Yet another question about this mountain vacation home ...
It has a deck with an amazing view, but also about a 30ft dropoff to the grade below. The railing is the kind made of wire cables stretched between 6x6 uprights. It is plenty high, but we are a little concerned about momentarily un-attended grandchildren. I think the cables are close enough together that they cannot get in between them, but if they got too loose, perhaps. It also seems plausible that they might climb up them.
Obviously the number one safety measure is to make sure they aren't un-attended out there - but we'd like a little extra insurance. I'm thinking to use hardware cloth (e.g. Amazon product ASIN B0832C486Y). Cut it into sections that fit in between the 6x6 uprights, and attach those sections to the wire cables and/or the 6x6s (heavy staples to the wire posts, cable ties to the wire cables). There's no chance the kids could get through that. They could climb up it though; so perhaps we bend back the top of the hardware cloth 6-8" or so (so it forms an upside-down 'L') and that way even if they did climb up the stuff, they'd then hit an overhanging ledge. I wonder how difficult it would be to bend a 36" by 60" or so piece of hardware cloth so that it's 28" high with an 8" flap ?
Another option is to install plexiglass or. tempered glass panels between the 6x6s. I think plexiglass is a non-starter, because it becomes scratched pretty easily and looks like crap. Tempered glass is insanely expensive. And given enough un-attended time, they could still get into trouble.
Also, this will be a temporary solution, since in 2-3 years the grandchildren will be old enough to be taught not to try to get over the railing.
It has a deck with an amazing view, but also about a 30ft dropoff to the grade below. The railing is the kind made of wire cables stretched between 6x6 uprights. It is plenty high, but we are a little concerned about momentarily un-attended grandchildren. I think the cables are close enough together that they cannot get in between them, but if they got too loose, perhaps. It also seems plausible that they might climb up them.
Obviously the number one safety measure is to make sure they aren't un-attended out there - but we'd like a little extra insurance. I'm thinking to use hardware cloth (e.g. Amazon product ASIN B0832C486Y). Cut it into sections that fit in between the 6x6 uprights, and attach those sections to the wire cables and/or the 6x6s (heavy staples to the wire posts, cable ties to the wire cables). There's no chance the kids could get through that. They could climb up it though; so perhaps we bend back the top of the hardware cloth 6-8" or so (so it forms an upside-down 'L') and that way even if they did climb up the stuff, they'd then hit an overhanging ledge. I wonder how difficult it would be to bend a 36" by 60" or so piece of hardware cloth so that it's 28" high with an 8" flap ?
Another option is to install plexiglass or. tempered glass panels between the 6x6s. I think plexiglass is a non-starter, because it becomes scratched pretty easily and looks like crap. Tempered glass is insanely expensive. And given enough un-attended time, they could still get into trouble.
Also, this will be a temporary solution, since in 2-3 years the grandchildren will be old enough to be taught not to try to get over the railing.
. In a similar vein, I suggested cutting off the top horizontal wire of the hardware cloth, so if they did climb to the top, little 1/2" spikes would stop them in their tracks; figure a nasty poke in the finger is better than a 30ft fall. Again, granny not amused.
