Kevin Walton wrote:

I have a very similar problem in a new staircase as part of a loft
conversion. It's a double winder staircase with solid walls on both
side for the lower part, turning into spindles, newls etc to produce
the guard rail at the top.

This is something I will need to sort out soon on my one - still in two
minds as to which way will be best to do it.

There are a couple of things that you can do that might make it a bit
simpler. The first is to remember that the requirements for guarding and
those for a hand rail do not need to be satisfied by the same apparatus.
In other words you can use diminishing height spindles that run up to
the ceiling to satisfy the guarding requirements. But then have a
separate handrail that is nothing to do with the ballustrading to meet
the requirements for the handrail.

Note also that the preference (from a BCOs perspective) is usually to
have the handrail on the outside of the steps when there are a couple of
quarter winders since it will be closer to the wider part of the steps
that you are more likely to walk on.

So looking at your photo, you could fix a spigoted newel about 6" behind
the exiting one on the left, and use this as one end of the
ballustrading that will guard the landing to the left of your photo. You
would also have a short length or banister with probably a single
spindle between the two newels. You could then have a separate handrail
that is fixed to the far wall either coming the whole way up the stairs
and turning the corner, or, just for the last section where there will
be no banister. A smallish profile rail on short brackets should not
stand out too far.



--
Cheers,

John.

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