This job started off with simply looking at replacing spindles but turned into a much bigger and better finished product!
The customer wasn’t happy with her staircase which was constructed of old-fashioned ‘orangy’ pine. We had a couple of options:
- Sand down and strip all spindles, rails and posts and revarnish
- Remove spindles and replace but keep existing hand and base rails, plus newel posts and sand to revarnish
Stripping the spindles wasn’t really an option because of the way they had been carved; it would take to long and be too fiddly. So we removed the spindles with a view to replacing them with new.
Meanwhile, the customer had seen a glass finish and liked this idea, especially having lived without spindles for a few days, which had really opened up the living area.
Finished result is a fab staircase, the safety glass is extremely sturdy and fitted into brackets which mould to it, so there is no chance of it slipping.
The only problem now is keeping it clean with the dog putting its nose on it! Nice problem to have…
Mark Wheatley is a highly experienced carpenter with over 20 years’ experience in the trade. After leaving the Royal Marines Corp, Mark started an apprenticeship with a local carpenter where he learnt the trade and developed his love for all things timber