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Scappoose, Oregon, 26 Jun 2010—Having watched my wife experience the steps without a railing and end up on the front sidewalk, I decided to improve the safety features of the approach to our house.

The railings are Douglas fir, the cleats are cedar. All surfaces primed and painted. We had plenty of matching exterior siding paint left over from the original construction.

The closeup below shows the detail using a cove bit and a bead bit on my router table. The railing profile matches others in the neighborhood. I used a simple bevel bit on the cleat. Each cleat is attached to the siding with a countersunk 2 1/2" lag screw. Ain't coming off.

Here's the lower end showing our guard cat Ozzie, alert and attack-ready as usual.

That support was a toughie to get the right angle, but worked well using my new Ryoba crosscut saw.

Upper railing serves two sets of steps.

Lower Railing serves lower two sets.

Street view. As you can see, the lower railing end is cantilevered because I don't have the tools to cut stone for a mounting cleat. Works just fine this way, plenty sturdy--except for the 800-lb. drunk gorilla.

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Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed your visit.