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Smitty Two Smitty Two is offline
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Default Repair wrought iron railing?

In article ,
Lee wrote:

Another non-DIY question. The house I'm getting ready to sell has a
wrought iron railing on the porch steps - about 3 steps worth from the
sidewalk to the cement porch. Sometime last yr the end upright piece
broke (square hollow piece, not one of the twisty spindle things). The
two ends still "touch" but it's apparently broken through.

Obviously I'm going to need to repair it before showing the house, so
that it doesn't scream deferred maintenance. And it's not something I
can do myself, so I'll end up calling one of those 1-800-handyman places.

So here (finally) is the question: several people have told me that
"they" sell some sort of insert that goes inside the hollow upright to
hold it together, like a stent. Any idea where I'd find that, or what
it's called? I'd like to get one ahead of time. The problem I ran into
the last time I called the 800-handyman type place was that, although he
did a good job, he charged by the hr, with a 2 hr minimum, and part of
that time was involved buying supplies. So I'm figuring if I already
have the pieces he might need I can save a little $. Or am I better off
having a new railing ready just in case? And if so, do they have them at
HD etc, and how would I know what to buy? (ie, do I look for a certain
size or incline?)

Thanks.


I suppose you could splint it with a broomstick, but it could be a
liability issue later. A broken railing could be better than concealed
damage that was improperly repaired.

Why not call your local fence company over for a free estimate to
replace the whole thing? The rust is likely everywhere.