The BCA does not clearly define and distinguish between walls, partitions, balustrades, guard rails, hand rails and barriers. AS1170.1 gives top edge loads for barriers. Applying a load to the top edge of a barrier of any height is not considered appropriate: the line load needs applying at a height appropriate to the nature of […]

{This is a partial rewrite of report originally written in 2011 for a specific project, involving the testing of existing balustrade installations, which resulted in an uneasy feeling that few balustrades were BCA compliant, and that the testing was a hazardous exercise.  It has been put online so that it can be made into a […]

Synopsis {This is a partial rewrite of report originally written in 2003 for a specific project, involving a custom fabricated aluminium balustrade. The owner of a building had looked around at commercially available balustrade systems and decided they were too expensive and had otherwise found a general aluminium/stainless steel fabricator to make a balustrade. The […]