Before you can renew or regenerate the steps, it is important to remove the stair spindles. If you want to paint the stair spindles, you also have to remove the stair spindles for that purpose. Spindles are of two types, wood & metal spindles. Wood spindles consist of a dowel pin that takes hold of its base to the fundamental stair tread. The handrail has fillers that take hold of the highest or uppermost point of each spindle in place. Metal spindles have screws that take hold of them to the stair treads and the over and upper-side of the handrail. Small removable covers can help hide these screws.
Easy Steps To Remove Wood & Metal Stair Spindles
Stair spindles or banisters are installed with the help of elements that can be taken apart without breaking anything. They are put together using a rail that is fastened or tightened with screws at the bottom. Inside the rail, the spindles are grasped in place with the help of slinky or snug smaller pieces of wood, known as filets that adjust into a groove in the rail. Taking apart a stair spindle is an easy process, in which you can remove filets as well as spindles one at a time in order. The top, as well as the bottom rails, can then be unfastened from the floor and wall.
Wood Spindles
- Lay A Thin Hand Saw Blade: First of all, place a narrow hand saw blade on the stair tread so that its teeth are positioned where the bottom of the spindle and the top of the tread touch or join. A small wooden dowel pin joins the two together. Move the saw in and out and up and down to slide underneath the spindle and then trim the dowel pin. Keep performing this process for each spindle.
- Spindle And The Newel Post: Proceed towards the top of the stairs and look betwixt the first spindle and the newel post, which are the main posts that support the handrail. Look below the handrail and you will find out a short piece of filler wood pressed in betwixt the spindle and the newel post. Pry this piece out with the help of a flathead chisel. With the help of a hammer, hit the back end of the chisel in order to get it out, if necessary. Take extreme care not to break the handrail edges.
- Pull The Top Of The Spindle: Draw & wrench the uppermost part of the spindle toward the top newel post in order to move it out of the bottom groove of the handrail smoothly. Continue with this process all the way down to the bottom spindle. Some spindles may have been secured in place using glue, so you may have to pull on these with the help of a quick tug in order to get them free.
Metal Spindles
- Remove The Decorative Covers: Firstly, take out the decorative covers from the bottom of the spindle base where it touches or joins the stair tread and down from the uppermost part of the spindle top where it joins the handrail. This, in turn, will expose the screws.
- Unfasten The Screws From The Top & Bottom Of The Spindle: Secondly, unfasten the screws from the top as well as the bottom of the spindle with the help of a flathead or crosshead screwdriver, which is totally dependent on the type of screws used.
- Remove All The Spindles: Finally, pull the uppermost part of the top spindle at the top of the staircase toward the newel post and get rid of it. Continue with this process as long as you have removed all the spindles down to the bottom newel post.