Interior & Exterior Railings & Ironwork:
Private Residence; Mathiessen Park, Irvington NY

Project Description

The slide show starts with the templating for the railing location for the curved section of the main stair and then moves on into the shop where we erected a form to copy the curve and rise of that stair and then shows some of the fabrication that went on there to build both the interior railing assemblies (courtesy of Bedford Ironworks) and the fencing that would be used around the perimeter of the property. The slide show then moves on to a point where the interior railings have just been installed for the front main stair case and the back kitchen stair.

Many people who see this project take special notice of the custom shaped wreath railing turn that wraps around the second floor newel post that makes up the kitchen stair railing. The owner decided she didn’t really like the lambs tongue ending on the kitchen stair railing and we all too happy to write up a change order and replace it with a vertical volute or what we is popularly sometimes called a “nautilus”. In fact skipping ahead in the story line you’ll notice that the balusters and the baluster spacing in the Westchester Magazine Home & Garden postcard look different than they do in the original main stair installation. After living with the railing for a week or so the owner decided she wanted a thinner baluster than the architects originally specified and wanted them spaced a little wider apart. We wrote another change order and after having new balusters turned on a lathe in a local machine shop took the railing assembly down, took it back to the shop and set it again up on the form and replaced the original 3/4″ with the 1/2″ diameter ones.

There’s a before and after photo set showing the passage way in the cover walkway to the garage where we installed a custom iron gate and the slide show goes on to show the faux balcony railings we installed on the 2nd floor exterior of the house.

Photo Gallery: Interior & Exterior Railings & Ironwork

Project Details

Client Private
Date Sept 2001
Skills Stair Lofting, Wreath Turn Fabrication, Welding.
Location: Private Residence; Mathiessen Park, Irvington NY
Architects: Radoslav Opacic AIA Architects
Project Managers: Chilmark Builders, Inc.
Metalwork: Bedford Ironworks

Photo Gallery: Interior & Exterior Railings & Ironwork

Project Feature: Sculpted Wreath Railing Turn

Many people who see this project take special notice of the custom shaped wreath railing turn that wraps around the second floor newel post that makes up the kitchen stair railing.

While there is a good discussion of Traditional Tangent Handrail on the THISisCarpentry website that typically is used in designing and fabricating these kinds of turns with this one while the thinking is still kept in mind the planning computations were thrown out the window and the talent of being a sculptor was essential.

Gallery...

Project Feature: Curved Railing Fabricated To Fit Existing Curved Wall

Most of the times when you are putting in a curved stair bounded by walls on both sides you fabricate and install the stair and then build your walls to fit snugly against the stairs but in this case that wasn’t going to happen. We had to template the existing wall to use as layout tool back in our shop.

Gallery....