September 27, 2022
We were on site at our Park Slope Townhouse Combination and we happened to see the templating process for the historic stair. Templating is an important part of any construction process where the fabricator for a particular component of the project comes to the job site to verify existing conditions and take detailed measurements of the exact size of their respective piece of the project.
In this case, the staircase handrail. As the architect we provide drawings for the staircase, but usually by the time the actual construction work is underway, dimensions have shifted slightly, and the realities of the job site often call for changes in the field.
This need for precision is why it’s absolutely critical for the installer who is responsible for the piece to come out and make detailed measurements and create a template of their piece of the project. Above, you can see how they have crafted a full-scale mockup of the “top view” of the handrail out of paper. They can then begin cutting the handrail profile down to the correct size based on this model.
As they work their way up the staircase, they can make adjustments in the field in three dimensions, which works better than cutting down everything in the millwork shop and hoping it fits!
We were thrilled to see this process in action, and the results speak for themselves! See the final product here!