How to make a handrail for a ladder with your own hands made of metal?

Handrail is part of the enclosure of the staircase. They ensure the safety of movement on the stairs. A distinctive feature of them is the multiplicity of options for forms and materials. Some are simple, where the main thing is safety and convenience. There are railings that are decoration. In particular, this applies to structures located directly in the room. Theme of the article: how to make a railing for a ladder with your own hands made of metal and wood.

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Materials of manufacture

Handrails can be made of such materials:

• Wood.
• Metal.
• Plastic.
• Concrete.

Important! If it comes to self-manufacturing, then the best options are wood and metal.

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Handrail for stairs with own hands - requirements of

Design of the structure can be different. It depends on the style in which the room and the taste preferences of the owner of the house are maintained. However, there are a number of basic rules that must be observed without fail:

• The minimum height of the fence is 0.9 m.
• The handrails should not be too wide and absolutely smooth.
• If the staircase is adjacent to one side of the wall, and the staircase is narrow, then one of the guardrails is enough. For a wide flight of stairs you need two fences.
• If the family has children, and the stairs are high and steep, you need to take care of an additional low fencing so that the child can walk safely on the stairs.

Important! Do not forget to consider the distance between the balusters. It must be such that the baby can not climb between them. Optimum variant - from 150 to 200 mm.

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What does the enclosure consist of?

Before you make a railing on the stairs, you need to know what such systems consist of:

• Handrail. This is the upper bar, which is placed above the guardrail. The handrail is designed to be held for it during descent and ascent. For this reason it must be made monolithic and smooth.
• Balusters - racks attached to strings or steps. They are set after a certain interval.
• Cabinets - powerful end stands in the end part of the ladder. Handrails are attached to them.

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How to make a ladder rail with your own hands made of metal?

Let's start the review of the possibility of independent production of the ladder from a variant of metal. Here you expect this order of work.

Material selection

These options are possible.

Aluminum

It is not easy to make an aluminum structure on its own. Most often sold finished parts and fasteners for aluminum railing. It is already easy to assemble the enclosure from ready-made parts. The main thing is to think ahead of the design and correctly calculate the number of different elements that will be required when working.

Unfortunately, the performance of aluminum leaves much to be desired. It deforms, scratches, eventually fades.

Chrome-plated steel

Details for such fences are also available. It is important to calculate everything correctly and purchase exactly as many materials as you need. Looks chrome product is very beautiful and respectable. However, the coating is soon erased. Especially it concerns public premises and crowded places.

Forged elements

Parts created by the method of hot forging, in most cases are factory work. It's quite difficult to manufacture them yourself. If it is a question of manufacturing of designs by own hands the technique of cold forging is more often applied.

The advantages of forged handrails are:

• Aesthetics.
• A large number of design solutions for all styles.
• Uniqueness - even if forging is made according to a standard drawing, there are no two absolutely forged products.

Important! There are also disadvantages: high cost of products, high labor intensity of work, the need for special knowledge and tools.

Stainless steel

Beautiful practical material with a noble, non-glossy luster. Stainless steel fences are reliable and durable. To install them you will need skills of welding and cutting for metal.

Let's consider now the order of manufacturing of the elementary perily construction from a metal profile.

Required tool kit:

• Workwear set, protective welding mask.
• Welding machine, a set of electrodes to it.
• Angle grinder.
• Circles for cutting metal.
• Level.
• Rolled metal products, metal profiles.

Important! It is advisable to select a profile with a small cross-section to make it easier to cut.

Work order

Determine the parameters of the future handrails:

• Height.
• Interval between balusters.

Useful advices:

1. On the upper and lower steps will be installed thumbs, fixing the entire structure. Thickness of thumbs should be more than balusters.
2. The standard height of the handrail is 0.95 m. However, the frame of the handrail itself must be raised 10 cm above the steps. Approximately 5 cm leaves on the handrail. Thus, the frame itself remains: 95-5-10 = 80 cm. So - the cutting of the metal profile into balusters and pedestals should be made at 80 cm.
3. After this, the length of the frame for cutting the transverse upper and lower profiles is calculated.
4. After the profile is cut into the frame elements, you only have to weld it. It is not necessary to grab the elements tightly, so that during marriage, mistakes or skewing, you do not have to do double work.
5. After the frame is welded, it remains to reinforce it by welding balusters after 10 cm.

