How To Replace Balusters - Without Removing Handrail 

I changed the color on my pin balusters also. They were painted a soft color and I was able to sand them and repaint a different color (white). I also removed them from the stair treads. Luckily they were not glued on the bottom of the 3/4" dowels and were brad nailed on the top. I was able to twist them off without any damage. I watched several YT videos on options to fasten the base to the treads. Cooper Stairworks had a good video on it. I went with there idea of putting a thread insert into the stair tread (I had to install a dowel on the hole in the stair tread and drill a pilot hole) and fastening a baluster screw (hanger bolt) to the bottom of the baluster (also predrilled for pilot hole). It worked great. Once you install the baluster, you then screw it down to the tread. Extremely tight. No glue. On the pin top to the rail, I did not brad nail them, I used wooden flat toothpicks to shim them tight. The holes were slightly over sized. All in all, it came out great. The original rail was a bit wobbly probably because the balusters were somewhat loose fitting. Now, the rail is very firm. Both my newel post were solid so firming the balusters really helped. Will have to see over a period of time how well it holds up.

Perfect! Replacing two broken balusters on a horizontal handrail on the 2d floor landing. Appreciate it.

This has great production quality, but literally the *only* part that I was curious to see is out of frame (inserting and gluing up the locator pins once the top end has been placed). Then when the process is repeated, both top and bottom ends of the baluster are in frame, but it’s sped up so fast that you can’t see the locator pins.

I wish you had shown placement of the base of the picket. It was not in the camera frame. Can you slow down the second one so we can see exactly how you did it?

So I’m guessing they go up into the handrail high enough for that pin at the bottom to go into the hole on the stairs, and then it slides down a bit out of the handrail? The part I really wanted to see didn’t get filmed. You tilted the camera down after you did what I wanted to see, lol

Did you have to trim both ends? I see you trimmed the bottom pin… why did you need to do that after you drilled the holes so the pin would sit flush?

Can you tell me what you would do if the top holes were bigger than the width of baluster? Wood filler?

Where’s the video on how you removed the balusters?