Navigating Corners with Cable Railing
When designing a cable railing system, corners present a unique challenge. Maintaining proper cable tension is essential for both safety and aesthetics, and the geometry of your layout can greatly influence how corners are handled. At Stainless Cable & Railing, we provide flexible solutions tailored to various scenarios, ensuring your system performs flawlessly while achieving the desired look.
The Basics of Cable Tension and Corners
As a general rule, we recommend avoiding extending cable runs around more than one to two corners. This minimizes the risk of losing tension and ensures the system remains secure and up to date with any local code. Most code standards would fail a cable railing if the strands are able to be forced apart by a 4″ sphere, so it is important to be mindful of tension when designing your railing. There are some specific variables that can influence what’s feasible with a single run of cable railing:
Shorter Runs: If the total run length is not extensive (fewer than 50 lineal feet), you may be able to navigate one or two additional corners without compromising tension.
Wider Angles: Gradual, wide-angle corners are easier to accommodate compared to sharp angles, which can cause tension loss.
Stairs: Stairs present a whole new level of complexity when maintaining tension around corners, acting as a corner themselves. We often recommend they have independent cable runs from level surfaces.
If you still aren’t 100% sure what is best for your project, please feel free to contact one of our Cable Railing experts during the design phase. This can be a daunting task, and our staff is more than prepared to work with you step by step to design the perfect cable railing system for your specific project. We’re here to help!
Starting and Stopping Cable Runs
For maximum tensional rigidity, stopping and starting the cable run after every corner is the best approach. This method reduces the strain on cables and ensures a clean, taut system that will maintain tension better than the alternatives over time. However, it does come with trade-offs:
Increased Hardware: Additional fittings and posts are required, which can slightly increase project costs and overall complexity.
Increased Complexity: If you are a bright eyed and bushy tailed DIYer just getting your feet wet, stopping and starting cable runs at every corner can add time and effort to the project.
Weighing your options is key to maximizing any project. Taking all of this into consideration when designing your new railing will help you avoid over-spending and over-working.
Spiral Staircases: A Special Case
While our systems are versatile, we do not recommend using cable railing for spiral staircases. The tight geometry of spiral designs requires excessive hardware and posts to maintain tension, resulting in a cluttered and impractical setup. For these applications, we require stopping and starting at nearly every step to ensure tension. It can be done for small instances, but we would direct any prospective customers with full, ornate spiral staircases to look elsewhere. They require a different approach than we can comfortably offer at this moment, but we are always working towards expanding our product line to help more people!
Custom Solutions for Your Project
Every project is unique, and our team is here to help you navigate the complexities of cable railing and corners. Whether you’re working with sharp angles, wide turns, or need guidance on hardware and post placement, Stainless Cable & Railing has the expertise to deliver a system that meets your needs. For DIYers, we work with you to make sure you have everything you need – and for those of our customers that opt to get some assistance with the project, we are always happy to help out our contractor friends!
Let’s Design Your Perfect Railing System
Ready to tackle the challenges of corners in your cable railing project? Contact us today! Give us a call at 888-686-7245 or visit us online or fill out our free estimate request form to explore your options and learn how our tailored solutions can ensure your railing system looks perfect and fits your space perfectly.