Hey folks, anyone know how these handrail return ends are secured to the wall?

Are you sure it's secured?

23 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Are you sure it's secured?

It doesn't budge Fred, I tried to pull it away with a pretty good amount of force, it's stuck on the wall, if it wasn't secured, I would think it'd pull away at least a 1/16".

I was gonna say duct tape 🤣

https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/315054/invisible-fasteners-for-wooden-stair-railing

john some questions

what is the distance from the return to the first under railing mount?

a couple of feet?

how secure is the under railing mount?

a secure mount may make it seemed to be attached more than it really is

the reason I ask is because IIRC when we had our hand rail put in a dozen years ago, it was only fastened to the wall with the under the rail supports. And it did NOT move--period.

Like you we had to take it off while moving

3 hours ago, smitty10101 said:

what is the distance from the return to the first under railing mount?

a couple of feet?

how secure is the under railing mount?

Hey Smitty, the distance is a couple feet from the end to first under railing mount, and it's very secure. I guess I should pull the screws on a few of the railing undermounts and see if she'll come loose at the end then?

47 minutes ago, John Morris said:

pull the screws on a few of the railing undermounts and see if she'll come loose

my suggestion also

It may be screwed from the back through some blocking prior to drywall install. Or blocking added later and the drywall repaired. I did this method at one of our houses.

Any signs of a plug on the side or bottom covering a screw hole? The first photo enlarged shows this as a possibility.

@John Morris did you ever get the hand rail off?

On 8/14/2026 at 10:45 AM, JimM said:

It may be screwed from the back through some blocking prior to drywall install. Or blocking added later and the drywall repaired. I did this method at one of our houses.

Any signs of a plug on the side or bottom covering a screw hole? The first photo enlarged shows this as a possibility.

Thanks Jim, I do think it's screwed from the backside for whatever reason, California building codes are pretty anal about things like this, earthquake and seismic, I don't know, just taking a WAG. I looked for any holes that may have been plugged Jim, but the only ones are for the return piece joining the main rail.

4 hours ago, smitty10101 said:

@John Morris did you ever get the hand rail off?

Hey Smitty, I pulled the first couple brackets to see if the end return would loosen up, and it was tight as ever, so per my reply to Jim, it has to be mounted from the rear or something.

Long story short, I gave up on removing it, and just settled for painting it in place. Not my preferred method, but since time is running short and we need to list our home in a couple weeks, I gotta move on. Thanks to all for your help!

So much to do!

By the way @JimM , what looks like a plug covering a fastener, was a knot.