Interior Stair Railings in Nashville, TN

Open Stairs in New Builds, Closed Stairs in Old Houses

The Nashville area has both ends of the staircase spectrum. Subdivision houses in Spring Hill, Smyrna and Mt. Juliet tend to put an open stair in a two-story entry, often with a balcony run along the upstairs hall, so the railing is the first thing you see from the front door. Older houses in East Nashville or in Franklin's Hincheyville more often have a closed stair between two walls, with a wall-mounted rail and a short run of balusters at the bottom. The two need different systems: an open stair needs newels bolted into framing at every turn and a guard along the balcony, while a closed stair mostly needs one solid rail at the right height.

Choosing the Parts

Every interior railing comes down to four parts: handrail, newel posts, balusters and the fittings that join them. Post-to-post systems run the handrail between newels and cost less. Over-the-post systems carry one continuous rail over the newel caps with goosenecks and volutes at the turns, which takes more fitting time. Newels can be plain box posts for a Craftsman look or turned posts for a traditional one. Balusters can be painted square wood, black iron or steel, or a mix. Whatever the handrail profile, it has to be graspable: in the 2018 code a round rail is 1¼ to 2 inches across, and wider shapes need a finger recess.

Anchoring Is the Part You Never See

A railing stays tight because of what holds the newels, not because of the newels themselves. Each post is bolted down into the floor framing or the stringer, and each baluster is pinned into the tread and the underside of the rail. In a finished house that can mean working from the basement or opening a small section of ceiling below; we tell you that before quoting, not halfway through. The 2018 residential code asks handrails and guards to resist a 200-pound concentrated load, and a nailed-down newel will not.

Related Work

If the rail and newels are sound and you only want new balusters, a baluster swap costs far less. A stair with no rail on the wall side needs handrail installation, and a post that has worked loose is a repair job first.

How long does it take? A straight run is often one to two days. Box newels, landings and over-the-post rail fittings take longer, and stain or paint adds drying time.

Questions About This Work