Balusters

Let's face it, moving in the middle of remodeling isn't ideal. There was so much hope that all things would be DONE before we moved in. They weren't. Like our front door.

Confession: I'm still painting the kitchen cabinets. Someone posted on our neighborhood Facebook page today that they went away on vacation for five days and came back to completely painted cabinets. I don't even know this person, but I don't like them.

So, I thought I'd try to start updating again in between painting and unloading boxes! Today, balusters!

When we started the floor project, we knew the question of stairs would have to be addressed at some point. The flooring company wanted roughly $2,500 to redo the banister, stairs, and balusters. The balusters alone were $20 each. We have 64...you do the math.

I couldn't do it. We were talking sanding and staining. It wasn't rocket science—just back-breaking sweat equity. Totally underestimated just how hard that was going to be. The sanding... ugh. Y'all know how much I hate sanding. 

But then came the balusters. And when I priced them at Lowe's (cheaper than my Home Depot stomping grounds!) I could get the plain ones for about $7 each and the decorative ones for $10 each including the feet and the 9.25% Tennessee tax (can you tell I'm slightly bitter?). My project was less than half the asking price! I did have to drive around to find enough for my project. I have mad respect for contractors and the work they do, but I read the tutorials and everything said this was going to be easy despite never attempting to do anything like this before. And it actually was! But it was also extremely time consuming...hence the price tag. It took me about three days, and those were actually days where someone else was watching the kids.

I started with the flat banister because that just seemed easier. It was. 

1. Remove the old banister and all the nails. Nails... ugh. They kept breaking off. 

2. Drill a hole a half inch deep with a 3/8 bit in the tread. Drill a 1 1/2" deep hole in the banister. Lucky for me... that was already done! The hole needed to be a little deeper on the tread. 

3. Measure from tread to banister. Add 1 1/4" to the measurement. 

4. Cut the baluster. Not my favorite part. I used my miter saw and just replaced the blade with a metal cutting blade. Of course it took me half an hour just to change the blade, but no worries... now I'm a pro! But metal on metal...sparks flying everywhere. Nope. Not my favorite. That was freaky. Wear your eye gear. We're not burning corneas on this one. Also, remember that it's HOT after you cut it, and you shouldn't touch freshly sawn metal. 

5. Tape the top (not the part you stick in the banister—just below that) so glue doesn't drop down. Okay, I did that part, but now that I'm through it... it was actually easier just to scrape off any dripping glue.

6. Put the foot on the rod the correct direction. Double check it's the correct direction multiple times. (One of these isn't correct!)

7. Put gobs of glue into the holes. I used liquid nails and gorilla glue. Neither really did what I wanted so at the end, I recalled a blog I read once and filled the gaps in the base with hot glue. Once I had everything installed, I did actually go back with a hot glue gun to help fill the holes and removed any wiggle room. Anything that dripped down, I just used a knife to shove it back in the hole. That way, it still helped keep the balusters from moving. Whatever works ya'll!

8. Shove baluster into the banister, and then into the base. 

9. At this point you can tighten the allen nut on the foot, but I'm painting the treads so I didn't. 

And that's basically how the flat part went! Yay! The angled banister got hard at step 1. This is when NONE of the nails wanted to come out. It got increasingly worse with the fact that there were no holes in the treads, and I had to drill them. Drill on top of the screws that weren't coming out. I broke two drill bits before I went and bought this Mack-daddy bit (on the left)...overall I broke five bits in this process. I also typically used a 12V drill because it's smaller. Definitely needed the 18V I keep in a box in the garage. What a difference between the two! Hole drilling definitely required the 18V just FYI. Also, you're probably supposed to wear shoes for this kind of thing. I clearly don't.

Yep...not hard, but definitely time consuming. Step. By. Step.
I'm still painting, but you can at least see what they look like installed!

I would definitely recommend this project as a good DIY. Hopefully you have less balusters.