Perhaps one of the greatest ruses in recent decades, Milli Vanilli took the pop scene by storm in the late 80's with their debut album Girl You Know Its True. This debut album was so popular it earned them the 1988 Grammy for Best New Artist. In most people's eyes, this album was flawless. There was, however, one big problem that went unnoticed for almost 2 years...the album's title track was a complete misnomer...it wasn't "true." In fact, it was a huge lie. In 1990, it was revealed that neither "Milli" nor "Vanilli" actually sang on the album...instead, they simply lip-synced their way to fame. With their transgression made public, their Grammy was revoked and both men faded into obscurity...braided locks and all. As a child of the 80's and 90's, I often remind myself of this modern
day parable when I find myself tempted to take credit for another
person's work or ideas. With this in mind, I give you the following disclosure regarding my next big design decision.
Having finished fabricating and installing the newel posts on the outside of the stairs, the next step would be to weld on the top hand rail. Before placing my order with Pacific Steel, I began thinking about the opposite side of the staircase (the side that abuts the wall). My balance being what it is, I figured it might be a good idea to add a handrail along the wall in addition to the outside railing. Although the additional work didn't necessarily appeal to me, the prospect of mounting a railing directly to the wall certainly seemed far less daunting than all the work I had recently completed on the newel posts. While simple in concept, however, I still had to figure out the details of how I was going to attach 15.5 ft long piece of 1/2 inch thick steel to the wall. (Cue the music, here comes the plagiarism)
Click on the play button to hear the song...come on, you know you want to!
So here it is: I stole my bracket design from Bob Borson, AIA. Bob is a fantastic Architect based in Dallas, Tx. I learned of Bob when one of my friends turned me onto his blog: Life of An Architect.
The talented Mr. Borson
Bob's blog has quickly become one of the most visited architectural blog sites in the world...and its no surprise why. Bob manages to convey incredibly complex concepts into easy to understand and entertaining entries that appeal to both professional and lay persons alike. Ahem...he also doesn't go months without posting to his site (a feat I have yet to accomplish).
I have been following Life of an Architect for several years now and it never disappoints. As an architecture aficionado, I enjoy reading Bob's entries and learning about how architects think. A few years ago, Bob did a great post on a handrail he designed or one of his clients (if you care to read it, click here). With a vague recollection of this post, I went back to his site and was thrilled to not only see a design I thought would work perfect for my project, but also that there were actual schematics with dimensions and everything...score!
Brainchild of Bob Borson, AIA
For those not interested in reading the post, here is the concept in execution on his client's project:
Notice how the brackets appear to float into the wall. This is yet another illustration of my prior entry that discusses the notion of simple being hard. Stuff like this doesn't just happen!
After studying the images and schematics, I figured this approach was completely within my reach (novice welding skills and all). I started by fabricating my brackets. As usual, this involved the standard steel prep work I have previously discussed and then cutting all my stock to length:
Raw Materials. Each stack of steel will (god willing) become a bracket
As you can see from the image above, I modified the design a bit. Instead of using a square bracket as Bob used on his client's project, I opted for a rectangular bracket that would only necessitate me removing a small rectangle of dry wall directly overlying each 2 x 6 stud (as opposed to ripping out a huge section of drywall and installing additional blocking).
Welding these tiny pieces of steel together and keeping everything square was another story. I basically had to get creative with my welding magnets:
Bracket Fabrication
The Dirty Dozen (minus 4)
With my brackets fabricated, the last thing to do was mount them to the studs.
Bracket Mounted
As you can see above, I don't have as much depth to play with as Bob's project did (the consequence of a retrofit as opposed to new construction). So instead of an actual piece of dry wall being used as a patch, my brackets will just be covered with dry wall mud and tape. Here's a few more shots of the brackets after install:
With my brackets and newel posts finished, it was finally time to place my last order at Pacific Steel and then weld the handrails in place.
Okay, I'll let it go...I guess there really isn't anything "magic" about grinding a weld down
With both rails in place, the last thing to do was tie in the stair railing to the loft's railing and complete the returns on the wall-mounted handrail.
Tie in with the loft's railing
Handrail returns...and yes, I noticed--I totally jacket up the dry wall. This will be fixed when the brackets are covered.
Later this week the brackets will be covered with dry wall compound and all the blemishes I created will vanish. I still also have to paint all the railings and posts (they will be painted black)....THEN I can string my cables and call this phase of my project complete.
So there you have it...full disclosure and transparency: I Jon Myers stole my design from Bob Borson. Hopefully now I can get a good night's sleep. But before I sign off, let me point out that I did a few things different than Bob so as not to be accused of blatant, tit-for-tat plagarism:
I used rectangular brackets instead of Bob's square brackets.
I altered the dimensions of my brackets so that the vertical piece was longer than the horizontal piece to create an elevated railing profile for better hand clearance (if you don't believe me, go back and study the images)
I leveled my returns (i.e. made the returns parallel with the ground). Bob's design kept them in plane with the handrail.
Okay, I'll admit it--the 3 differences above are a bit of a stretch for claiming this as an original design. The fact remains, I still stole the basic concept of hiding the bracket behind the sheet rock from Bob. But if architecture is anything like music, then I would argue I am less like Milli Vanilli and more like P-Diddy...
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