A loose railing on a stairway is a liability, especially on a commercial property. If you own a business with staircases, you need to be aware of the condition of your railings. A loose screw or a broken weld could make the railing unsafe, even cause injury. Don’t take the risk of a hurt employee or customer – here are some tips on how to ensure your metal railings are secure and safe on your commercial building.
Visual Inspection
First, take a close look at your stair railings. Look for rust, dents or any signs of wear. Check the joints – are all the screws in place? Does anything look off-kilter? Often you can see something is wrong with the railing if you look closely, giving you a chance to get it fixed before it causes problems.
The Wiggle Test
If a railing wiggles, it needs repair. It is that simple. Metal railings should be solid, no room for movement. Any wiggle room means there is a screw loose or a weld that is not secure. Check every section regularly, especially if you notice any visual concerns. If you can feel the railing give at all, it is time to consider repair or replacement for your metal railing.
When a railing needs repair, call your local metal fabricator that specializes in metal staircases. They can inspect your railings and offer a repair solution. Often the railings can be repaired and recoated without needing complete replacement. If they do need to be replaced, your metal fabricator can customize new railing for your staircases that will be secure and safe for use.
Posted on behalf of:
LCG Welding, LLC
4625 Church Road
Cumming, GA 30028
(678) 455-5552
Any exterior handrail is basically made up of four separate components, including the newel post, picket, top rail and bottom rail. The components are typically assembled in a metal fabrication shop and are made to fit a specific area on a specific building. In the past often rails were kept simple due to the high cost of fabrication of custom parts, especially the newel post, pickets and top rails.
While very attractive, features such as round newel posts, twisted or basket style pickets and brass top rails were just not feasible from a cost perspective for most property owners. Traditionally, trained craftsmen have fabricated these components using centuries old metal working techniques. Often the fabrication process was very labor intensive, resulting in high labor costs to create these custom rails.
However, today it has never been more affordable to install a custom fabricated metal stair railings on any commercial or residential property. The reason is due to the vast number of available railing components that metal fabricators have access to today. Now the fabricator has the ability to order individual rail components, which have been mass-produced by a specialized contractor, utilizing state of the art machinery.
Fabricators and property owners can work together to work to select from thousands of available parts, to create a true unique rail that is both pleasing to the eye, but also meets all applicable code requirements. The resulting railing is also surprisingly affordable, due to the reduced cost of mass produced custom components!
Posted on behalf of LCG Welding, LLC
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