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Half-walls for stairs verses railing and spindles? Any ?

9 years ago

Trying to decide if its worth an extra $2450 to have the builder upgrade the standard half-wall for the stairs to railing and spindles. The stairs would be in the foyer (u shaped) and the half wall would extend to the great room. I'm thinking I can use this "half wall" as a book shelf or something useful, since the condo is smaller that what we previously owned. I'm already over budget on the upgrades by $10k and have already upgraded the railings on the 2nd floor. Anyone do half-walls for stairs and loved it or regretted it?? Thanks for your opinions.

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Comments (5)

pwanna1
9 years ago
I LOVE my 1/2 walls. In my last house we didn't want to pay the upgrade and I never regretted the decision. In fact, for our current build, we opted to get 1/2 walls instead of the included railings. It makes a nice wall to hang art on...make sure they are trimming out the walls...our first house they tried to get away without doing that.
singinglizzie thanked pwanna1
amberm145
9 years ago
In addition to the cost, the extra railings would have been visual clutter to me. I don't have a great photo, but this is what I do have. I think the small amount of rails showing makes them stand out more than a whole lot of railing would.
singinglizzie thanked amberm145
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Okay so I really need your guys help! The original pic I posted was of the current house b/c I wasnt able to get to the new house at the moment. The carpenter who did this doesn't seem to want to make the time to come and fix it... Please see pics of the new railing, inspector said just to do a straight cut on both pieces of wood and to place an "S" piece of wood to connect the two. But where the spindle is concerns me, I feel like the "S" would almost skip over the spindle, and we cannot remove the top spindle because then the opening between spindle and wall would be too big! Attaching pics-opinions please..... (Carpenter asked US to pick up the pieces??! We have no idea how to measure and what we're doing?!). What else would we need? I think the inspector mentioned something about a plate to go underneath where it connects? (and I guess that piece against the wall, will need to come off). Thank you in advance..
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Thank you Saypoint. Oh I like those brackets much better than my white ones and prefer without the wall plate. I like your newel too. Have you ever had a shirt (darn hoodie or comfy sweater pockets) get caught up on the rail? It might just be a me issue with my kitchen cabinet knobs and my short height! I'm wondering now why we have the railing going into wall plates. Do you think it has anything to do with extra support because my railing is so long? Actually the bottom of rail is directly into the wall. This one looks a little thicker than mine. If I'm going to keep the same spindles with the square I'm assuming I should repeat the square part in the newel. Saypoint I really like your newel paired with those spindles. I think I prefer that over the blockiness (is that a word?) of what I have going on currently.
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OK, you all have convinced me to eliminate the oak look of the risers. While I'm too conservative to paint them, I'm thrilled with the many options for stick on riser decals that can be readily removed, including one with the pattern I've been nuts about for ages! It's called Astra, here. BUT -- back to the newel post/handrail for the upper section of this stairway.....previous comments were that we don't have the open wall for the spindles and we have no place for a newel post. I need to understand if the change I want to make isn't feasible, when it seems to me like it should be...please helps!
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Katie Gooding
9 years ago
I'm not a big fan of the half wall look, however I can see it being nice if you don't have much wall space overall. Also, if you are already over budget that might be a place where you go with the standard walls and if you don't like it save up some money and change it a few years down the road. Odds are what's popular now (black metal spindles?) won't be in a few years anyway.
singinglizzie thanked Katie Gooding
User
9 years ago
I chose half walls to save money. I do have cable rail going in at the top, though. Like others have said, I also needed some wall space for art, as we have so many windows east and west.
singinglizzie thanked User
singinglizzie
Original Author
9 years ago
thanks for all the comments! I feel better already. Starting to stress out about all the options since we have champagne taste. I think the half walls will work on the main floor. They will be capped in white trim - so should look alright.

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