Carpentry and Woodworking - Loose newel post

hi,

I have a loose newel post at the bottom of my stairs. it is a wooden newel post and I'm assuming the same one when the house was build 18 years ago.

it sits next to the bottom step, where there is a corner of the step cut away to allow for post.

It does not seemed fastened to the stair at all.

It is 3in wide.

I was thinking of putting 1 or 2 , 5 inch wood screws ( which by the way are hard to find around here!) into the stair it sits next to.

a couple of questions:

does this sound reasonalbe?

should I use a i washer as well? if so, ilm guessing I should use a spade bit so I can sink the screw and washer in enough to plug in with a wooden dowl and then pain it.


Thanks, I appreciate the help.

Use 2 screws - this will keep the post from rocking. You have the right idea using a spade bit first (the size of the washer) so you can hide the screw.

You might want to consider a star drive (torx) deck screw. They're tougher than ordinary wood screws. The combination of the harder metal and the torx drive greatly reduce the possibility of 'camming out' the head before the screw is set.

Depending on how deep you set the screw, you may have to get a bit that's longer than the traditional 2 inches.

The screws may hold for the short term, and the new torx screws are alot stronger than others, but I would recommend drilling a 3/16" pilot hole and 3/4" washer hole with a spade bit and use a 1/4" lag screw.

thanks to you both.

I'l try a lag screw since it's goin to go in the whole by the spade bit anyway.

It's also not easy to find a wood screw longer than 4"!

anyway, I'll let you guys know how it works out.