Blog Layout
4 Tips to Enhance Your Railing’s Aesthetics Without Compromising Its Safety
Admin • Aug 25, 2017
Safety railings for staircases, porch steps and other difficult-to-navigate areas of your home are crucial for anyone in your household who has limited mobility, including seniors and anyone with a disability or medical condition that affects mobility. Plus, railings can help anyone with their footing on the stairs during inclement weather conditions, which is why it's especially important to have railings on outdoor staircases and porch steps.
While planning your railing installation, safety features are the foremost consideration but you should also consider aesthetics. Fortunately, there are several ways you can customize the aesthetic of your railing without compromising its safety features. Here are some tips to help you accomplish this.
1. Choose a Robust, Round-top Rail Design
Since you're installing this railing at home and not at a business, you won’t have to worry about the OSHA fining you if you get it wrong. However, knowing the OSHA safety standards for safety railings can help you. For example, they dictate that a railing should be round on top and should be at least an inch and a half in diameter for metal railings or two inches for wood railings.
These size and shape specifications can make the railing easier to hold onto while ascending and descending the stairs, which is especially important for elderly individuals who may not have the grip strength that they once had. However, within these guidelines, there's still a great variety of designs and aesthetics to choose between. For example:
- You can choose between steel, aluminum, bronze/brass and more for a metal railing
- You can choose between many different colors of wood, light or dark, for indoor railings
- You can choose to put upright banisters, clear panels, or intricate metalwork beneath the top railing
These and other alternatives will help you customize the railing to the surrounding decor and your own personal taste while keeping the critical safety components intact.
2. Install Matching Railings
Having matching railings on each side of the staircase can lend an elegant symmetry to the staircase's aesthetic. It's also a safety feature in some situations. Like a center railing, matching railings on each side of the staircase provide support both going up and coming down the stairs.
Matching railings also don't cut the usable width of the stairs in half like a center railing does, so if you have a narrow staircase, the best option is to install matching railings rather than one in the center.
3. Ensure There's No Sharp Overhang
Another safety tip for choosing your railing style is to make sure that it doesn't cut off in a sharp point where the railing ends. Finding a design that curves down elegantly into a spiral at the end or having one custom-made this way can prevent injury if someone with limited mobility bumps into the end before or after using the stair rail.
4. Include Decorative Safety Lighting
Safety lighting is especially important for outdoor railings, but you'll also want to make sure all of the staircases inside your home are well-lit to prevent missteps. Installing outdoor safety lighting can enhance the safety of the railing and can also be a decorative addition to your lawn decor. You can choose recessed lighting, solar-powered path lights or some other decorative option that ties into the desired aesthetic.
These four tips will help you design and install your indoor or outdoor safety railing with optimal security and yet not end up with an eyesore. It's also a good idea to have the railing professionally installed to ensure the safest design and soundest structural integrity. If you'd like help planning or installing a railing at your home, feel free to contact Sam's Welding today!
Most Popular Types of Welding
Are you hiring a welder to get something fabricated or repaired? Sam's Welding Inc. offers the following types of welding in El Cajon: Gas metal arc welding. Perhaps the most popular of them all, this method is also known by its abbreviations GMAW or MIG, for metal inert gas. It’s an average of five times faster than electrical arc methods and includes four material transfer options: spray, pulsed spray, globular and short circuiting. Shielded metal arc welding. A form of stick welding commonly known as SMAW, this process uses electrical current to form an arc between the rod and metals in production. Uses include industrial fabrication such as the construction of iron and steel structures. Gas tungsten arc welding. This method is known as TIG or GTAW and requires the most skill, as heat is continuously regulated by means of a foot pedal. If amperage is set too high, you can end up burning holes in the metal. If it’s too low, the weld won’t flow properly. It’s especially useful for combining thick pieces of stainless steel and ironless metals. Flux-cored arc welding. Unlike MIG and TIG, FCAW keeps contamination out by means of a flux. This process doesn’t require a shielding gas, can be done outdoors and is quite efficient. Working with different positions such as horizontal, vertical and tee joints requires different machine configurations. Serving San Diego, CA Whether you need several hundred pieces or just one, we’re happy to take on the project for you. We are combat veteran owned and have more than two decades of experience handling military projects with success. We serve El Cajon, La Mesa, Santee, and the entire county. We have expertise with the design and fabrication of gates and fences. You’re welcome to walk into our San Diego shop or call us anytime at 619-281-2709 .
Whether you have some new projects lined up to modify and enhance your home or there are some significant repairs that need to be done to some of the metalwork, you want to have a professional metal welder on the job. There are numerous specific instances in which having welding done by a certified military group such as Sam’s Welding Inc. in El Cajon is worth your investment. Perhaps you need a car welder to perform some precise car part welding or you need to ensure the safety of a premises with some security door welding . Of course, not everything that involves metal fabrication or repair is on a large scale. More often than not, welding is needed for smaller things that see use on a daily basis, such as: Staircases Hand railings Gates Fences As far as stairs are concerned, our professionals can help with anything from a new hand railing to a completely new and complex spiral staircase. Even if the work needs to be done outside on fences and gates where the materials need to be more durable, our nearly four decades of experience in the field have given us the knowledge of how to complete jobs in a way that is both aesthetically pleasing and keeps you and your loved ones safe. Serving El Cajon, La Mesa and Santee Metalwork, whether it is basic framing or a more elaborate fence job, has a large impact on our lives every day. Therefore, when the time comes in which you decide to invest in modifications, fabrications, or repairs, you’d better be sure that you have qualified people doing the work. That’s what you’ll get when you call Sam’s Welding at 619-281-2709 . If you live in El Cajon, La Mesa or Santee, ask about our walk-in and mobile services to maximize our availability to you.
A wrought iron fence can boost your property's curb appeal if done correctly. Read on to learn more about how the costs that affect installation.
Poor welding practices and mistakes generate noise, fumes, and hazardous emissions. Here's how to reduce the contaminants welding releases.
The campaign towards sustainable communities is getting bigger every year. Learn how you can be eco-conscious with your next welding project.
Outdoor fire pits come in a wide variety of materials. Explore why you may want to choose metal as your go-to material for your outdoor fire pit.
You can elevate the final design of a tree house with professional welding services. . Check out some of the project design options.
Although numerous options are available on the market, wrought iron fencing is a top choice for many homeowners. Read on to discover why.
The success of a fabrication project depends on many factors. Read on to discover three major criteria for picking materials for your next project.
contact information
Phone: (619) 281-2709
Address: 4821 UNIVERSITY AVE STE B San Diego, California 92105
Serving The San Diego County: San Diego | El Cajon | La Mesa | Santee
License numbers:
#804664
Business Hours:
- Mon - Fri
- -
- Saturday
- -
- Sunday
- Closed
Emergency Services Available and Walk-ins Welcome
visit our location
Proudly Serving: San Diego, San Diego Metro, Chula Vista, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks Ranch, Mira Mesa, Carmel Mountain, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Escondido, La Mesa, Spring Valley, Coronado, Point Loma, Bonita, El Cajon, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Solana Beach, & Del Mar.