Banister advice for unusual staircase + pics

[divorcingjack]

Hi all,

newbie here, so please be gentle.

We are almost finished a loft conversion in our 300 year old cottage, and have installed a custom steel and elm staircase (hopefully shown below).

Untitled

• divorcingjack
• 21 Mar 2008
• 1

Obviously, we need a banister of some description, which is OK with building regs.

I would ideally like glass, but have a nasty feeling that this will cost a fortune. I'm just really looking for advice as to what you lovely people think would look good - I want to keep the 'floating' and open style of the stairs as far as possible.

Does anyone know a good supplier that would supply appropriate glass, and a ballpark figure (hundreds? thousands? )

Many thanks for any suggestions.

dj

 

[alfiembra]

What can look nice and possibly tending a bit towards the industrial rather than the domestic is polished stainless steel standards and handrail with tensioned stainless cable mid-rails 3 or 4 number, lightweight construction and would keep the 'open' effect, but maybe not the effect you want.

HTH

Alan

 

[divorcingjack]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your reply - I had been thinking about this actually, but then I saw a glass banister and fell for that instead.

Do you have any idea of price? or is it one of those 'how long is a piece of string' questions. Do you think stainless steel would look OK with the unpolished steel? Can you buy these off the shelf, or would I have to have it made?

We also replaced all the beams with elm, so we were thinking about using some of those as vertical posts - sorry not sure what they are called!

Thanks for your help.

dj

 

[alfiembra]

Couldn't say how much it would cost, only think it would be difficult to do as from your picture the stair appears to have a curve to it so glass doesn't go round corners cheaply. The glass would also need to be toughened so more expense.

Any solution you decide on will almost certainly have to be custom made. I've seen some really nice handrails that are essentially a steel pipe wrapped or clad in timber which might be a nice compromise. Also some with universal joints that can pivot to the required angle of the stair.

Best advice I can give is do a bit of research and see if you can find a handrail system you really like and take it from there.

Alan

 

[FIFIBLACK7]

Found this link on curved glass balustrades which might be of use:
http://www.specialistglass.co.uk/Glass-ideas/Balustrades.asp

 

[big-all]

is the gap at the back off the treads greater than 98mm!!!
a 100mm sphere must not pass through any part of the stairs or banisters

 

[Symptoms]

dj - get your local steel fabricator to template then produce a handrail (polished steel, black (from the fire for a rustic look) steel, stainless. Now the tricky part ... how to fix in position (your brief being "floating") ... suspend it from vertical stainless steel cables (under tension) which go up from treads to ceiling anchors. Nice!