Balustrade and railing heights in Europe: the number your guard has to reach
The short answer for most of Europe: a guard on a staircase inside a home has to reach at least 900 mm, and a balcony, landing or terrace edge at least 1100 mm. The exact figure is national, and the differences are not cosmetic. France works to 1.00 m measured from wherever a person can normally stand. Italy sets the parapet at 100 cm. Germany allows 900 mm until the fall height passes 12 m. Spain steps up to 1100 mm at a 6 m drop, not a 12 m one.
The number is rarely the problem. The problem is what it is measured from and measured to. Every code here states a minimum, taken from finished floor level to the top of the handrail, while buyers measure from the concrete they can see today up to the top of the frame they have drawn. A made to measure steel balustrade is cut, welded and coated to one length, so the gap between those two ways of measuring shows up on site, when nothing can be changed without going back to bare metal.
The height is a minimum, not a design dimension
No code tells you how tall your railing should be. It tells you the height it must not fall below. Going higher is your call, and 1200 mm on an exposed roof terrace is a sensible one. Going under is a defect, and the tolerance in that direction is zero. Height is also only the first test: there is a gap rule, an anti climb rule for the lower part of the guard, and a horizontal load to resist.
The figures country by country
These figures are for ordinary residential use. Workplaces, public buildings and premises used by children are frequently stricter.
| Country | Minimum height | Infill and climbing | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 900 mm stairs, 1100 mm balconies and landings | No 100 mm sphere | Approved Document K |
| Germany | 900 mm to 12 m fall height, 1100 mm above | No 120 mm sphere, nothing climbable with children | Landesbauordnung, DIN 18065 |
| Poland | 0.9 m houses and multi level flats, 1.1 m apartment blocks and terraces | Gaps 0.12 m maximum with children | Warunki techniczne, par. 298 |
| France | 1.00 m from the standing surface, 0.80 m if the guard is 50 cm deep or more | Non climbable to about 45 cm, gaps 11 cm maximum | NF P01-012 |
| Italy | 100 cm parapets, 90 cm typical on internal stairs | No 10 cm sphere, not easily climbable | DM 236/1989, regolamento edilizio |
| Spain | 900 mm for drops of 55 cm to 6 m, 1100 mm above 6 m | No 100 mm sphere, nothing climbable 30 to 50 cm | CTE DB-SUA 1 |
Two of those entries move: some German states require guarding from a fall height of as little as 0.5 m, and Italian municipal rules increasingly ask for 110 cm. Local building control or the applicable regional code governs, so confirm your own figure before anything is cut. Where a designer has given you a height in writing, build to that number.
Finished floor level, not the floor in front of you today
The measurement starts at the surface a person will stand on once the building is done: on a balcony the tile, the deck board or the resin, not the slab. On a stair or access platform it is the top of the finished tread, not the bare stringer.
The arithmetic is unforgiving. A 60 mm screed with a 12 mm tile lifts the floor by 72 mm, so a guard fabricated to 1100 mm from the slab and fitted after that build up guards 1028 mm and fails. It is the most common reason a finished balustrade gets cut about on site, and reworking a coated item means a repaired finish that never quite matches.
Give the workshop two numbers rather than one: the level you measure from now, and the thickness of everything still to be laid on top of it. If the floor finish is undecided, say so. A guard fixed to the side of the slab is far less sensitive to a late change of tile than one sitting on top, because the post length absorbs the difference instead of the guarding height.
Measured to the top of the handrail
Where a handrail is fitted, the height is taken to the top of it, not to the frame, the mesh or the glass. That works in your favour when the handrail caps the frame: a frame at 1080 mm with a 40 mm tube welded along the top measures 1120 mm and complies, though the frame alone does not.
It works against you when the handrail is bolted to the face of the posts, below the top of the infill, because two things are then checked separately: the guard against the minimum guarding height, and the handrail against the handrail range. Spain puts the handrail between 90 and 110 cm, and German stair handrail heights sit in DIN 18065.
So give the fabricator the finished height to the top of the handrail, and say what that handrail is: steel tube, flat bar on edge, or a timber section from a joiner. The height of the welded steel follows from it.
The gap rule usually bites before the height rule
On a modern design the height is the easy part and the infill is where the job fails. Vertical bars of 12 mm square at 120 mm centres leave 108 mm clear: acceptable in Germany at a 120 mm sphere, refused in the United Kingdom and Spain at 100 mm, refused in France at 11 cm. One drawing, three outcomes, and the only variable is the country.
Horizontal rails are worse, because they can fail even when the spacing is legal. France requires the zone up to about 45 cm to be non climbable, Spain allows nothing climbable between roughly 30 and 50 cm, German practice avoids the ladder effect with children, and Italian rules require a guard that is not easily climbed. Evenly spaced horizontal flats are, to a three year old, a ladder with a view at the top. Vertical bars, perforated sheet, mesh or a solid panel settle that at drawing stage rather than at inspection.
Fixings and load, which is where height stops mattering
Every national code sets a horizontal line load the guard has to resist at handrail level, and the value depends on use: a private balcony, a stair inside a house and a place where a crowd can press against the guard are three different cases. The values differ by country and use class, so check yours. What they drive is not the height, it is post spacing, section size and above all the fixing.
A guard that meets the height and is bolted into 60 mm of screed, or into the shell of a hollow block, is not compliant in the way that counts: the height is decorative if the post pulls out. The substrate has to be agreed before fabrication, because it sets the base plate size, the bolt pattern, whether resin anchors into solid concrete are needed, and whether the guard is top fixed or side fixed to the slab edge. Side fixing keeps the full floor width and takes the load into sound concrete, but needs a clean edge.
If your project needs stamped structural calculations or a declaration of performance for the guarding, raise it before you order. That is a separate deliverable, to be arranged rather than assumed.
What a fabricator needs from you
- Finished floor level, plus the thickness of screed, tile, decking or resin still to be laid.
- The fall height on the far side, which decides which figure in the table applies.
- The substrate: slab thickness, hollow block, timber joists or steel frame, and the state of the slab edge.
- Whether children use the space, which settles infill and anti climb together.
- The handrail: welded steel, a separate timber section or none, and the finished height to its top.
- The country and municipality, plus any height already specified in writing.
Answer those six and the drawing can be corrected before any steel is cut, the only stage at which changes are free. The built results are in the railings and staircases range. The governing figure remains the one your building control body sets.