Extreme How-To – September 2019

For our staircase, the location of

the old newels determined place-

ment of the new ones (to hide the

old post stumps).

At the top of the staircase,

the landing newel connects to a

guardrail which terminates at a

half-newel that is mounted to the

wall. A half-newel is just what it

sounds like—a matching newel

post that is cut in half lengthwise

at the factoryto mount flush

against a flat wall.

NEWEL INSTALLATION

While the old newel locations

worked fine for our stair design,

they did require notching the

newel bases to fit over the treads,

which presented an extra hurdle

during installation. For the upper

newel (also called the “landing

newel”), some dissimilar trimwork

on each side of the post meant

32 ExtremeHowTo.com

Carefully measure the newel for

placement and label all connec-

tion points with painter’s tape.

Building codes have specific

guidelines for stair construction,

including rail height and baluster

spacing.

The position of the newels

required us to cut notches in the

post base.

DIY

STAIR RAIL

INSTALLATION

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