Rotted Balusters - seeking solutions.

[Sashguy]

OK, Here's a kickstart. I replicate spindles a bit differently than most.
Pull a couple good ones, clamp them to either side of the lathe and pull a saw blade across the top of the two good ones. A bit of sanding and you have an exact copy

[Wackyshack]

I just checked out a lathe....quite fancy machine. They are worth the money people charge to make copies from, but I was looking for a less expensive fix that looks period correct. The balusters I had copied 8 years ago were $25 each and I know the price went up since then (and the guy who made them did not make the rings fat and round. They were fine for the back staircase, but it was obvious the extras I had made for the front porch didn't match the existing ones )
We were already locked in and in the process of fixing the pool liner when the water heater tank went, and then the rider mower died. (we have over an acre and needed to replace it). All of our repair/restore funds were depleted by March, and you all know the drill, the house is needy on its own schedule whether the owner can keep up or not.

[Corsetière]

Corsetiere I needed that laugh!!! Thanks!

It seems like a Scottish insult!

[Vala]

One of the joys of living in a small town in Maine is that due to our size, we are not required to adopt the Uniform Building Code. that allows a lot of leeway when doing 'restoration' or 'improvements' My new (1991) railings on my front porch are 28" high. Although, when I build for customers, for liability I build to code.

How small of a town? I have a rotted column base but I've been afraid to have it repaired because it would require jacking up the porch and I refuse to end up risking being forced to get a high porch rail. We're a town of about 7000. I have a 24" porch rail.

[Wackyshack]

Corsetiere, glad to see the laughing emo. I would have been in fear that I might have said something off color.

[SkipW]

One of the joys of living in a small town in Maine is that due to our size, we are not required to adopt the Uniform Building Code. that allows a lot of leeway when doing 'restoration' or 'improvements' My new (1991) railings on my front porch are 28" high. Although, when I build for customers, for liability I build to code.

How small of a town? I have a rotted column base but I've been afraid to have it repaired because it would require jacking up the porch and I refuse to end up risking being forced to get a high porch rail. We're a town of about 7000. I have a 24" porch rail.

Total pop is about 2000, I don't know what the State (or Fed) requirement is to adopt UBC, it used to be 3000 but I think that has changed.

One solution I have used in the past is to build the rail of choice and then a 'decorative topper' to meet height requirements. The topper is basically a new top rail with some decoration underneath between the desired top rail and the new one. After inspection, on a dark and cloudy night, while wearing black....well, you get the idea

[Texas_Ranger]

Someone - Daniel, was that you? - used a plain piece of galvanised pipe to increase the height of their porch railing without modifying the original. Looked quite sleek and simple to me.

[SkipW]

/\ great idea, and easy to remove when the time comes....

[Vala]

I think oldhouseguy.com also said you could pile dirt around your porch to make it seem like your porch wouldn't appear too high for code. idk if anyone has done that.

[phil]

the way I see it , no you cant' add the horizantal rails because it will then be climbable. it looks nice and you seldom see railings like those anymore because they don't meet code. i think the code for no railings is 18 inches, so you could raise the ground and not need a railing but that's a considerable difference from 4'

if the baulsters are rotten you could repair them by letting them dry pout and dunking them in epoxy, you could make a vacuum chamber to do that in so you can suck some of the air out and make it penetrate better. You could add some square or round bits to extend the baulsters and cut them off and add some to the bottom. You could choose to ignore the code but it won't relieve you from liability if some drunk falls and sues you.

It doesn't matter who lives there. the code is the same for all if you choose to build outside of it then I doubt any of us will loose sleep over it. I think if it were me I'd pick up some large dowelling. like 4 inch or whatever.. made from somethign rot resistant. i'd cut the dowels and drill about a 1/2 x 1" deep hole in each and I'd use dowels to connect the new parts to the old. I'd do all the posts the same. you could even just use square sections at the bottom and if you wanted to balance it add them to the top as well so it's concentric.

you can do a lot on a wood lathe and they aren't the most useful machiens to fill your basement with. If you like turning bowls and making spondles you can always buy one and play with it and make it a hobby or be the "local turner" after you are tired of t and it takes up too much space for your needs , pass it on and get your money back.

commercially , to make things like that it would now be done on a CNC machine. you can turn them on just a lathe but it's a lot of standing behind a chisel and you;ld need a template to guide you in some manor. You can remove material much more quickly by rotating the spindle slowly and using a router bit to do the work for you. That could be accomplish whit a CNC router or something as simple as a home made jig so you can turn the workpiece by hand against a router bit.

there are other ways of making round parts. I have one of these craftsman jigs. you clamp the piece in and turn the crank and it moves a router across to create barley twists and things ( or spindles) without need for a lathe. I have seen a lot done with various methods of rotating the wood against a router bit. They show my craftsman jig as a "routerlathe" I have yet to try using the thing.

http://woodtools.nov.ru/projects2/WoodP ... ag%201.pdf

If it were me I'd extend the dowels to the length you require and place them so you can't get a 4 inch ball or 10 cm ball through any opening if you can do that without affecting the look too much. the problem is you might need more spindles to get them any closer if they are already too far apart.

I also have a similar issue. My porch has ugly pickets. I bought some fir and cut lots of it to full dimension 2x2? stock. I plan to run them over my tablesaw with a jig to make them taper about 1/8th" or so on each side and pit the thinner end to the top. I previously made the top railings from 2x6 cedar and round cornered it all. It looks and feels ok and I'm not particularily crazy about changing those railings but I learned afterward that they won't pass because they are too wide and someone theoretically could sit on them. My front railings are low but they are part of the original design but my back porch is obviously added later so it "needs" to conform

Phil