The Stairs Progress 2
In part one of our stairs progress post, we explained our plan and showed you how the staircase itself was constructed. Now in part two, we will cover the rest of the project, including how we did the DIY frameless glass! We've had a lot of questions from various people about this so here it goes:
Glass
When we initially decided that we wanted to replace the old rails with frameless tempered glass, we didn't think too much about how we were going to actually accomplish it. We knew it was possible though since we'd seen it in magazines, and that's all that mattered! I approached a bunch of different local glass companies and all of them gave me strange looks and said that they could probably supply the glass but I was basically on my own for planning and installation. Fair enough, not the first project in the house we've done ourselves!
We decided to go with locally owned and operated Newfoundland Glass and Service to supply the glass since they have consistently provided the best prices and are all around a great bunch of guys! (And they don't even have a website, so you know they're an OG Newfoundland company). Pretty much all the glass/mirrors in our house are from them. They showed a genuine interest in our project and were eager to give recommendations and answer any questions I had with the planning.
Using the cardboard box from our TV and good old math (trigonometry is finally becoming useful), we made templates for the three pieces of glass (the main staircase, the landing, and a smaller piece for the lower staircase). Three quarter inch diameter mounting holes were marked on the templates, staggering their placement with respect to each step to add stability. I also added mounting holes for a 90 degree corner bracket where the landing piece meets the main staircase piece and a single mounting hole on the lower piece of glass for a handrail bracket. I probably checked the templates for fit 100 times. Templates for tempered glass fabrication are NOT something you want to mess up because when it's tempered, it can't be cut or drilled (or it'll shatter into a million piecessszzOMG!!!!!).
Glass Mounting
We were going back and forth between floating the glass on stainless steel stand-offs or hiding the mounting hardware altogether. We decided to go with the latter of the two options and created wooden face plates to sandwich the glass between and simultaneously hide the drywall/stair junction and mounting bolts. The face plates were made from 1/2" birch plywood, cut with a jig saw to follow the contours of the glass and top step (made cardboard templates, shown below). The edges were veneered, and everything was clear coated with semi-gloss Varathane to match the flooring/treads. I drilled partial holes through the back of the face plates with a Forstner bit and drill press to make room for the mounting screws heads.
The wooden face plates also function as a housings for RGB LED strips. Low voltage wiring was fished down into the basement and back up into the living room, where the LED driver is connected to the same switched outlet as the ceiling edge lights in the living room. Frosted adhesive vinyl was applied to the edges of the glass to diffuse the light, which creates the Tron-like glowing lines.
When it came time to actually mount the glass, I called three friends over to help with the lifting. Mounting hole locations were transferred from the glass to the stair-side face plate with clamps and a pencil and the holes were pre-drilled, a little bigger than the glass holes to give some fudge room for the inside face plate's position to be adjusted. This plate would essentially be clamped in place by pressure from the glass once it was mounted.
To mount the main large glass panel, a 2x4 was screwed to the wall's studs to act as a ledge to hold the weight of the glass. The glass and inside face plate were then lifted onto the 2x4 and everything was lined up. A scrap piece of trim was screwed flush with first step to keep the front edge of the glass aligned and in place (photo below shows me removing that piece, after the glass was mounted successfully). With friends holding the glass in proper position (one person watching a level the whole time), through the mounting holes I very carefully predrilled the stringer with a 7/16" bit (shown above). The big lag bolts (plus nylon washers and PEX pipe, see below) were then torqued down with an impact driver and ratchet adapter. Bolts and nylon washers were purchased from Newfoundland Distributors Ltd., who had exactly what I needed in stock. To protect the inside of the glass holes from the lag bolts, I bought a few feet of PEX pipe that was just about the size of the bolts, cut off a piece a bit less than the thickness of the glass (1/2"), notched it to turn the "O" shape into a "C" shape, and clipped it over the bolt's neck like a collar.
The same process was used to mount the other two pieces of glass.
Once the glass was mounted, we stuck the outside face plate to the glass with this heavy duty double sided adhesive tape.
Rails
Ideally we'd have just the glass as the rail, but technically that's not considered a handrail by code (since you can't wrap your hand around and grip it). We decided stainless steel rails would look nice, but fabricating them was definitely outside our skill set. A few local places quoted us over $1000 for the two short rails we needed, which seemed crazy! One day I mentioned to my friend that we were having problems finding a place to get them made and out of nowhere he said "yeah my dad can do that", basically for cost of materials! It was a huge hook up.
I initially had drafted up a scale 3D model in SketchUp, but ended up making a full scale mock up with PVC pipe to guarantee fit. In any project that requires fabrication, if you can make a template, do it. It will ensure your pieces will fit and ultimately save you time and money. Our mockups were made from 1.5" diameter PVC pipe and glued together with PVC primer/cement. I bevel cut each pipe end so they would be vertical when the rail was mounted parallel with the stair slope. One of the two rails was given two 90 degree mitred joints to match the contour of the wall. I gave my friend the scale models and he came back with exact replicas in brushed stainless steel!
Stainless wall brackets (and a single glass mount bracket) from C. R. Laurence (purchased through Newfoundland Glass and Service) were used to support the rails. I used a tap and die set to mount the rails to the brackets.
So that's how we did the frameless glass and rails; full before and after coming soon!
23 Likes, 1 Comments - Chris Nicholas AKA thedoleboy (@dr.chrisnicholas) on Instagram: "Tapping the holes for the mounting hardware. #diy #theuncommonlaw #stainlesssteelrails"