Porch Railing Ideas

[Andrew Besecker]

Hello Everyone,

My business partner and I need some help/advice on picking out railing options for out deck. We are getting to a place where we are low on money but do not want to cut costs on the porches because they are such a big part of the outside appearance. The porch right now is a very dark stained wood against a white vinyl sided house. The stairs leading up to the porch are stone and they have a old black rod iron railing. We have ideas to spray paint the existing railings and use a white vinyl railing to finish the porch. Another option might be to do a wood railing with either aluminum or wood spindles. Attached are some pictures of the porch. Let us know what options you think would be best and maybe some other ideas you might have white are not too expensive. Thank you.

Back Porch:

Front Porch:

^with foundation partially painted

[Justin K.]

My day job is an engineer.  Building codes are 'universalish'.  Almost every jurisdiction in PA has adopted the International Building Code, which references and prescribes all the other codes (International Residential Construction Code, Mechanical Code, Structural Design Codes such as ASCE 7, ACI 318, AISC 360, etc.).  The universalish part comes into play with the local municipalities.  Each municipality (State or Local) can ammend the codes as they desire.  For example in Pittsburgh the code required is the "International Building Code (IBC) as amended by the City of Pittsburgh" and in the state of Ohio they use the Ohio Building Code (pretty much the same as the IBC, with minor changes).  But it is different in each state or local municipality.  Furthermore, some situations and sections of the code can be interpreted as contradicting each other.  Ultimately what is most important comes down to the local building code enforcer.  They have the ultimate say as to what is and isnt against the code and in settling minor discrepancies.

So to answer your question about the railing requirement for PA, I would suggest that you reach out to your local code enforcer.  In the IBC railings are required based on the 30" or 4 step rule (assuming your local municipality hasn't amended that).  

With regard to what you should do I would wonder what your end goal is?  You said the money was starting to get tight.  So, if you are flipping the house the aesthetics are huge, especially from the front porch perspective.  If you are holding it as a rental I would consider back filling 6" of soil around the beautiful foundation walls you built to make the porch under 30" (code compliant) and then add the railings at a later date if you want to sell or improve the look further, or when the finances permit it.

Best of luck!