All How-To Topics
Better than Plumb
|
|
Painting stairs is no fun
comments (0) August 4th, 2008 in Blogs
Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large
no recommendations
When I bought my old house nearly 20 years ago, it had an old but not original set of steep winder stairs with no handrail. My wife and I both fell down them several times because we made the mistake of descending in stocking feet. I knew I would have to rebuild the stairs…someday.
A couple of years ago my friend and former colleague Andy Engel wrote a book for The Taunton Press about building stairs, and he needed a project to photograph for his chapter on winders. So I hired Andy to build my stairs, and I took a week off from work to help him. (I think he charged more as a result.)
We got the stairs built and usable (now the only one who falls down them is our German shepherd, Zack, who has trouble negotiating the turn at the bottom). Andy got the photos he needed. And of course, the stairs remained unfinished for two more years.
Well, I’m finally building the balustrade, and I’ll share photos in a future blog. Last weekend, though, I spent two days with a paintbrush in hand, priming and first-coating as much as possible. I learned how tedious it is to paint risers, cutting in against varnished treads.
But I also needed to paint 58 balusters before I installed them, as I damn sure didn’t want to paint them in place. The question was what to do with 58 balusters while the paint dried. I knew that I would have to hang them up somehow. So I banged a 4d finish nail into the end of each one and bent the nail over with needle-nose pliers to make a hook. But where could I hang them? Then I remember the new clothesline that I had just installed. Problem solved.
posted in: Blogs
|
|
|
|
-
How to Paint Fiber-Cement Siding
Painter Jim Lacey shares some tips for caulking and painting fiber-cement siding. read more
|
|
About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
Comments (0)
You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.