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.

Hi all, just finished installing my latest rail. The design is pretty straight forward, but I tried something new with the posts, which I like a lot. As some of you know, I have issues with railings that have any give to them. Since most of my work is used in remodels, I usually don't have the luxury of cutting through the floor and tying the posts to the floor joists, so I have been experimenting with different post/base plates to try to get a rigid post/rail and I think i've finally found it. I used a 3/4"x5"x5" base plate, much heavier iron for the posts, and 6 lag screws to attach it to the floor. This post in combination with the 1"x3"x11ga rectangle tube at the top of the rail resulted in almost no wobble.

forged iron railing with birds in the branches.