A contractor was building a custom home for a client with a beachfront property on the Delaware shore. The custom shore home had a basement that required an egress staircase. The basement stair also required a code compliant handrail for people to traverse the steps as well as a 36” high railing at grade level to prevent people from falling into the stairwell.
Having a beautiful and maintenance-free railing was a priority to this client. So, wood was not an option as it is very susceptible to rotting. Iron railing is a viable option for the shore elements if it is pretreated correctly. It also has to be hot-dip galvanized, brush blasted and powder-coated. This duplex finish system is not quite as smooth as it has inherent inconsistencies in its texture. This allows it to emulate an authentic wrought Iron look.
However, in this project the decision was made to utilize aircraft-grade aluminum. This allows for a smoother finished railing product. It is also non-corrosive yet is practically indistinguishable from wrought iron railings.
We provided a beautiful molded caprail profile for both the handrail and the railing with a 1 ½” X ½” bar channel directly below and at the bottom of 5/8” square solid aircraft aluminum pickets. To anchor the railing, we core-drilled 1 ½” sq posts into the masonry and applied a 2 part epoxy to hold it in place.
For the stair handrail, we created a custom 5/8” sq “iron handrail bracket that we horizontally drilled into the masonry wall. Then, a decorative bracket slipped into place to cover the core-drilled holes. This makes the overall look much more visually appealing.
We finished the entire railing project in a special eco-friendly powder-coat system to be able to withstand the harsh environment at the shore. So, we built this basement stair railing and handrail specifically to meet code, provide safety and beauty for this southern Delaware home.
