Deck Handrails

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Before You Begin

Note that the stair handrail settings are a part of the Drawing Template settings so it is important that your projects always have the latest Drawing Template version. See Drawing Templates for more info.

Stair Rails vs Guard Rails

Stair Rails are the railings that are on the actual stairs. They slope with the stairs.

Guard Rails are the horizontal railings around a deck or stair landing.

The standards for Stair Rails and Guard Rails are as follows:

• Stair Rails
  • Height=36"
  • No Toerail
• Guard Rails (including horizontal railings on stair landings)
  • Height=42"
  • With Toerail

Procedural Order

Drawing Deck Handrails and Deck Stair Handrails is actually quite easy. Before starting the handrails first draw all Decks and Deck Stairs. See Drawing Decks and Deck Stairs for instructions if you are unfamiliar with how to do them. Once the decks and stairs are complete it is time to draw the handrails. Do them in the following order.

1. Create the handrails for the Stairs
2. Create the handrails for the Deck
3. Adjust handrails & Posts as necessary

Creating Handrails for Stairs

Simply right click anywhere on the stairs and select Edit. From the Whole Stair tab place checkmarks in the Left Rail and/or Right Rail checkboxes. The rails are automatically created for you.

Creating Handrails for Decks

1. Right click the the top surface of the Deck
2. Select Auto Rail
3. Selct the "custom square" railing
4. Select OK

Adjusting Handrails and Posts

Adjust the Size and Position of the Posts

1. Right click the post
2. Select Edit
3. Adjust the size, height, position, etc. of the post.
4. Select Ok
5. Optionally use Repeat Edit to make the same changes to other posts.

Adjust the Plan Position for the Railing

Plan Position is the distance from the outside of the deck to the center of the handrail.

As an example, suppose your Deck has 8" posts and the posts align with the outside edge of the Deck. If you want your railing to be centered on the 8" posts then you would set the Plan Position to be 4", half the depth of the post. If your posts are 5 1/2" then the Plan Position to center the railing would be 2-3/4".

1. Right click the railing and select Edit
2. Select the Rail Edge tab
3. Adjust the Plan Position
4. Select OK
5. Optionally use Repeat Edit to make the same changes to other railings.

Intermediate Posts

Intermediate Posts are the posts that are between the end posts. Intermediate posts can be inserted by editing the handrail.

1. Right Click the Railing and select Edit.
2. Switch to the Rail Edge tab
3. Place a Check at Intermediate Posts
4. Optionally place a check for Number and designate how many intermediate posts to add

SoftPlan allows from 0 to 10 intermediate posts in the handrail. If you have a particularly long handrail and need more than 10 intermediate posts you will need to break the handrail up into multiple handrails.

Note: You cannot edit intermediate posts individually within the same handrail.

If you need to break up the handrail to have different size posts you have a couple options.

• Either draw the posts in individually then manually draw individual shorter railings between them or
• Set the number of intermediate posts to represent the total number of posts needed then explode the handrail into shorter sections.

You can then edit the end posts as needed.

Adding Posts

If you are missing a post use this method to add a post to the end of the handrail.

1. Select Edit Item
2. Click the end of the handrail or, if at a corner, select the diagonal line in the corner
3. On the Post tab go to the Style setting and change from No Post to Corner Post.
4. Optionally set the Width, Height, and other options.
5. Select OK