[getmygoat]

Hi all,

I'm a real novice when it comes to carpentry, I'll admit. Attempting to repair a back porch we never use. Wood rots even in dry as a bone California. Anyway, you can see from the pic I need to repair the banister by replacing the 2x4 running horizontal underneath the top rail. The problem is everything is screwed together and these screws are a b***ch to get out. Every banister has two screws and there are 14 of them into this horizontal 2x4 support. That' 28 screws. Then there's 6 more into the main supports.

I tried screwdrivers, and a drill. Also purchased an impact screwdriver on amazon but not sure its working right (cheap China crap) and not sure that would take these screws out either. I assume there's a relatively easy way to get these screws out? But I haven't found it.

Thanks for any advice. As you can see, I've already stripped two of the screws (using the drill).