Metal · Cutting · Stair railing
Metal railing for stairs: cut list with the lengths on the slope
What it does and how it is worked out
Type the cuts of your stair railing and the page lays them out on the fewest bars, with what is left of each one. Free, in the browser and on a phone. The list below is an example, the posts and rails of a stair railing in square tube, 120 × 72 in: 8 pieces on 2 bars of 240 in, 98 % of the bar used. Clear it and put in your own cuts.
- bars
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- used
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- waste
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The example of this page, worked out
The list the page opens with is an example, not anybody's order: the posts and rails of a stair railing in square tube, 120 × 72 in. Every length comes from the outside sizes of the job, and the figures are the optimiser's own, worked out by the same code as the tool above, on bars of 240 in with a 0.125 in cut and 0.5 in trimmed off each end.
| What the optimiser answers | Figure |
|---|---|
| Bars to buy | 2 |
| Pieces | 8 |
| Bar used | 98.2 % |
| Waste: blade, trim and short ends | 1.8 % |
| Offcuts worth keeping, 12 in or more | 1 · 5.4 ft |
Bottom railPostTop rail
The cutting list of the example
| Piece | Qty | Length, in |
|---|---|---|
| Post | 4 | 34 |
| Top rail | 1 | 140 |
| Bottom rail | 3 | 43.5 |
The same list on the main optimiser, with other bar lengths and your own offcuts: open it there.
What to watch: stair railing
- Run and rise in, slope out. The handrail is as long as the slope: the square root of the run squared plus the rise squared. The bottom rails are the clear run between posts, taken up the same slope.
- Lengths on the centre line. Posts and balusters stand upright, so the rails meet them at an angle: the lengths here are on the centre line of the tube, and the angled cuts at the ends are made afterwards.
- Heights and gaps are your code's. The height of the handrail over the nosings and the largest gap between balusters are set by the building code where you work: the sizes here are an example.
- Your bar, your blade, your trim. The example is on bars of 240 in with a 0.125 in cut and 0.5 in trimmed off each end. Set the bar your supplier sells and the width of your blade: the plan is worked out again as you type, and so is what is worth keeping (12 in or more here).
Templates: stair railing
Example sizes, not a standard: load one into the list above, then change each length to yours. Loading one replaces the list; nothing is sent and no email is asked for.
| Template | Pieces | Bars | Used | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A short flight, 5 ft run | 6 | 1 | 97.9 % | Load |
| A full storey, 14 ft run | 10 | 3 | 98.7 % | Load |
| The balusters of the example, another bar | 24 | 3 | 99.2 % | Load |
Bars and bar used on bars of 240 in, as the optimiser works them out. What the bars weigh: metal weight calculator.
Questions people ask
- How many bars does a stair railing take?
- The example on this page, the posts and rails of a stair railing in square tube, 120 × 72 in, is 8 pieces and takes 2 bars of 240 in with a 0.125 in cut and 0.5 in trimmed off each end: 98.2 % of the bar is used and 1 offcut is worth keeping. Put in your own cuts and the page works out yours.
- What does a metal railing for stairs take?
- Posts, a handrail the length of the slope, a bottom rail between each pair of posts, and the balusters. The example, 120 in of run and 72 in of rise, has a handrail of 140 in and 3 bays: the tube is 2 bars of 240 in, and the balusters, 8 a bay, are another bar.