Important! The thickness of the pedestals is twice that of the internal vertical bridges.

If the geometry of the structure is correctly maintained, then it is possible to proceed with the final welding of the structural elements. Seams are welded from 2 sides for maximum strength.

Decoration

How can I decorate the stair railing with my own hands? Using a grinder, clean and polish any irregularities that remain after welding. A good idea is to decorate the metal fence, welded independently, by buying forged items.

Important! Ornaments, patterns, plant motifs will very much adorn the design. Handrails are best used wooden.

Staining

Cover the surface of the metal with a primer coat before painting. It protects the metal structure from corrosion. Use a special dye for metal for painting.

Important! The color depends on your taste, but the most common option is black. For the artificial aging of metal and giving it a noble species, patina is used.

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Self-made wooden railing

Consider how to make wooden railings for stairs with your own hands.

Materials

The first stage is the selection of the material for the manufacture of the perimeter construction.

Pine

Pine wood is soft, has affordable value, therefore it is used in construction quite often. Because of the heterogeneous structure, when staining, the pine absorbs the dye unequally.

Important! The wood is well processed, it tolerates temperature changes quite well.

Oak

Durable, durable, beautiful and respectable material. Oak wood is resistant to rot and parasite damage.

Important! The disadvantage is one - high cost.

Birch

Beautiful, durable material with high density, almost without knots. The birch massif is perfectly handled, but it does not lack the disadvantages:

• he is prone to putrefaction;
• is deformed;
• cracked when temperature and humidity drop.

Beech

Due to the strength of beech wood is close to oak. However, unlike oak, the beech cracks on the fibers at low humidity, which leads to damage to wooden products.

Basic elements of

As in metal construction, wooden railings consist of pedestals, balusters and handrails.

In a wooden structure, balusters play not only the role of supports, but also a decor. Often used for their manufacture glued beams, from which polished columns of various shapes.

It is possible to process balusters on a milling or lathe:

• In the first case, the patterns are screwed, in the second - geometric.
• Manual cutting of balusters is a very laborious task. But at the same time they produce truly unique products, the pride of the owners.

Important! It can be images of people or animals, geometric patterns, plant motifs.

How to make a railing for a ladder made of flat balusters?

The easiest way to decorate a ladder with wooden elements is the design of flat balusters, in which patterns are cut.

As in the calculation of the metal structure:

• The height of the flat patterned plates will be 80 cm.
• The thickness of the board is 0.30-0.35 cm, and the width varies from 10 to 15 cm.

To give the balusters a beautiful shape:

• They are cuton a lathe or jigsaw. Pre-make a template on paper.
• After the processing of the boards is completed, they sand it with sandpaper and polish.

Important! Flat balusters can not be attached to the steps, as the fence will turn out to be shaky and unreliable. Installation is made on a cross bar, located 10 cm above the string. The frame is thus formed by curbstones, a handrail and a lower beam.

The maximum interval through which the boards are fastened is 15 cm. Two types of connections are used:

• On a metal stud.
• In the groove. The depth of the groove is 2 cm. The length of the groove corresponds to the width of the baluster.

Important! Do not forget about the slope of the stairs. The lower part of the balusters for this reason is flat, and the upper part is cut according to the angle of inclination of the ladder structure.

The handrails are attached to the sections.

Fastening balusters on a metal stud is made if you can not mount the cross bar. In this case, there will be no interval between steps and planks. The height of the balusters is 0.9 m. After the railing plates are mounted, you can fasten the wooden handrail.

Important! Painting the structure of wood can be stained, varnish or acrylic dye.

In this article, we examined the 2 most affordable options to make a stair rail for yourself with metal and wood hands. What now to give preference - decide, given the overall design of the room and the materials used for its finishing.