Standing rigging for porch railing

[Jonathan Handelman]

Here's a quasi-sailboat question:

I am looking into options for a porch railing or my home and wanted to know if anyone had any ideas, suggestions, etc. on using stainless steel sailboat wire rigging as horizontal elements of a porch railing.

I think I want something that is a little cleaner than traditional vertical bars of wood, something that will not block the view. The problem is that I have two porches which need a total of about 37' of railing. So I think if I have a wooden rail on the top (and maybe another one a few inches off the deck) I would need to run three or four sets of lifeline (although I would prefer to use uncoated wire). That could be as much as 160 feet with fittings on each end of each lifeline section.

My concerns are that it will cost me an arm and a leg to get the look I want and that it will be difficult to fasten the ends into the wood so they are as secure as they need to be.

So any insight?


-Jonathan

[Parfait's Provider]

Check this out:

http://www.agsstainless.com/

My neighbors have a wood/stainless hybrid. I'll see if I can get them to tell me more about it and get some pictures.

[Jonathan Handelman]

That looks interesting but I am curious to know what the cost is per foot. See if you can get your neighbors to spill the beans.

[bottomscraper]

You can check prices for wire, fittings and labor on these two web sites. If I remember correctly Rigging Only sells wire and mechanical fittings (Sta-Lok, Norseman, etc) and will do machine swaging. Bosun Supply also sells hand swage fittings and tools. Rigging Only made our lifelines of 1x19 bare wire. We are very happy with them. We also purchased Sta-Lok fittings and wire for all of our standing rigging from them. We did the standing rigging ourselves Here is my "Installing Sta-Lok page:

Installing Seta-Loks

Rigging Only Web Page
Bosun Supplies Web Page

C.S. Johnson Architectual Catalog

[Parfait's Provider]

Haven't been out to visit the neighbors, but we have other friends who have used wooden posts and top rail with painted rebar as the intermediate horizontal members. It looks pretty good.

I am also thinking if you stick to life line technology for teminations, it will probably be adequate and much less expensive than the standing rigging materials. West Marine or Defender sites ought to get you a close approximation. Maybe you could find a rigger who is redoing a boat and get scrap materials from him.

[Duncan Maio]

Before you invest in materials, be aware that many building codes do not permit railings that have horizontal members - the rationale is that it's too easy for the little ones to climb over and/or get stuck between.

[Al Levesque]

We had a neighbor that used heavy three strand line from post to post. The rail never gave a secure feeling since there was an element of flexibility to it and there was much open space. The rail did not meet city codes and the next owner built a proper rail with balusters that met the code.

[johnny of STORK]

Look in

www.cablerail.com/

They sell the whole kit, including swaged ends for one end, and a slip-and-jamb end for the other. The system works well. I have installed quite a few porch, balcony, and stair rails using it.

Johnny of STORK

[Cathy Monaghan]

Hi Jonathan,

Take a look at the C. Sherman Johnson web site at:

http://www.csjohnson.com/

They are manufactures of the wire rope that's used for our boat's standing rigging and lifelines. They make the attachment hardware too.

Anyway, instead of entering their Marine Hardware section, go to the Architectural Hardware section of their web site instead and you'll see some nice photos where wire rope's been used. Here's a link to their photo gallery. Hopefully it'll give you a few ideas.

http://www.csjohnson.com/gallery.html

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