Need suggestions for updating this staircase (and making it safer!)

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

We recently bought a home that was built in the 80s. The spindles (balusters?) on the staircase are too far apart from each other -- about 6 inches. We have 3 young children and the spindles are so far apart that our kids can fit their entire bodies through. We have to get this fixed before we can move in. The sellers are giving us $1,000 toward updating the staircase.
What are our options? We don't have any of the same spindles used (each one is hand-fluted, very beautiful!), so we can't simply adjust and add more. Could we put a smaller spindle in between each existing one? Does anyone have photos of staircases with alternating spindle styles?
We were already planning on painting portions of the staircase white in order to update it.
Any and all suggestions welcome.

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Comments (2)

klem1
7 years ago
IMO noone will take on liability of useing installation methods you find on the net and pass along. But to answer your question,yes it should be possible to add additional spindels. Alternating size and/or design can add interest,esp when there are that many pieces. Someone made the existing "beautiful hand fluted ",someone else can duplicate them if you want them to match.
rwiegand
7 years ago
Making more matching spindles shouldn't be hard, they look like a simple square with a fluted edge-- you just need to match the profile of the flute, which is almost certainly a standard router bit profile.

Many old housed have mixed spindle patterns on staircases, so there's plenty of precedent for that.

A "quick fix" alternative would be to screw plexiglas panels to the balusters