Simple Porch Railing Build

[Music] in this video I show you how I built a very simple cheap functional kind of minimal cool-looking railing on the front of our house and all railings are on residential houses at least are supposed to be 36 inches they're a bit higher if you're building one for a rental so but anyway I built this guy at 36 inches that's like the standard height and started out with a 2x4 on top and I'm telling you man this railing is really simple and easy to build the 2x4 on top is located I replaced vertically so it's a little bit stronger and building this alone I just use a piece of scrap wood on one end to support it and then at the other end screwed it into my post at 35 and a quarter inches that way I can have a three-quarter inch piece on the top that'll get me up to that thirty-six inch mark anyway I just leveled it up screwed on both ends and then stuck in another 2x4 down below this one down below goes horizontally or flat you'll see why it allows you to kind of capture your balusters so one key consideration when you're building a railing like this is where your load is going to go you know like the force of things that are on that railing and I wanted mine to go down onto the deck not onto the fasteners on the side so I located this small 2x4 block in the middle and you can see the ends of my bottom 2x4 are placed on top of some trim pieces that distributes the load in three places right now I'm just ripping some pressure-treated fence boards these guys are I think about five inches wide and I ripped him in half and these form my balusters you know the the vertical railing pieces on the railing and I just ripped a big batch of these guys as you can see being armful and then put them in place and after ripping those guys I cut one just to see how it's gonna look and held it up in place and I thought it actually looked pretty good again this is a very simple banister or railing you know it's not like super fancy I wanted to be kind of minimal affordable and easy to build as far as gap distance pretty much code requires four inches four inches or less so I made some four inch spacers and just tacked these balusters in place on top that's not the final way those guys are attached but it's just what I did it first to get them in place and started moving right along using my spacers and packing them on the top again on the bottom you can see they're just kind of hanging loose that's not gonna be the permanent configuration just wait for it you'll see how I attach those down below but this system I found allows you to just put your balusters in really fast like really quickly in you know like 10 20 minutes I had them all in place and was ready to move on to the next step now one thing to note is that using those using the spacers is great but I would also recommend throw-in a level on those balusters once in a while just to make sure they're coming in nice and level then I cut again on my table saw some 3/4 inch by three-quarter inch strips just some little square strips and those hold the balusters in down below along with some other Brad nails and this is just a brad nailer here you could use other nails or screws or whatever but I found a brad nailer just hold things and holds things in place pretty well if you don't want them to wiggle up on top I use some wood screws to connect the balusters to that vertically position 2x4 that way they just have a good solid connection they're held down below by the strips and up above with the screw so if anyone really bangs on one of those balusters it's not gonna fall off all right next up was just to put that top piece in place and I used some wood glue that's not really a traditional with outdoor construction wood glue when it gets wet usually falls apart but I use some wood glue anyway I think it'll help make this a bit strong I also after Brad nailing this I screwed it in place screws are really solid I would recommend them for a construction project like this just because they don't come out like nails do sometimes here I go screwing in the top piece on the banister and check it out just in like an hour or two this is a nice solid banister ready to go in good shape now the porch itself is bigger than that and you can see on the left side there's just like a big gap and I needed to build a two more banisters two more railings I know why I keep calling them banisters or railings I don't want the differences between those two terms anyway they're pretty much the same on the left side with a few small little tricks one was that I had to notch this top 2x4 just to fit it into my siding and after doing so I again located it at that just shy of 36 inches 35 and a quarter inches and leveled it up and secured that one in place and then secured the lower two I four and a position that directly below directly beneath that top 2x4 that's because you're gonna have your balusters come down and make contact with that 2x4 down below and other than that this one went in just like the other one it's just a question of getting your system together and knocking those balusters in and once you do securing them on the bottom with your three-quarter inch by three-quarter inch strips and on the top with some screws and it kind of goes without saying that for these pieces on top you want the crown facing down that way if they do any cupping the cupping will happen in a way that allows that top piece to shed water anyway this guy's just as strong as the first one we've got two pieces in hasn't taken much time it's really a simple build the most complicated part was probably putting in this newel post which you'll see here in a bit I put a piece of two 12 like a nice big chunk I put that in at the base of the newel post I just gave me something to screw into and I did spend a little bit of time locating that I wanted to be just in the right spot and I should also mention that I was planning on putting a second handrail on my stairs on the left side but I opted not to do that you'll see in the end she's got one handrail a handrail on one side and I think that's pretty good most people it's a little more conventional would put in two handrails but the one handrail just looked kind of good and I think it was I think it was better in the end all right um this new post went in pretty simply again using some pressure-treated boards and I believe it's 5 inches by 5 inches kind of square and it's screwed together and then connects to the railing that allows you to build something nice and strong a new posts are notorious for being kind of Wiggly because you just have so much leverage if you push them on top but if you connect them to a banister or a railing or a handrail you're just gonna get it much more solid I also as you can see only half built the newel post in order to be able to screw in from the inside to the supporting 2f folders all right one more thing and this is just a bit of superstition I always when I create a cavity I always put something of value inside the cavity in this case I just threw a dollar or two inside and closed it up I don't know superstition good luck it's just a building practice I've always followed I'm not sure if you've heard of this one but anyway it's what I do and after that I just knocked out the balusters along that left side and connected them like I did with the others screws and glue and Brad nails and whatnot and that side then was ready for the cat piece I should mention that I have used like two by sixes for the top cap and that works really well I just thought this on thin stuff these are just better treated fence boards I think that thin stuff looks kind of a little more I don't know kind of delicate and nice so anyway I went with the thin stuff here I just made a newel post cap I actually made two of them cuz I thought I was gonna need one more but I just made I ended up just using one of them the newel post cap is just cut without of some cut out of some 2 by 12 I believe and then I just beveled a little edge on the top and sanded it up nothing too ornate once again kind of simple and clean and minimal and it did the job alright so with the new post all together it was time to just throw some primer on this guy and after priming it to paint it and Melissa came out and helped me as part of the paint crew and that was it you don't have to paint your banister necessarily but we did just to tie it in to the overall look of the project anyway thanks for checking out the video and I will see you in the next project

Channel: metaspencer

Views: 307,271

Keywords: porch, railing, banister, newel, newell, post, carpentry, build, diy, code, simple, easy, fast, affordable, pressure, treated, modern, DIY, house repair, home repair, deck, decking, rail, front, front porch, handrail, hand rail, how to, how-to, inexpensive, minimalism, tips, tricks, baluster, balusters, balustrade, balustrades, newel post

Id: 7X-2o5HVSM8

Length: 9min 55sec (595 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2019