He may already own the Iron Ballusters and would need to purchase the wood ballusters. Virgil is correct, wood railings and ballusters are a totally different installation than wood railing and iron ballisters. And that is not counting the finishing. The iron ballusters probably come to him already finished so their may be additional expense with site finishing of the wood product. Just because a product may be less expensive to purchase in a raw unfinished and uninstalled state does not make it cheaper in the overall picture. Plus many builders charge a "change order" fee which would affect the price as well. This is of course all supposition on our parts and the only way to find out the truth is to ask and hopefully he will be honest with you in his response.

Hi, I'm pretty rusty on volute turnouts, but the component they send you will have a sweeping arc at the top to accommodate any rise/run up to 45 degrees. You need to super carefully measure your stair angle and cut the sweep of the volute tangentially 90* so that it's exactly at that angle. It connects to the straight rail with a rail bolt; the joint is 90*; a butt cut. Expect to pare away portions of both abutting members to get a smooth transition. IOW if both profiles of both were identical out of the box, that would be a miracle. You want to lay out the ballusters evenly on the treads first, then plumb them up to the rail. On the underside of the rail,mark the first regular balluster, then mark the last; the neat trick is to then use a set of dividers precisely adjusted to lay out tick marks on the rail in exactly even increments. Takes a few tries to get the setting just so, but it really looks well to have them spot-on. By "regular" I mean not part of the turnout of the volute below; those are "special". I usually use a figure of 2.25" from the face of the riser to the center of the first balluster; just allow 3/4" Min. between the nosing and the balluster. The intermediate ballusters are centered exactly between those closest to the risers. Not familiar with the shoes (I work in wood) but if they fit an angle up to 45* you'll be fine, as most rails are by code far less than 45*, more typical to be in the 40* to 42* range. I would take it that these trim covers are adjustable within a logical range of angles. I have never (yet) had an inspector hassle over a semi-enclosed stair railing not being continuous. We always make sure they are at the exact same height, and that the proper returns are placed to not catch on sleeves, etc. I bet there are good online instruction manuals for ascertaining and cutting the appropriate angles for the volute/sweep. I'm sure I have confused things further, so my work here is done. Casey

The router method you speak of is the old fashioned way the earliest that I have seen was 1764 around this same time it was also conmen to nail cleats to the stringers for the treads and risers. The router method has made a come back in the last 10 years or so. It makes for a tighter skirt board with less effort how ever all the treads must be attached to all the raisers to form a single unit. This method also nearly eliminates squeaking. How ever I would think that 4Â is a little far for no support in the middle and any bounce is completely unacceptable. All wood that comes in contact with concrete should be treated. My personal opinion is that the front where there is one 2x4 should be doubled and all the cleats that are nailed to the wall should have 2x4 from the deck to the floor. The latter my be over kill but thatÂs how II would have done it.

Just checking on the cherry. Can't say I'm too fond of oak myself. There are few instances where balustrade removal and replacement work out too well unless you're disassembling the stair re-milling and reassembling it. Even then unless you are talking about a stair that's made out of a rare or exotic lumber that would exceed the cost of the time and labor of doing so It is not often the best practice. I would still use care taking it apart and use it to make something else. How solid are the newels, are they loose surface mount or do they go into the floor? Iron is nice. You can either use a metal rail or wood on top of it. For a long while iron/steel balusters were a bit less expensive than wood but now they are comparable. The wood rail will usually be less expensive than the metal and easier to install. Newel posts can be either as wood newels match the iron quite well. A few of the things I was mentioning about not being correct in the drawings were the balusters and newels. The newel is an Arcways product whose turning is sized for the 30" rail heights of days long gone by. Note the extremely tall base. The balusters are StaiParts Inc. made for the same. The upper turnings don't even come close to matching the rake of the stair which is common for too many stair part manufacturers. Even with the stair and balcony rail set to the highest height in order to use a closer matching baluster combination to make it less noticeable. Arcways however does have some fabulous rails and fittings, checks their small orders for matching, offers cherry as a stock item and will sell directly to homeowners. They also carry iron and steel balusters. I believe OakPoint sells direct and Crown sells through Brosco/Brockway Smith, 84 Lumber and even a few Lowe's locations as well as numerous stair companies. Use the dealer locator on their website. Both have a good selection, have cherry as stock on some of their profiles, good quality and a product line that looks correct for todays codes. "Solid" or one piece treads sound nice but they are not really what you want unless they have relief milling on the underside and even then it's not much of a guarantee against checking or cupping especially if they are only 3/4 thick". How will the 1 1/4"+ overhang hold up? Construction adhesive and a finish nail through the top of the finish isn't going to last too long and will squeak like crazy after a while. A typical tread is 1 1/16" thick and will be made of three to 5 pieces. Cherry treads are most often made "in house" from random width/length material and a good stair shop will cut out any sap wood, match the grain and the leading piece will be well beyond the riser. Engineered treads are also available but like everything they have their pros and cons and I think the cons still outweigh the pros. The open left end should have a return nosing mitered into the front left corner and extend past the next riser by the same distance as the overhang with a scotia below. That is the dark piece I am showing on the edge of the tread in the image above. If you go through your phone book or search for stair companies or stair manufacturers and not stair part manufacturers you should find a few. If you call a stair parts manufacturer they will direct you to someone in your area that they sell to. I was looking for the dimension of the face of riser to face of riser or the run. I'm assuming 7" is the height? Floor to floor height. From the top of the plywood where the upper stair lands to the top of the vinyl on the landing and from the top of the vinyl on the landing to the top of the vinyl(?) in the basement. If the vinyl is flat I would agree with keeping it in place if the glue has failed and it's lifting remove it and in either scenario use a quality felt paper underlayment. Did you already place the order with the millwork shop? How soon do you need to get this done? I really think it would be in your best interest to explore all avenues and plan out the whole project before you buy anything. As Casey noted above it is often cheaper to remove all and replace. It would take you less time to install the two units than it would to even do one single tread.