From Scary to Awesome: A Newel Post Story
“The newel post in the 1856 home on Oakland St. was 19” high. AKA: Terrifying.”
When we moved into the Oakland St. house, one of our first safety projects was the newel post and baluster/handrail combo on the upstairs balcony. At just 19” high, not only was it not up to code, it was downright scary! We wanted to keep the architectural integrity of the existing newel post, so rather than replace it, we built it up and built out the new balusters and handrail from there.
The original newel post had a single section and supported the handrail at just 19" hight.
We sprayed a coat of paint on while the downstairs floors were still destroyed, as we knew the floor guy would sand any paint overspray right off.
This is the ghostly look of the trim painted before we tackled the walls or railing.
We first used a double-threaded steel rod to connect the internal 4X4 from the original newel post to the new one.
Then we cut the post down to size. Tall enough to raise the railing up to code height.
We tore out the old balusters and hand rail.
And then began building up the new newel post section, which is a collection of flat pieces and decorative trim put together in such a way that they look like one substantial piece.
Here's the first view of the trim added to the post.
In this picture, we're halfway through adding the taller balusters and reconnecting the original handrail. Our drill got a workout - we drilled holes in the top and bottom of 42 balusters as well as corresponding holes in the baseboard and handrail to receive the dowel pins that hold everything together.
In this picture, Jim is holding the old baluster up next to the new one, to show how much lower the old railing was. Man, was that scary!
Side view of the newel with the trim work and the decorative collar that hides the transition from old section to new section.
It's the wood filler and caulk that makes the multiple trim pieces look like one solid piece. We're halfway through the filling/caulking/sanding process here.
First coat of paint on the new post!
And the finished product! We re-used as much of the old railing as we could and built the top part of the newel post to match the original lower part. If you didn't know about the project, you'd never guess it wasn't always that way!
