How to Build a Stair Railing in 7 Steps

Determine Your Railing Style

Before you start building a stair railing, you’ll want to determine what style you’re going for: traditional or modern. The style determines everything about your approach, including the types of material you order and the tools you’ll use. Your budget will also come into play here; for example, a wrought iron railing costs more than a wood railing due to the specialized skill involved in fabrication.

While a traditional stair railing is often made of wood, more modern stair railings use metal spindles or horizontal spindles made with stretched cable. If you decide to go the metal route, you can cut the flat metal bar with a metal blade and bolt things together.

Measure for Materials

Using graph paper, draw out a rough plan for your stair railing project. A visual aid will help you determine how much wood or metal you'll need to purchase for all the various sections that comprise a stair rail. Mark down the numbers and check off each portion of the drawing as you go to get an accurate materials list, then order 5% to 10% of extra material to ensure that you have room for mistakes on cuts and errors in calculations. 

Mount the Columns

The most important safety consideration when building a stair railing is how the columns tie into the overall structure of your building. People trust that a railing can hold their weight as they lean against it or use it as support, so you must ensure a solid connection for these main pieces. 

If you're attaching a wood railing to a wood floor, you'll need special connector brackets that are sturdy enough to create the right joint between them for supporting weight and twist. The same goes for when you’re connecting a metal bracket to a wood floor, though it’s likely that you’ll be using a slightly different combination of attachments that could include nuts and bolts instead of nails and screws. 

If you’re connecting the columns to a concrete floor, you’ll want to use a hammer drill and concrete fasteners to make the tie-in completely secure.

Cut the Spindles

If you’ve ordered your spindles—also called a baluster—from a railing supplier, you probably won’t need to be making cuts to their standardized sizing. If you’re building your stair railing from scratch, you’ll want to make the height between 34 and 38 inches to keep within commonly sized levels. 

Make your first cut on a templated piece, and then use that piece to create the rest of the balustrade. This ensures that it's all level when installing everything, including the railing itself.

Install the Spindles

Photo: Monty Rakusen / Image Source / Getty Images

You’ll need an extra pair of hands to install the spindles. The railing has a notch on the bottom that fits into the spindle but if you’re installing, say, 13 uprights at the same time in a single section, you’ll need to do them mostly all at once and balance the uprights while you work. Slowly drop the railing down onto the spindles and nail or bolt them into the floor as you go.

Install the Stair Railing

The stair railing installation step coincides with the spindle installation, but you’ll want to use this time to ensure that everything is level and tied into the superstructure of your home. This is also a good time to put on the finishing touches like caulking or glue.

Stain or Paint the Railing

Complete all of the DIY tasks and save finishes for the final step so you don’t ding or mar your pieces as you’re doing the installation. 

When using a wood product, stain and then varnish the sections all at the same time. If you've used metal for most of the railing, take a good linseed oil product and wipe everything down to give it a nice sheen and prevent corrosion.