Metal Railings - Made to Measure

Metal railings, made to your sizes. Solid round infill bars, a profiled steel handrail and tubular posts, in the pattern you would expect on a period property, a garden boundary, a patio edge or a ramped access. This is the one system in our balustrade range with no glass in it at all, and the one that suits an older building where frameless glass would look wrong.

UKCA marking is a legal requirement for structural steelwork. Every railing leaves here marked, under our own BS EN 1090-2 factory production control.

The sizes in the dropdowns are price bands, not fixed sizes. A run measuring 3.75 metres is ordered as "Up to 4 metres", and we still make it to your exact dimensions. The shortest band, "Up to 2 metres", is also our minimum order. The prices on this page are for horizontal runs only. Raking runs to a staircase or a flight of steps are priced on request, because a raked run is set out and made differently. The price shown is for the railings themselves; delivery is quoted separately.

Which finish should I choose?

The same railing is offered three ways, priced in the dropdown above. The steelwork is identical; what changes is what goes on it before it leaves us.

• Unpainted raw steel. Supplied bare, straight off the fabrication shop, and the least expensive of the three. Bare steel will start to rust within days of being outside, so it has to be primed and painted on site, and kept painted. Choose this only if you are painting it yourself, or matching an existing paint system, and are set up to do it properly.
• Galvanised only. Hot dip galvanised and left in its bright silver finish, which weathers to a matt grey. No painting and no upkeep, and it will last decades outdoors. It is an industrial look rather than a traditional one, and plenty of people like it. You can paint over it later if you change your mind.
• Galvanised and powdercoated. Galvanised first, then powdercoated in any RAL colour, and the dearest of the three. The colour sits on zinc rather than bare steel, so a chip on site does not start rusting. Black is the usual choice on traditional railings. This is the one to pick if you want it painted and never want to think about it again.

What the price covers, and what moves it

Three things set the price: how long the run is, how many corners it turns, and which of the three finishes you choose.

Length and corners

Add every leg of the run together and round up to the next whole metre. Pricing is based on the total length of the horizontal sections. Then count every change of direction: a straight run has no corners, an L shape has 1, a U shape around three sides has 2, and more complicated shapes take 3 or 4.

Colour

If you have chosen the powdercoated finish, tell us the RAL reference when we contact you about your drawing. There is nothing to pick at checkout, because every colour costs the same. If you are matching existing railings, send us a photo and we will help you get it right.

Height

Made 1100mm high as standard. To stairs and ramps, and internally, 900mm is normally used. Tell us which you need and we will set it on the drawing.

Raked runs, curves and gates

Raked runs to steps and staircases, curved sections and matching gates are priced individually rather than from the dropdowns. Email us the sizes and a photo of what you are trying to match, and we will price the real thing.

Will it suit my ramp, garden wall or stairs?

• Ramped access and step handrailing
• Garden boundaries, front walls and gateways
• Patios, terraces and raised decking edges
• Staircase balustrades, landings and platforms
• Balconies and terraces on period buildings
• Guard railings, metal rail fencing and perimeter fencing

Ornate and decorative railings

The railings on this page are plain vertical bar as standard, which is what most people order. The same frame also takes decorative work: scrolls, finials, collars, twisted bars and shaped top rails, made to suit the building rather than picked from a catalogue. That is priced individually, because no two patterns take the same amount of work. If you are matching existing ironwork on the property, send us a photograph and we will work to it.

What you get, and how it goes together

Specification

• Convex profiled steel handrail
• Solid round infill bars
• Flat bar bottom rail
• Tubular steel posts, left long to concrete into the ground or with base plates to bolt down, at the same price. Tell us which you want when you order
• 1100mm high as standard, 900mm to stairs and ramps and internally
• Infill bars set out so a 100mm sphere cannot pass between them, which is what Approved Document K requires

What is included

• All the steelwork as pictured
• Every fixing needed to put it together
• An AutoCAD drawing sent to you to confirm before we make anything
• UKCA certification issued against the goods

Fixings

Every fixing needed to assemble the railings is supplied with them.

