Retired Home Worker

by Homer
(Lancaster NY)

I have a porch with colonial posts that hold up the roof. I have a one step stairs now that floats on the side walk. I want to replace that with a two step stairs with a wood hand railing & post attached to the existing colonial posts on the porch and the new stairs that will float. I have no railings on the porch so I am only planning a top railing about two feet long with no spokes or bottom for the stairs. The problem is the sidewalk floats (a little) and obviously the porch (which is built like a deck) has sonotube footers below the frost line & does not float. I do not want to tear up the sidewalk to put footers in for the stairs. Is there any bracket to attached the railing to the existing colonial posts that will allow for some movement from the frost? Or any other solution to solve the problem