I have a porch with a 2ft tall rail. I want to add 1ft to the height to bring it to 3ft. The diameter of the porch is 10ft so the length (circumference of the half circle) would be 15 ft. Is there a simple and inexpensive way to build the extension to the existing railing? For example, a curved pipe. But I am open to anything that will work.
Look at industrial sources for pipe railings. You can have a local metal fabrication shop roll steel tubing into an arc for your top rail. Then use the off the shelf railing components for the brackets and verticals. You can use galvanized for no painting and an industrial look. You can use plain steel to keep cost down and paint it to match the house. If you feel like breaking your budget go stainless steel.
Or, contact a local metal fabricator or welding shop and have them quote making railings to the shape & size you need. If you keep your design simple the price can be reasonable.
If you are building the entire wall 1 ft higher, use circle trak for steel stud walls. Otherwise just use 3/4 plywood cut into smaller sections that you can just lay on top of the wall and trace. Then use those as a pattern for your top and bottom plates and build the extension in pieces. Sheet it with radius bending plywood.
You will obviously need to temporarily support everything above, and take those columns out to shorten them.
I am hoping I can just install a second railing on top of the existing railing. One quote I got was near $10,000. I was hoping there might be a cheaper way to add 1ft on top of the existing railing and bolt it into the existing posts and building. I wonder if a 15ft length of pipe could be bent into the shape of a half circle and be bolted to the posts.
That could work but you would need a couple of intermediate pedestals. End pedestals or a 90 degree bend down might be a better look than fastening to the pillars.
Look at industrial sources for pipe railings. You can have a local metal fabrication shop roll steel tubing into an arc for your top rail. Then use the off the shelf railing components for the brackets and verticals. You can use galvanized for no painting and an industrial look. You can use plain steel to keep cost down and paint it to match the house. If you feel like breaking your budget go stainless steel.
Or, contact a local metal fabricator or welding shop and have them quote making railings to the shape & size you need. If you keep your design simple the price can be reasonable.
I'm in the midst of closing out my interior home renovation, and got extremely unlucky with a difficult inspector. He has flagged my front stairs and hand rail as non conforming and a "safety issue", that needs to be addressed before I can close out my interior building permit. While I'm hopefully going to try and fight it, in the interim, looking at my options in actually completing the work.
I didn't do any exterior work on the home yet... but the issue, the old handrail is not "grabbable" and the original first step is ~3" and the last step is ~2" short from matching the other step height (this is because the front path has raised over the years).
Inspector's suggestion: ramp-up the entire pavement into the first step to eliminate the first step altogether, and then add 2" of some type of platform on the top deck to make it conforming. Attach a grabbable bar to the existing metal railing.
Any recommendations on materials to get this project completed fast (and ideally in the rain)? The entire front patio is about 6 feet and rounded edge, which makes things tricky if I was to try and raise the platform up 2" but would love your ideas!
Thanks!
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Replacing some pool cage panels blown out by hurricane Ian.
My screens look black to me. They don't look to be any shade of grey.
But I can't find plain (not pet resistant or some such specialty) 18X14 fiberglass screening that is sold as "black". It [b]all seems to be gray or charcoal[/b].
I've looked on Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowes for Phifer or Docuscreen or other manufactures and it is driving me nuts. COULD IT BE THAT I ACTUALLY[u] HAVE[/u] CHARCOAL AND IT'S VERY DARK?
I went to Home Depot to see what they had and they were all out of cage screening. Not surprising. Lots of peops around here want it. The guys at Home Depot are pretty clueless about this stuff. I need 150 ft of 60" (or bigger).
01-20-23, 12:41 PM
