Hi all, thought I'd post a project from a bit earlier this summer which ended up being the toughest project I've worked on yet. Although I've never done a curved railing before, it was the logistics of the project that made it so difficult. First off, I came in late on the project, the steel worker on the job wasn't able to fabricate it, so I wasn't involved with the design process and all I had to go off of for a set of plans was a couple of photos from a magazine. At this point the rail had to be fabricated on site, had i been involved with the project from the get go, i think we could have figured out a way to build it in the shop and then crane it up, but it was too late for that. Second, the project was already 6weeks behind and the clients were living in a motel room bc their previous house had sold and they were chomping at the bit to move in. The job site was in one of the Penthouse Condos on top of a 14 story building requiring two elevators to get up to the site, one to the 12th floor and then another very small elevator(or stairway) to the 14th floor. This second elevator was too small for 8' materials and as slow as you can imagine, 30 feet per minute which seems like an eternity in a small stuffy box.

The Gen. Contractor originally said i could bolt the hossfeld in the kitchen area(empty at the time), which was then outfitted with cabinets and equipment 3 days later and then the living room which got a brand new prefinished hardwood floor a few days later. Using the Hossfeld in the condo was out, to say the least, but we did use it in the shop with a jig for the mezzanine and used the Portabender for everything else(a very handy little tool) which was done on site. On the day we move most of our equipment in to the condo we were greeted by half a dozen movers moving furniture in, so now i not only had an expensive hardwood floor directly under where i was working, but a baby grand piano, mirrors, a hand carved privacy screen, two full sized glass door wine cellars directly the the bottom of the stairway, and a couple of statues to work around and not destroy. I was on the porch talking to my lawyer as all of this was happening and he assured me that I would in no way be liable for any damages now. I finally told the client that there was a 50/50 chance that her stuff would get ruined if she moved any more in and that pretty much took care of that. Due to the floor and furniture, the entire rail had to be tig welded to avoid spatter and smoke. I chose to use cold rolled bar stock(3/8"x1-1/2")for the top and bottom bar of the rail so I didn't have to worry about mill scale with the TIG welding, but it proved to be really difficult to form, it was a lot stiffer than Hot Rolled steel. Figuring out the curve and the twist for a curved staircase was a taxing experience as well. We finally got, but it took longer than i expected and it about drove Rob(guy helping me) and I insane.

Even though the rail should have been one of the first things completed in the remodeling process, it was the last and i had up to 8 other contractors working on the stairway at the same time. I would come in in the morning to find my equipment moved out of the way and parts of the stairway i was working on sheathed, lol. I finally gave up being polite and would just rip something down if it was in my way. After a couple of meltdowns the other contractors finally got the gist that the rail had to be finished before they could finish their tasks. The irony was pretty ridiculous, all of these people trying to rush to get things done just slowed me up which in turn prevented them from getting done, lol. It was really insane at times. With having to be so careful not to destroy things that shouldn't be there, waiting for people to clear out so i could work, redoing things that other contractors changed, looking for tools that had been moved, etc the job took a lot longer than it should have. I had almost 40 man hours of waiting, 4 hrs us watching movers, 4 hrs waiting for the elevator to get repaired so we could get our tools, etc.

Thank God I had my friend Rob helping me, no way I could have finished the project and stayed somewhat sane without his help.

Anyway, blah blah blah enough background and on to the picts. Here are a few of the project right after we finished, it has been painted by now, but I want a photographer to take the final picts, so I'll post some of the painted rail then. All of the pickets are are custom made and the shoulder detail on them were hand "carved" with flapper discs. On the stairs, every picket is a different length and cut angle in order to keep the ridge of the shoulder the same height. All of the corners on the cap rail had to be custom fit by cutting them down the middle bending each half and then rewelding. This process ended up flattening the profile, so I then had to build up the center with mig welds and carve the profile back in using a flapper disc. The cap rail got a burnished finish with linseed oil and the pickets and structure of the rail were painted black.

Condo Rail 1

Condo Rail 2

Condo Rail 3

Condo Rail 4

Condo Rail 5
Condo Rail 6

Condo Rail 7