days keep the boys off it a little bit let it let it cure but other than that you'll be ready to go great mark I really appreciate you coming all right my pleasure that's a nice fix mark looks good so if you go custom did you consider going across the platform and then down the stairs as well I had a little extra steel we did but it gets pretty expensive as you make that turn down so again to be cost-effective we decided platform is all we needed so that's what we did so answer me this well why are these things always so flimsy it seems like every one of these metal railings that I grabbed the thing is ready to go right not this one but most of them yeah well most of them are again that that hollow metal that we've been talking about but most importantly I think it's the topical application that those railings are installed with topical meaning what the rail sits right on the stone blue stone and granite whatever it is and then it's a bolt application so instead of sort of setting in and cement you're actually relying on you know two or three inch bolt that's 3/8 of an inch that's not the good application no again you saw what we did we actually went through the stone into the step itself yeah and you used I think you call that anchoring cement correct how does that differ from hydraulic cement which is what I'm sort of familiar to here so I draw like cement is usually a patch say for a water leak hydraulic will expand so clog more the hole up the anchoring cement you can see has more of a flow to it it's a bit of a self-leveling material and it just happens to work great with yeah application so well it doesn't look like it's going anywhere even with these two boys crawling all over it yeah right right nice fix thing all right you got it

Channel: This Old House

Views: 222,423

Rating: 4.7610569 out of 5

Keywords: mark mccullough, masonry, metal railing, install, This Old House, Ask This Old House, DIY, Home Improvement, DIY Ideas, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, Kevin o’connor, kevin o'connor house, kevin o'connor this old house, kevin o'connor ask this old house, kevin o'connor interview, home renovation ideas, diy home improvement, diy home projects

Id: mUuBYr9CmSI

Length: 6min 59sec (419 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 01 2018