Carpentry and Woodworking - Baluster Re-work

Hi,

I am posting this message in several forums as I am not 100% sure under which one it really applies.

We are investigating what it would take to replace the balusters inside our home. They currently are white painted wood, approx. 30" tall under the staircase handrails leading up to the 2nd floor.

We would like to change these to wrought iron (brushed nickel color), but are not sure:
1. What it takes to remove wood and install iron in the same hole
2. Price estimates doing it myself or have a contractor do it for me.

We have 48 of them total.

Any and all input is welcome.

Thanks.

Take the railing apart and have the iron made to fit the sockets in the floor and bannister. Other than that, you will have to modify the receiving holes to accommodate the iron. This will be an exacting job, but not undoable if you take plenty of time and planning to kick it off.

Thanks chfite.

Any thoughts (or better yet numbers) on general costs?

I have a related question-

I'd like to replace carpeted treads with wood treads. This would also require removal of the existing balusters. To remove these, I would have to disconnect the wooden rail from the newel and the where it is connected to the wall at the top so I can free the balusters. Most if not all of the balusters appear to be loose so I should be able to reuse them.

Where the rail is attached to the newel, it appears that the rail end piece is made of 2 parts, and a cap piece was glued on to conceal a bolt/nut. Is this typical and can this be removed without destroying it? I suppose if I destroy the just the end piece of the rail I could find a replacement fairly easily.

At the wall, I can see a wood plug on the bottom of the rail which also hides hardware. I assume I can drill this out and replace the plug on reassembly. It won't be perfect but it's not really visible anyway.


Thanks

This is a tough subject to explain clearly. A widely cited work on this subject is:
Stairs: The Best of Fine Homebuiling from Taunton Press.

Cost? To remove, modify, and install metal balusters? ~$100 a foot.

I agree with the $100 a linear foot for the metal ones.

steel is expensive!

If you're planning on replacing the spindels going up or down the stairs, have fun.

There is a lot more involved than most people realize. You need to find the pitch of the stairs in order to know what angle to drill the holes at. There are tricks to the trade, but if you're not a handy person who has woodworking experience, this could become a very costly project. Some projects are better off left to the professionals.

I know how to do it, and it wasn't easy, nor was it done in a short amount of time. If you still want to know, I'll do the best I can to describe it.