One Of The Biggest Problems With Post Locations - Deck Handrails

here is another one of those problems that will not ever be a problem if you actually put some planning into your design so let's go ahead and get started this particular video was inspired by a stairway I came across recently that aisle where only one person could walk up or down it because it was only about 25 inches wide so if you are going to use 4x4 post you're going to use some type of a post hand rail system for your exterior deck stairs you're gonna need to make sure you have a minimum of 36 inches this is a general requirement for most building codes but in order to verify this information you would actually need to check with your local building authorities keep in mind that these videos are watched in a variety of different countries all over the world and they are people in other countries are going to have different building codes here's a good example if you have a 3 foot wide stairway you can attach the post to the outside of the stairway but you will not be able to put them on the inside so a quick solution for this would be to simply make the stairs wider if you're going to use 4x4 post you can probably get away with a 4 foot wide stairway now I added 6 inches to the stairway where in reality you might only need to add 3 and a half inches depending upon how you're going to build it so here we have the handrail built into the stairway and over here we have the handrail on the outside of the stairway so if we wanted to build something like this we would just need to make it three and a half inches larger in this example I made it five inches larger to get the 3 foot and that's because the stair stringer is going to be on the outside of the stairway the post would attach to the stair stringer and of course would get somehow firmly attached inside here somewhere so that it does not wiggle biggest problem with handrail posts like these is they actually need to be sturdy I've seen some of these whether you just bolt them right on top of the stairway or right on top of the concrete and they move so that's not gonna make your local building inspector happy now when you are designing your stairway you will need to keep this particular post in mind if you are going to have a landing for a stairway this post right here can actually push the stairway over now this won't be a problem if you're planning on doing something like this but if you are going to have the stringer on the outside then this post might need to be moved an inch and a half in or the thickness of your stair stringer so again this planning part is very important and I know people that watch my videos a lot most of them they're not professionals they're more of the people that are trying to figure out how to do this stuff on their own so they don't have to hire a professional so if you are going to build a deck make sure that you design everything give it some thought watch some more of these videos watch other people's videos before you build it because planning really is the key to a project that's actually going to turn out the way you want it to and be assembled in less time you know I I have spent more time planning projects and this means less time dealing with frustration while you build it and that's the main point I'd like to drive home at the end of this video so watch more of the videos and learn as much as you can about the building process or any project you're planning on doing in the future you

Channel: stairbuilding

Views: 107,996

Rating: 4.6315789 out of 5

Keywords: problems, stair building, deck construction, handrails, guard rail, post, location, design, carpentry, do-it-yourself, how to, adjustments, education, safety

Id: nlSwz56rOD0

Length: 4min 32sec (272 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 10 2019