Building Tall Stairs
New supporting posts are installed for the extension and the stair stringers. The owners of this house in Northern Michigan wanted to be able to reach their deck without going through the house. Note pavement below the deck. This complicated the ... [... more]
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Building Handrails
Handrail posts are installed, 2x6 side board is attached, top cap is installed, and balusters (spindles) are fastened at proper spacing. I attached a 4x4 post to the corner of the extended deck. To match the original post height, I made the top ... [... more]
Hammer Zone |
Building New Porch Steps -
We wanted to build a durable set of porch stairs with a handrail. Many exterior stair stringers simply rest on concrete pads set on the ground, as in this example. My experience is that such stairs tend to shift up and down over time, which may ... [... more]
Hammer Zone |
Porch Replacement:
Repair and remodeling of an old-house porch, ledger joist installation. We cut away wood sheathing that interferes with the new porch, apply primer to the old framing to deter rot, and install a new 2x6 ledger board. After the old porch decking ... [... more]
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Building Simple Deck Handrails
This mid-1970's house has a walk-out basement with a deck above. But the deck needed handrails. It's an eight-foot drop to the concrete below the deck, which sounds a bit dangerous. I thought it looked kind of bare... like a face without a ... [... more]
Hammer Zone |
Cutting Simple Dog-Eared
Home improvement information about cutting a large volume of dog-eared fence boards. The first step was to cut one picket exactly 4 feet long. I made all the pickets from 12 foot long treated 1x6's, which gave a picket cost substantially less ... [... more]
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Porch Flooring
Tongue-and-groove flooring is pre-primed and installed on the porch framing. To repair the porch similar to the original design, the owner of this old house purchased a large quantity of Southern Yellow Pine tongue-and-groove flooring. Some ... [... more]
Hammer Zone |
Building Custom Lattice
Home improvement information about making privacy lattice from thin wood slats. Thin strips of treated lumber are miter-cut and laid out on a piece of foam. The overlap points are stapled and the staple points are flattened out. While building a ... [... more]
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Installing Composite
Composite (wood and plastic) decking is installed on conventional deck framing. Special attention is given to fastening this synthetic, no-maintenance material. A lot of treated-wood decks have been built in the last couple of decades, and many ... [... more]
Hammer Zone |
Installing Synthetic Handrails
The stair nose angle is determined and the wood posts are cut to length. The sections of handrail are assembled. Top mounting brackets are modified but the bottom brackets have to re-invented. Much agony ensues as sections of railing are ... [... more]
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Building Basic Deck Stairs
Supporting structure is added to the deck frame, stair stringers are laid out to visualize the project, holes are dug for handrail posts, stair stringers are attached, then riser and tread surfaces are installed. I recently modified a deck for ... [... more]
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Building Traditional Handrail
Building handrails from turned balusters (also called spindles) is one of the more challenging jobs I have done. Flat horizontal handrail sections are a moderate challenge, but the sloped handrails for the stairs are the tricky part. The only way ... [... more]
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