Balcony Safety – searching for a cost-effective architectural solution

We aren’t new to having a toddler, but speak to any parent with a runner and they’ll tell you, they’re just not like the other children - they are a force of nature. And we got one at the same time as getting a lovely high balcony overlooking a charming view and a deathly drop.

The balustrades on the balcony are solid walls, so to see what’s going on below. Mr. Explorer would grab the nearest piece of furniture and pivot on the handrail, giant top-heavy toddler head ready to tip over the edge. We saw that happen once before we locked the balcony up, and never enjoyed a relax in the sun thereafter.

I went in search of a practical yet attractive solution, a way to prevent him climbing over without a) creating a jail, b) glazing the whole opening and losing the breeze, or c) creating a kind of high-flying-trapeze safety net. The regulations in Australia dictate the height, strength, durability and allowable openings in balustrades, but say nothing about the potential for falls over the top.  So there are few if any options. I toyed with a vertical timber or timber look aluminium screening, thought about rusty wire mesh, even glass louvres. Each solution was either too expensive, too rough looking or obstructed the view.

In the end, these vertical wire balustrade ropes, with the neat low profile swage ends won the day. From only a few meters away they are invisible, and up close they don’t catch the eye that much. You might be thinking that they are tight as a fiddle string but in practise, they can’t be tensioned much because the forces added together of so many strings will either lift the balustrade wall or pull down the roof. But with this 1/19 steel rope there is very little stretch in the rope itself and with only finger tightening on the turnbuckles, they don’t move apart much.

From the outside they look architectural if not a tad curious, like a giant birdcage. But certainly they look intentional, and architectural – so that’s a win.

We’ll keep you posted on how they go over time, but so far we’ve seen them tested once by the little guy and his hold on the ropes has given him the control to take a peek over the edge, then hop down and run along. And all with the heaviest part – the noggin – on the verandah side of the ropes instead of in the atmosphere. Cheers!