Stainless Steel and Wire Rope Balustrade to a Raised Patio - Dronfield, S18
Just outside Sheffield in Dronfield, we went back to a property we had worked on before to guard an external balcony and a set of garden steps. The client chose a horizontal stainless steel wire rope balustrade, which keeps the countryside view open and takes almost nothing to look after.
Project Overview
- Client type: Residential, returning customer
- Location: Dronfield, Derbyshire, S18
- System: Stainless Steel Wire Rope Balustrade, System 3
- Posts and handrail: 316 stainless steel, satin brushed
- Infill: Tensioned stainless steel wire rope, horizontal
- Standard: Steelwork fabricated to BS EN 1090-2, UKCA marked
- Compliance: Supplied as a customer choice on a site not requiring building control sign-off, with the position set out in writing before order
- Scope: Survey, supply and install
The specification: low maintenance, open view
Mark is a returning customer, and we had previously made him a steel spine staircase with InvisiFix oak treads and the balustrades to go with it. For the outside he had a clear idea of what he wanted.
- Frame: Brushed 316 stainless posts and handrails, which is the grade to use outdoors. The 304 sold as general purpose stainless will tea stain within a couple of winters.
- Infill: Tensioned stainless wire rope rather than glass.
- Why not glass: Mark chose wire specifically to avoid cleaning glass panels in an exposed outdoor position. Glass outside is not difficult to live with, but it does show every rain mark, and a balustrade above a patio gets splashed from below as well as rained on from above.
- The view: Wire reads as almost nothing from a few metres away, so the countryside stays the thing you look at rather than the balustrade.
How we sell wire, and why we say it up front
Horizontal wire is the one balustrade infill where we put the position in writing before anyone orders, because it is not a detail you want discovered later.
A horizontal wire rope balustrade will not satisfy building control. We say that plainly to every customer who asks for one. Approved Document K asks that guarding in a building that children may use is not easily climbed, and a run of evenly spaced horizontal wires is exactly the arrangement that guidance is aimed at. Spacing and tension can deal with the 100mm sphere rule, and a slack wire opens a gap that a taut one does not, so tension matters either way. The climbing point is the one that cannot be engineered away. That does not make wire a bad product, and it does not stop us selling it. It makes it a choice the customer makes with the facts in front of them. A great many situations simply do not have to comply: a private terrace, a garden feature, a job with no building control involvement at all. In those, plenty of people want wire and we are glad to make it. Where the job does have to be signed off, or where young children are around, we will tell you to have glass or vertical bar infill instead rather than take the order. On the engineering side, the thing that keeps a wire system looking right over time is tension, so we use proper rigging turnbuckles that can be adjusted rather than fittings that are tight on day one and sagging by year three.
On this project Mark was briefed on all of it before anything was made, and chose wire knowing where it stands.
Frequently asked questions
Will a wire balustrade pass building control?
No, and we would rather say so before you order than afterwards. Approved Document K asks that guarding is not easily climbed where children may be present, and horizontal wires are the arrangement that guidance has in mind. We sell wire as the customer's choice, with that stated up front. Where a job genuinely has to be signed off, glass or vertical bar infill is the answer. Our balustrade building regulations guide covers heights, gaps and loadings.
So when is a wire balustrade the right call?
Where compliance is not in play. A private terrace, a garden boundary, a deck edge on a site with no building control involvement, and no young children using it. In those situations wire gives you an open view and almost no maintenance, and it is a genuinely good product.
Will the wires go slack?
Not if they are set up properly and the fittings allow adjustment. We use rigging turnbuckles so the run can be re-tensioned, which is a five minute job with a spanner rather than a call-out.
Why 316 stainless rather than 304?
Outdoors, 304 tea stains. 316 contains molybdenum, which makes it far more resistant to the chlorides in rain, road salt and coastal air. We use 316 as standard on anything external, and we would not quote 304 for an outside job.
Do you work outside Sheffield?
Yes, nationwide, supply only or surveyed and installed. This one was just down the road in Dronfield.
Explore more
Related products
- Stainless Steel Wire Rope Balustrade, System 3
- Stainless Steel Glass Balustrade, System 1
- Framed glass and wire balustrades
- Handrails
Similar projects
- Stainless wire balustrade and handrails, Lincolnshire
- Core drilled glass balustrade, Dronfield
- View all our bespoke projects
Helpful guides
- Glass balustrade building regulations
- Looking after stainless steel outdoors
- All Dio-Met building guides
Thinking about something similar?
Call 0114 243 9009 or email sales@diomet.co.uk. Tell us the run length, the drop, whether the job is going through building control and whether young children use the space, and we will tell you straight which infill we would put there.