Hi

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:12:04 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Apr 11, 2:52*pm, Stuart Noble
wrote:
wrote:
Hopefully this isn't a strange question, but the balusters on the
staircase in my house are boarded over on both sides with plywood. * I
don't know when this when done (looks like it's been like that for
years), but what I'm wondering is if I strip the plywood boards off,
what will I find underneath? *Will it be nice balusters from the late
1930's (when the house was built), that need sanding down and a lick
of paint, or could there actually just be a few supporting balusters
because the plywood was put on when the staircase was originally built
(i.e. it was the fashion back then).

My suspicion is that someone has done a DIY job on it in the 60's or
70's, but I really don't know for certain, and don't want to rip of
the plywood without having a good idea of what's behind it. Any advice/
experience appreciated.
Thanks

In this area square balusters were all the rage in the 30s.

I probably didn't explain it clearly enough - the whole area where the
balusters are is boarded over, not individual balusters. There's two
big pieces of plywood covering the whole baluster area. What I'm
curious about is what's behind these two pieces of plywood - proper
balusters or just a few supporting struts holding up the handrail.

It's very hard to tell from where we are sitting g

If you tap on the plywood with your knuckles then you _might_ be able
to tell where the vertical supports are from the 'ring' of the knock
(sounds hollow in-between the supports, sounds soild where the
uprights are). You might also be able to see nail or screw-heads where
the ply has been fixed to the uprights - but they're probably not
fixed at every upright...

I'd guess that it's one of those DIY jobs on a par with panelling over
those 'nasty' Victorian doors - and has probably been done in the
simplest way possible (which would be to leave the existing uprights
in place and simply fix the ply (or more likely, hardboard) to them...

....but people do strange things g

Adrian