Cladding staircase

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Discobob

Established Member
Joined
28 Apr 2020
Messages
37
Reaction score
0
Location
North Wales
Hi All,

I am looking to clad the Newel posts and stringer (outside) on our staircase, while replacing the spindles, base rail and hand rails with oak.

what would be a good material to use to box out the newel posts in - I don't want to add too much to the dimensions. I have seen rolls of real veneer for the stringer - self adhesive - that I think I will use there.

I will hopefully be cutting it down using my track saw and then table saw.

Cheers
 
We do stair refurbs like this loads - mainly in oak.

I use solid 15mm oak to clad the newels. Pre - Making the boxes (But don’t glue them yet) using festool dominos so they fit snug around the existing newel. They need a bit of scribing before glue and cramp in situ - then sand down and finish. For the strings we use 6 - 12mm oak veneered mdf, And just trim with oak bead if necessary.

If your painting the newels I can’t see any reason why 9/12/15mm MRMDF wouldn’t suffice with cladding the newels.
 
LBCarpentry":1fxht9xl said:
We do stair refurbs like this loads - mainly in oak.

I use solid 15mm oak to clad the newels. Pre - Making the boxes (But don’t glue them yet) using festool dominos so they fit snug around the existing newel. They need a bit of scribing before glue and cramp in situ - then sand down and finish. For the strings we use 6 - 12mm oak veneered mdf, And just trim with oak bead if necessary.

If your painting the newels I can’t see any reason why 9/12/15mm MRMDF wouldn’t suffice with cladding the newels.

Wife doesn't want paint - although we have previously painted areas due to the carp the house builder put in (or rather - stained in/over)

We are looking at Oak for the cladding - if you use 15mm wouldn't that give an increase of 30% on the size of the Newel post though - Doesn't that make them look very boxy - or is it to give more strength to the box??

Where is a good place to source the oak from - preferably North Wales/Cheshire/Merseyside area - or that will do delivery

Cheers
 
Discobob":rr9amb9p said:
LBCarpentry":rr9amb9p said:
We do stair refurbs like this loads - mainly in oak.

I use solid 15mm oak to clad the newels. Pre - Making the boxes (But don’t glue them yet) using festool dominos so they fit snug around the existing newel. They need a bit of scribing before glue and cramp in situ - then sand down and finish. For the strings we use 6 - 12mm oak veneered mdf, And just trim with oak bead if necessary.

If your painting the newels I can’t see any reason why 9/12/15mm MRMDF wouldn’t suffice with cladding the newels.

Wife doesn't want paint - although we have previously painted areas due to the carp the house builder put in (or rather - stained in/over)

We are looking at Oak for the cladding - if you use 15mm wouldn't that give an increase of 30% on the size of the Newel post though - Doesn't that make them look very boxy - or is it to give more strength to the box??

Where is a good place to source the oak from - preferably North Wales/Cheshire/Merseyside area - or that will do delivery

Cheers
Well If you can neatly veneer an old newel and still have it looking fresh after even 1 year then Your a better man than I :lol:
 
LBCarpentry":3izonaax said:
Discobob":3izonaax said:
LBCarpentry":3izonaax said:
We do stair refurbs like this loads - mainly in oak.

I use solid 15mm oak to clad the newels. Pre - Making the boxes (But don’t glue them yet) using festool dominos so they fit snug around the existing newel. They need a bit of scribing before glue and cramp in situ - then sand down and finish. For the strings we use 6 - 12mm oak veneered mdf, And just trim with oak bead if necessary.

If your painting the newels I can’t see any reason why 9/12/15mm MRMDF wouldn’t suffice with cladding the newels.

Wife doesn't want paint - although we have previously painted areas due to the carp the house builder put in (or rather - stained in/over)

We are looking at Oak for the cladding - if you use 15mm wouldn't that give an increase of 30% on the size of the Newel post though - Doesn't that make them look very boxy - or is it to give more strength to the box??

Where is a good place to source the oak from - preferably North Wales/Cheshire/Merseyside area - or that will do delivery

Cheers
Well If you can neatly veneer an old newel and still have it looking fresh after even 1 year then Your a better man than I :lol:

The veneer is going to be on the staircase string - I know I will need to clad the Newel - in our house a veneered newel wouldn't last 30 seconds :D
The stringer is flat so that will be OK - The newels are turned for a big part of it - I am thinking about boxing it and filling the voids with resin to make it more solid and remove the boxing before cladding
 
Resin the voids? Come on that would be so OTT :lol: your a bolts and braces guy ain’t ya

Been a while - apoligies - but yes I am :) - the Newell is a two part affair that has a bit of movement on it (the bottom one - always has but NHBC said it was within specification!!)

I have never got to the bottom of would it be possible to just remove the top part of the newell leaving it suitable to connect another newell post in - or is the looseness a sign that even if I done this the new top part would still have movement

I have had another idea - putting a piece of flatbar in recessed, on three sides to give the strength to what is already there.

I am also looking at removing the bottom step which is a landing step that has a 90 degree turn to the stairs and using the step that is in that to make the staircase just a straight flight which will free up quite a bit of space in the hallway
 
I did exactly this 2 years ago, transforming a 1970s ranch style staircase to oak spindles, handrails and oak clad newels. I used engineered flooring for the cladding. took quite a bit of work, but looks pretty good now IMNSHO ;)
20181122_180559.jpg20181122_180511.jpg
Detail from above of the newel post cladding:
20180415_184711.jpg
Stringers were veneered and finished with hockey stick mouldings.
 
Last edited:
The newels were 90mm square IIRC, so ended up around 125mm square . They actually look better proportioned with the cladding on. The oak is 6mm thick, so will tolerate the knocks it is bound to get.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top