Appropriate porch balustrade for 140 N. Porter
About five years ago, the porch steps on 140 N. Porter had rotted away. The owner hired a guy to rebuild them. He did so in treated lumber, but made newel posts that were not appropriate for the porch. Newels are to match the porch posts. He made square posts with a large cove chamfer. The porch posts are round. The newels need to be round. He added temporary 2 X 4’s as rails. Below is a picture:
The newel posts look terrible, and I hate the look of treated wood that is not painted. It has been this way for at least five years. The city has been after the owner for 30 years to put back the balustrades that they took off and to do the porch steps. They finally took him to court and he agreed to fix the situation. They did not make the deadline and had to go back to court. The judge gave them a month extension. My porch step rails finished were a feather in their hat. A friend agreed to do the balustrades in exchange for a fancy Woodmaster planer that the owner had that is worth about $2000. He had never used it. I agreed to do the stair balustrade and newels as a volunteer. I have known the owner for 30 years. He is now 82 and not physically or mentally capable of doing the work. I had just finished a porch where I made $400 so I committed that to this porch. I ordered a custom knife to exactly duplicate the existing rails.
Here are cutoffs of the top and bottom rails that I made. They duplicate the old exactly.
I duplicated the balusters exactly using a knife that I had. They have one bead down the middle which is unusual for this type of porch.
I turned newels from a 6 X 6 treated piece of wood. They were heavy and hard to manipulate. I also hand turned the top and base.
Here is the finished balustrade. Having the rails meet up to round posts was a challenge. The old saying applies her, “A little caulk, a little paint, makes a carpenter what he ain’t.”
One post had ten inches on the bottom and the base rotten, I remade those. Now, you can’t even tell it is new.
This is the post and base repaired. The bottom 15 inches and the base is new. Chuck Keysor did an amazing job blending the new with the old. You cannot tell it was replaced.
This is the new base I turned. The other half of the base is just 2 X material glued up.
Here is the color the porch floor and steps are to be painted. It is too cold to do it yet this fall.
Chuck Keysor spent months rebuilding the balustrades. apron and porch. He put in several new cement piers and then added new posts. He leveled the porch and replaced rotten floorboards.
Here are pictures with the lattice apron installed:
