Thread: Installing Newel Post in Concrete stair

Originally Posted by StuartP

Can anyone offer advice as how to install a Colonial style newel post into a precast concrete staircase that is to be built in my new house. My preffered option would be to have the builder leave a mounting hole in the cast of the first step and landing to so I could mount the newel post with epoxy cement after the stairs have hardened. Would this be suitable? If not what mounting system is best?
Stuart

We used to get the concreter to put a "T shaped plate" into the concrete.

8"high by 4" wide attached at right angles to another plate about 4"x 6" with angled bits welded on to give more surface and keying points into the concrete.

Sink it into the concrete so that about 5" stick up. Slot the newel post and slip it over the top of the plate. Drill through post and plate and bolt.

All fittings were stainless and never moved. We used a little piece of bead or whatever to hide the slot. In some cases we had a stainless "boot" made that slipped on the post before fitting and slid down over the lot to hide it.

A couple of customers loved the boot because it proctected the edges of the post from rampant toys, vacuum hoses and kids.

HTH.

's solution sounds really neat, but I can see one problem, it relies on the concretor to hang the bracket in the right place before pouring the concrete. Same goes for getting a hollow cast in place as well. If you can trust that the steel will be correctly placed then great. If not then getting a 40mm core drilled in afterwards so that you can epoxy a bracket arrangement with a 40mm tube on the bottom of it in afterwards would be another way.

Mick who rarely trusts others to do as they should

Originally Posted by journeyman Mick

's solution sounds really neat, but I can see one problem, it relies on the concretor to hang the bracket in the right place before pouring the concrete. Same goes for getting a hollow cast in place as well. If you can trust that the steel will be correctly placed then great. If not then getting a 40mm core drilled in afterwards so that you can epoxy a bracket arrangement with a 40mm tube on the bottom of it in afterwards would be another way.

Mick who rarely trusts others to do as they should

Have to agree about the concreters Mick. In a lot of cases I went and did it myself while they were pouring.

I only had one bloke that couldn't read a plan but fortunately he missed by the width of the post and we mounted the plate on the side of the post but it caused some consternation (read mass panic and more blaspheming in which his heritage was vastly insulted) for a while.

Originally Posted by

........ it caused some consternation (read mass panic and more blaspheming in which his heritage was vastly insulted) for a while.

, I hope that true to form you then quickly deleted those utterings and closed the discussion.


Peter.

I can see the problem would be getting the concreter to fix the stirrup in the right place. I have seen a fixing in a hardware shop that has a 4" base plate with a 3" piece of steel welded at right angles across the centre of the plate. If this plate was fixed using 4 x 3" M6 Dynabolts into the cement, would it give enough lateral strength to the base Newel post as the base rail would also be anchored to this post?
Is it true that each city council has different regulations, and does the local council hold a copy of the regullations?
Cheers
Stuartp

Stuart,
the Building Code of Australia is used everywhere but there are regional differences. There is a body that's meant to oversee it and make sure that there is as little difference as possible (variations for climate and geography etc only). Councils are only meant to enforce the regs, however there are some inspectors that think that they're a law unto themselves. :mad:

Mick

Having fixing within the precast stair is always the best option but more often this will not be the case. Coming from a stairmaking background I have carried out the process below many times with full success.

Just dynabolt the newel post to the stair. To do this drill two 28mm holes at least 30mm into the post and then 10mm holes the rest of the way through. Once dynabolted then you plug up the 28mm holes with wood plugs, the wood turner at our factory would make then for us.

Ensure the dynabolts are spaced far enough apart to give good support to the post. You may need to use packers to get the post plumb.

You may or may not need to check out the post, it depends on where you want the centre line of the rail to be. In some cases the newel needs to be placed next to the second tread to get suitable support.


Daniel