I have an old colonial house with two-story decks. The railings around the decks are 900mm high, which was acceptable when the deck was built. Maybe it's a bit low for people 6 feet high.
The building code now says the railing should be 1100mm high. Without replacing all the balusters, is there a nice way of making the railing higher? If I put another railing along the top, that would leave gaps 160mm high, and that is against the code. So I would need two extra railings, which I think will look clumsy.
I don't want to replace 150 balusters.
sanders4,
Mar 17, 8:20pm
You are not building now so that means that at the time of the previous build railings were acceptable. If you wish to change this then it is your choice but is not necessary.
cbbuilder,
Mar 17, 9:18pm
Building Code F4 Safety from Falling - Acceptable Solution says for a residential building a deck railing is to be 1000mm high and handrail on stairs is to be 900mm. And as the previous poster said the Building Code is not retrospective
budgel,
Mar 18, 9:54am
If you are worried about it, I would consider putting another railing above the existing one with spacer blocks between them. I did this once as a repair to a more modern wooden railing that had been built to an incorrect height. It ended up looking quite good.
trade4us2,
Mar 18, 11:43am
I did find some government site that said the railing should be 1100mm high. If it is 1000mm, then a single extra railing could look OK. That Building Code is very horrible to read.
tegretol,
Mar 18, 2:19pm
The Building Regs are NOT retrospective. That means that you DO NOT need to raise it.
pauldw,
Mar 18, 3:53pm
1100mm is for shared spaces in apartments and non residential buildings. 900mm is low enough to sit on if you are tall. Nek minute the party's ruined.
Check the regulations as the cross members, which would assist climbing, could be a problem.
shanreagh,
Mar 18, 9:02pm
Is the lower part the existing part? I like the style of the additional rail at the top and the spacings of its supports look good too.
budgel,
Aug 9, 6:42pm
That looks a lot like the one I did.
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