Okay, so whose great idea was it to fit a mopstick handrail along the panelled wall? Mine, ah righty ho. The other half is rummaging for his passport as I type in a bid to get as far away as possible before he gets volunteered for any more of these crazy projects. He, he, he - who said house refurbishment would be easy?
I know what you’re thinking, why bother with a handrail when you can use the dado rail to support yourself on the stairs? We’ve done this for a couple of reasons; firstly, because our property survey recommended adding a handrail to improve stair safety and secondly, because it just seemed like the right thing to do.
My
advice to anyone thinking of fitting a mopstick handrail is to get the
professionals in if you can afford it as this job is a darn sight more
technical than it first appears. No
kidding there were a couple of times I thought the other half was going to push
me down the stairs and that was before I eventually burst into tears of
frustration at the complexity of it all.
Seriously, unless you are bonkers, get an experienced person to do
this!!!
Getting brackets into position is tricky
Then there’s building regulations to consider. Yes, unbelievably there are some that apply to stairs specifically to heights for handrails or even the number of handrails you might need so ensure you’ve done your homework before getting started.
Another load of endless YouTube surfing for tutorials on how to fit handrails to stairs but having finished this task, I can honestly say this is not something I’d ever really want to do again. Getting your brain round the mechanics of positioning each bracket has given me a large headache so instead of explaining how to do this, I’m just going to show you the fabulous fittings I’ve acquired to give my mopstick a touch of ‘Hollywood’ glamour.
These
beautiful octagonal brackets can be found online at Jackson Woodturners or Ebay.
Richard Burbridge octagonal polished chrome bracket
You
can also get matching octagonal end caps that screw onto the end of your
mopstick.
Screws onto the end of your mopstick
As
our mopstick is 3.6 m long, it’s not easy to move it about from place to place
making it difficult to cut down to size, drill holes into it or do anything
other than slide it up or down the stairs.
Something to bear in mind if embarking on this type of project.
Ends can be easily cut with a hand saw 
4 brackets to support a 3.4 m handrail
With
little room for manoeuvre, it was a bugger of a job to stain and varnish
before fitting I can tell you. The other
half only just managed to move it into the spare bedroom which doubled as a workshop for this next part of the job.
Using the spare room as a workshop 
Preparing to stain & varnish the mopstick
However, now that the challenges of installation have been overcome the end result is amazing!
 |
| Light oak stain & yacht varnished |
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