I'm renovating a staircase and there's an old post in the turn of the stairs. Since I'm not fully versed in staircase construction, my question is if it has any significance? It's not supporting anything upwards since it's nailed to the side of the beam above? Can it be removed, or does it serve a function for the staircase? That is, can I cut it at an angle in the extension where I've already opened up? If it shouldn't be removed for some reason, can I replace it with a square profile where I weld an angled foot and then a mount for the beam above and then just dress the slanted part with, for example, a profiled oak piece. All tips are welcome, thank you!
The post is clearly load-bearing for the lower part of the stairs. However, it is very unusual for stairs to be part of the house's load-bearing structure. Usually, a hole is made for the stairs in the floor framing before building the stairs themselves. You can replace the lower part in an appropriate way. It does not involve any extreme loads.
Thank you very much for your input! Yes, you can see that the steps go into that beam. The question is if you can just keep the lower part. It's in better condition than the rest at least, so it would be easy to fill and paint. So, if you cut the post along the stringer and then covered it with a panel all the way down, it might look nice. The question is whether I will affect the steps that sit in the lower part of the post?J justusandersson said:
The vangstycke attached to the post functions as a beam. It is mostly vertical forces acting on the post. I would cut it a bit higher so it functions as something you can hold onto when walking up the stairs. Buy some nice decorative detail and place it on top.