Step-Out Balcony - Metal Balustrade

A Juliet balcony you can actually step out onto. The platform is carried entirely off the wall on shaped steel brackets, with metal railings rather than glass, and composite decking as the floor. Nothing comes down to the ground, so there are no foundations, nothing standing in the garden and nothing to work around underneath.

It projects up to 1200mm. A metre is the usual choice: enough to step out, stand a couple of pots, open the doors fully and reach the windows, without the ground works a full walk-out balcony needs.

Sizes and prices

Widths above are maximums, not fixed sizes. Pick the band your opening falls within and we build to your actual dimensions, with a drawing issued for approval before anything is cut.

2400mm wide by 1200mm out is where this product stops, and that is deliberate. Past it the brackets have to step up to heavier sections and the design has to be worked out to suit the wall, so those are quoted individually rather than priced online. If you want more floor than this, a full walk-out balcony on posts is usually better value than pushing the brackets.

If your size falls between two bands, or you want something wider, email us and we will price it exactly.

UKCA marked to BS EN 1090-2

Every balcony we make is UKCA marked to BS EN 1090-2 and designed to the loadings in BS EN 1991-1-1. The balustrade is designed in accordance with BS 6180, the code of practice for barriers in and about buildings, which is what sets guarding height and the loads a balustrade has to take. Those loadings are for domestic applications. Commercial, public and multi-occupancy buildings carry higher imposed loads, so if the balcony is going anywhere other than a private dwelling, tell us at enquiry stage and we will design and price it to the right loading.

For structural steelwork that UKCA marking is a legal requirement, domestic work included, and where building control signs a project off the certification is part of what gets signed. It is also the quickest way to tell fabricators apart, because not every firm selling balconies online holds it. We work under factory production control certification, with coded welders and calibrated equipment, and structural calculations are available on request. Worth asking of anyone else quoting you.

What the price includes

• The steel platform frame, brackets and the full metal balustrade, hot dip galvanised then powdercoated.
• Composite decking as the floor.
• Assembly fixings. Wall fixings are not supplied: your installer sources anchors to suit the substrate, because the right one depends entirely on what you are fixing to.
• Supplied bolt-together in kit form, after the trial build.

How it is carried, with nothing to the ground

There are two support arrangements and the choice is yours, at no difference in price.

• Heavier bracketry alone, with no tie rods. Everything that carries the balcony sits below the platform, so there is nothing above it. That is what the photographs on this page show.
• A slimmer gallows frame with tie rods, which reduces what sits underneath but runs rods from the front corners of the platform back up to the wall above it. There is a good photograph of that arrangement on the step-out balcony with a glass balustrade, where you can see the rods clearly. The support works the same way whichever balustrade sits on top of it.

Neither is an upgrade on the other. Say which you prefer at enquiry stage and we will draw it that way. The brackets are shaped, welded and powdercoated to match the frame, so they read as part of the design rather than something to hide.

It fixes to any solid, flat surface. Brackets of this kind put real load into a wall, so that is the condition we work to.

Plain as standard, ornate by request

The price above is for our standard design: a plain vertical bar balustrade, evenly spaced, with a steel top rail. Clean, suits almost any house, and it is what most people order.

Collars, rings, twists, scrollwork and shaped top rails are all available, made to suit the building rather than picked from a catalogue. They are quoted on the drawing rather than priced online, because no two patterns take the same amount of work. If there is existing ironwork on the property, send us a photograph and we will work to it.

Colour and finish

Hot dip galvanised, then powdercoated in any RAL shade. Black, anthracite grey and white are the common ones. The galvanising underneath is what keeps a railed balcony from rusting, and it matters here because a railing has far more edges, welds and fine sections for water to sit in than a glass balustrade does.

You do not need to decide on this page. We confirm colour with you at drawing stage, before anything is manufactured. More on our material and finish standards.

Balcony decking colour

Composite decking as the floor, anthracite grey as standard. It will not rot or need annual treating the way a timber deck does. Oak, walnut, natural and black are the alternatives, selected above, at a flat uplift whatever the size of the balcony. Tell us which of the four you want when we issue your drawing.

Trial built before it leaves us

Every balcony and staircase we make is trial assembled in our Sheffield workshop before it ships or goes out to be installed. It is bolted together on the shop floor, checked for fit, then taken apart and packed. Finding a problem here, where we have the machinery to correct it, costs an hour. Finding it on your wall, with a lift hired for the day, costs a great deal more.

Optional extras

None of these is priced online, because the cost depends on your job. All of it is designed in with the balcony rather than added afterwards, so raise it at enquiry stage and we will price it alongside.

• Ornate detailing in the railings, as above.
• Under-drawing and guttering. The underside clad in so you see a flat soffit rather than the frame, with gutters and drip trays to keep run-off off a doorway, patio or parking space below. Both were done on the waterproofed balcony in Perthshire.
• Anything else you want building in. Planters, a bracket for a light, a bin store under it. If it can be made in steel, ask.

How it is built

• Steel frame and brackets, galvanised and powdercoated, sized for the projection. Cheaper systems use timber, which rots, warps, burns and needs maintaining. Ask what is under the deck when you compare prices.
• Composite decking as the walking surface.
• A fabricated steel balustrade as the guarding. That is the only part that differs between this and the glass version; the deck and the structure under it are the same.

The rest of the range

• Step-out balcony with a glass balustrade - the same platform, with toughened glass instead of railings
• Full walk-out balconies - larger, supported on posts, in framed glass, frameless glass or ornate metal
• Juliet balconies - guarding only, where there is no platform at all

Delivery and installation

Delivery is not included in the prices above. A balcony is a heavy, awkward load, and the cost varies with the size of the structure and where in the country it is going, so it is quoted individually rather than built into the price. Tell us your postcode with your enquiry and we will price it with the balcony.

Installation is also an optional extra, carried out by our own site teams rather than subcontractors. Ask for it with the quote and we will price both. Call 0114 243 9009 or email sales@diomet.co.uk. A photograph of the opening and the wall around it is usually enough to start.

Before you order

Our balcony and Juliet building regulations guide covers guarding heights and loadings, and the retrofitting guide covers older houses that never had one.

We do not assess what your wall is built from, and on an older house it is worth having a structural engineer confirm it before you order. We certify the balcony; we never certify the structure it is fixed to.

Fixings

Every fixing needed to assemble the balcony is supplied with it.

Wall and floor fixings are not supplied on a supply only order. The right anchor depends on what your building is made of and what condition it is in, and that is not a call we can make from here. Fixing points come drilled ready and your installer selects anchors to suit the substrate. Where we install, we take that decision on site and provide them.