# Forum Home Renovation Stairs, Steps and Ramps  Terrace extension - handrails advice

## numbat

We hope to shortly start a smallish building project to extend our rear terrace ending up with a terrace of about 9m x 5m wide. I call it a terrace as it will continue to be a brick and concrete construction. I am interested in suggestions for new handrailing. *As the terrace will be quite large the handrailing will make the job*. I have thought of using a large dia stainless steel tube on top with stainless steel intermediate wires but was quoted about $600/m which for about 20 metres (including the stair rails makes it very expensive). Other options are some kind of aluminium railing (can be quite cost effective but I dont know how it will look in the quantity in this job). I dont really want timber due to the maintenance aspect but a mate suggested steel posts and a timber top rail - could be quite nice but will have to oil (tung oil) the timber every 6 mths to keep it in good condition. 
 I have included a scan of the plan and a couple of pics of what is propsed and  what is currently there. 
 For those that care, underneath the new terrace will be my *new basement workshop*. I have 2.5m of ceiling height under the current terrace and the new extension will be excavated into the ground about 1.25m and give me a workshop of about 5m x 5m hopefully a bit more  :Biggrin:  - so the secret is out it is a terrace/workshop to SWMBO but really is a workshop/terrace  :Wink: . 
 Indicative pricing for this is about $30k given that we are up on a sloping block (but the view is good). 
 So if you can suggest handrailing options, typical costing and maybe a piccy or link I would much appreciate it. 
 Cheers

----------


## jackiew

if you have kids or kids come visiting then avoid horizontal railings/wires or supply the little brats with hard hats for their plunge to the garden below. 
having been to one of the home shows a few months ago there were stands for railing manufacturers who had great big photo albums of their work.  I recommend going to visit one or two manufacturers and looking at their photo books for inspiration.

----------


## numbat

Jackie, 
 Yes I have one child - but regularly get more over to play. 
 At the risk of answering my own question to some extent, I did a bit of googling and found a couple of Australian suppliers online. The one I liked was  http://www.quickrail.com.au/  
 I contacted them through the web site, to which they responded quite quickly. Some correspondence via email and phone yielded some options that I plan to explore further and take up.  
 The *timbertop system* comes in a kit form and is about $180/m excluding the timber top which woodworkers will probalby want to supply themselves. They mentioned timber section sizes of 75x45, 100x45 and even 190x45 to hold drinks as sizes that have been used. Merbua or aquilla were the nominated timbers. 
 The *s/s cables system* with a s/s tube top was nominally quoted at $230/m. This is about a third of the price that I was quoted locally. 
 All the stuff comes in kit form and is made from 316 stainless (polished). 
 I spoke to Stephan on (02) 98334033 who was very helpful. 
 Just passing this on because I could not find much affordable nice railing systems locally. 
 Cheers

----------


## Pulse

I recently did 20m of railing for a deck using stainless hardware from Miami stainless http://www.miamistainless.com.au/. All up about $800 including the crimping tool. Just remember to space the wires at less than 125 mm centres to comply with BCA regulations. 
Cheers
Pulse

----------

