But i sometimes see some newly built houses that don't have them. Or is this a law that has just come in?
hi, yes pretty much. I mean you drive down beach rd and see every second house without handrails. some may have been legal, some are illegal and some owners just have too much $$ and dont care what the council/building regs are.
basically regarding drops anything over a metre drop will require a handrail. In some applications fixing posts also, depending on spans, heights, wind loads, glass thickness and how many fixing points you want.
We concentrate on pool fencing only, but our subbies do all types of balustrade. I have heard of some applications being able to get away with no handrail. I had one customer in the country that I was explaining the regs to and he was not happy with a handrail. He was installing on a deck that was about 4 metres above ground level. Many months later he sent me a picture of his completed job. NO handrail. I asked how he got around it. He told me his certifier said if he used 17mm toughened he was able to do it.
Basically a balustrade is there so that if any integral component (glass) was to break (ie someone fall through it) that the structure would still stay in place (ie the handrail) so the person has a chance of grabbing onto something.
there are slight variations from council to council, but the main building code AS applies in nearly all cases.
Thanks so much. I suppose if i had to, i would be okay with having the balustrade/handrail even though it doesn't look as good aesthetically, if it's a matter of safety then i'll comply. Do glass balconies break so often in order for this regulation to be brought in? I've got 2 baby boys and i'm clearly going to be very concerned now.