Metal railings are often ignored during the planning phase of a project in favor of gates. This is reasonable as gates are the part that gets used most and perhaps deserve more attention. However, railings to the side of the gate are an afterthought and are specified, if at all, as a last minute requirement. As with many other projects, this is where a well-planned project begins to fail.
What’s Your Building’s Railing Purpose?
Before deciding on a railing style and material, it is important to clarify your railing’s function. A pair of railings on a driveway may require a different design from railings that border a raised terrace. The railings may need to meet building regulations depending on the situation. Railings that border a drop may need to meet building regulations to prevent a fall. Each of these design situations will have different regulations to meet.
In situations where building regulations come into play in both England and Wales, railings may have to be designed to withstand a force of 0.74 kilonewtons. While this is not a strong force, railing systems that are designed to resist this force will look very different from railing systems constructed to only meet aesthetic requirements.
This is largely irrelevant for typical construction of driveways and front gardens, where the ground is level or almost level on both the railings’ sides, and the purpose of the construction is primarily to delineate the property boundary and provide security, rather than to prevent falls. In cases where there is any doubt whether a construction would qualify as a barrier, resolution of the doubt should be performed prior to specifying the design.
Steel and Aluminum and the Aesthetics of Maintenance
When choosing a material for railings, similar principles apply to those used for fences, with one exception: railings are appropriated at eye level, and therefore closely inspected, unlike fences, and any deterioration of finish is quickly noticed rather than hidden behind planting.
Properly galvanized and powder coated steel railings are superior in their clean lines. Decorative elements, such as railing collars and finials, and railing overthrows are easier to achieve in steel because of the nature of the steel profile sections. Aluminum railings, by contrast, have a fine detail and tend to look lightweight. For a historically significant building, where the railings must be substantial and robust, steel would be the appropriate material of construction.
The maintenance obligations of steel are not to be taken lightly. Steel railings typically need their finish coats redone in the range of 15 to 20 years depending on the quality of the original coats. If the original coats were neglected, the finish may need redone in less than 15 years. Steel railings with decorative elements require more work to prepare for painting than you would think. Preparation for painting is especially difficult because of all the internal corners and joints which hold moisture. If any bare metal is exposed by a poorly done paint job, it will rust in less than 2 years.
Aluminum is much easier to maintain than steel. Aluminum will not rust and the powder coated finish on quality aluminum will hold up for many years. The lost costs are that aluminum railings with decorative elements tend to look less substantial than their steel counterparts. However, on a modern building, this is not an issue, since clean lines are the goal. On a Victorian building, though, it can be an issue because the goal is to have the railings look complementary.
The Planning Question for Front Garden Railings
In most cases, front gardens in England allow the construction of boundary structures without the need for planning as long as the structure is no taller than one meter, as long as the concerned property isn’t in a conservation area, and as long as the front boundary line doesn’t adjoin a Classified Road. A permit is required for a structure over a height of one meter or for restrictions that do not allow for such a structure. Because this scenario is commonplace, people become complacent. However, it is most apparent when a structure is constructed over a previously constructed limit.
Conservation areas add even more complexity. Some local authorities have specific recommendations on the design of replacement railings for front gardens, and the bar section, finial style, overall height etc. are specified in local design guidelines. In these situations, checking with the planning department is not a case of being bureaucratic. It is a case of avoiding installations that would need to be later removed.
What Gets Missed at the Specification Stage
The specification of the railing is not the only element that drives the cost and permanency of the installation. For example, the specification of the base and the type of fixing system, for the most part, rarely features prominently in quotations.
Correctly sized and filled core holes are necessary for railings set in new concrete or stone coping. Railings cannot be set vertical if the holes are too small and fill can shift if they are too large. Railings must be fixed to an existing wall or step with great care. Railings may work loose from a poor substrate like weak mortar or poorly bonded capping stones. Fixings should be either stainless steel or galvanized steel, and should not be Zinc-plated. Zinc-plated fixing will corrode faster than the railing and leave staining on the stonework.
All of this is fairly simple and is an indicator of a quality installation that remains looking as it should.