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. Where posts are set into the ground they are concreted in, and where they are base plated the plates come drilled ready for your installer to select anchors to suit the substrate. Where we install, we take that decision on site and provide them.

Fitting it

Supplied in kit form and straightforward to assemble with reasonable DIY skills, with fixing instructions provided. It arrives in pieces rather than made up, which is what gets a long run of railings down a passage or round to a back garden. If you are concreting the posts in, the holes need digging and setting out accurately. If you are base plating, the plates come drilled ready for your fixings. Either way, tell us at drawing stage which you are going with.

Looking after it

Unpainted steel needs priming and painting straight away, then repainting as often as the paint system requires. Galvanised needs nothing. Powder coating wants an occasional wash down with warm soapy water. See our product maintenance guide.

Do you survey, install and deliver?

We survey. If you would rather not take the measurements yourself, or the run follows a slope or an old wall, we will come and measure it and produce the drawing from that. Site surveys are a chargeable visit in their own right. On a ramp or a flight of steps it is usually money well spent.

We install. Our own site teams fit nationwide, not subcontractors. Ask for an installed price when you enquire and we will quote it separately from the steelwork, so you can see both figures.

Or you fit it yourself. The railings are supplied as a bolt together kit, so a competent fitter or a confident DIYer can put them up. The price on this page is for the railings alone, and delivery is quoted separately once we know the size of the run and where it is going.

Delivery itself is by arrangement. Long steel sections need handling properly, so the figure shown at checkout is an estimate rather than a quote. We work out the real cost against your postcode and access and tell you before anything is charged. You will be contacted before delivery to arrange a weekday that suits you.

Is it certified, and what paperwork do I get?

UKCA marking is not a badge or an optional extra. Structural steelwork supplied without it should not be going onto your building.

Dio-Met is certified to BS EN 1090-2 with documented factory production control, coded welders and calibrated equipment. Every railing leaves here UKCA marked, with the paperwork issued against the goods once they are made and dispatched. Designed to BS 6180 for domestic applications. Tell us if it is for a commercial or public building so we can specify the correct barrier loading.

If your building control officer wants more than that, we will provide a specification sheet for the railings, and in practice that is usually enough to settle it.

Structural calculations are a separate piece of work. We can provide them, but they are always chargeable on an individual basis and are never included in the price on this page. If you know calculations are going to be asked for, say so when you enquire and we will price them alongside the railings.

Nothing gets made until you have checked the drawing

Ordering here does not put steel on a saw. Every run is drawn up on AutoCAD and sent to you to approve first, and nothing is cut until you have signed it off. The drawing is a formal part of our order process, not a courtesy.

That is your chance to check the lengths, the corners, the post positions, the bar spacing and the height against the actual wall or ramp. If anything has moved on site, this is where it gets caught. Changes at drawing stage cost nothing.

See them in use

Every one of these was drawn, made and delivered by us. Photographs, dimensions and what the job involved.

• Decorative bar balustrade to two external staircases, Purley on Thames
• Bespoke metal balustrade and railings, Sheffield S11
• Metal balustrade, railings and handrails, Bloor Homes, Radlett
• Steel ramp access handrails, St Christopher's Church, Shiregreen
• Custom metal garden handrails, core drilled, Sheffield
• Galvanised steel railings and staircase, Barnsley
• Bespoke balconies and Juliet railings, Redditch

All balustrade projects

Guides and other systems worth reading

• Balustrade buying guide, which compares the whole range and what drives the cost
• Handrail building regulations, if the run is to a ramp or a flight of steps
• Wall or post mounted handrail only, no infill: powdercoated steel handrail on posts
• Glass infill instead of bars, in colour: System 10, powdercoated glass balustrade and handrail
• Glass infill, bare galvanised and cheapest: System 9, galvanised steel glass balustrade
• Everything else is on the guides and regulations page