Handrail, Baluster and Stair Repair in Phoenix

Loose wall handrails

A rail along a stairway wall hangs on brackets, and the brackets have to be screwed into studs. When they were screwed into drywall alone, the rail works loose over a few years and the anchors tear the drywall. We find the studs, move the brackets to them if needed, and screw them in with long screws. Where there's no stud where a bracket needs to be, we add blocking behind the drywall, patch, and mount the bracket to the blocking. The rail ends up solid.

A rail that's the wrong height, too short for the stairs, or missing altogether gets replaced or added. Code wants a rail you can grab, at a consistent height, with returns at the ends so a sleeve can't catch on it.

Balusters, newel posts and open railings

An open railing on a stair or a loft has balusters, the vertical pieces, running between the rail and the floor or the treads. Loose balusters rattle and wobble. They get reglued and refastened at both ends. Broken ones get replaced to match, in wood or iron. A newel post, the big post at the bottom or the turn of a stair, that moves at its base gets refastened with a hidden bolt or bracket into the framing.

The spacing between balusters matters in a house with small kids. Code calls for gaps a 4-inch ball can't pass through. An older railing with wider gaps can have balusters added.

Stair treads and risers

Stairs squeak where the tread meets the riser or the stringer underneath, because the wood has dried and the joint has loosened. Loose treads get glued and screwed from above, with the screws set and filled, or from behind if the underside is open. A cracked or worn tread gets replaced. Squeaky floors around the stairs get a similar fix.

Switching carpeted stairs to wood treads is a common project. The carpet comes off, the construction-grade treads underneath get capped with finished treads and risers, and the result looks like a hardwood stair.

Grab bars

A grab bar in a bathroom is a handrail that gets pulled on with full body weight. It has to go into a stud, into blocking added behind the wall, or into an anchor made and rated for grab bars. A grab bar on drywall anchors fails the first time it's needed. We install them as part of our aging-in-place work.

Problems we fix on this page

• Stair tread squeaks
• Stair tread loose
• Stair nosing loose or cracked
• Stair edge worn
• Handrail loose
• Handrail pulled out of the wall
• Baluster loose
• Baluster missing
• Newel post wobbles
• Want a handrail added
• Want a second handrail
• Railing too low for safety
• Gaps in the railing big enough for a child

How it starts

Send a photo of the rail or stair and tell us what moves. For a loose rail, a photo of a bracket helps. You get one price for the job before we start. Levi is on site, and we stand behind the work for a year.