page_title: Stairs
section_title: The railing system
hierarchical_section_title: Stairs / Components and terms / The railing system
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Kasyno Szlacheckie we Lwowie
context_page_description: A stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs, is a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. Stairs may be straight, round, or may consist of two or more straight pieces connected at angles.
  Special types of stairs include escalators and ladders. Some alternatives to stairs are elevators, stairlifts and inclined moving walkways.
context_section_description: The balustrade is the system of railings and balusters that prevents people from falling over the edge.
  Banister, Railing or Handrail
  The angled member for handholding, as distinguished from the vertical balusters which hold it up for stairs that are open on one side; there is often a railing on both sides, sometimes only on one side or not at all, on wide staircases there is sometimes also one in the middle, or even more. The term "banister" is sometimes used to mean just the handrail, or sometimes the handrail and the balusters or sometimes just the balusters.
  Volute
  A handrail end element for the bullnose step that curves inward like a spiral. A volute is said to be right or left-handed depending on which side of the stairs the handrail is as one faces up the stairs.
  Turnout
  Instead of a complete spiral volute, a turnout deviates from the normal handrail centre line away from the flight to give a wider opening as one enters the staircase, The turnout is usually set over a newel post to give added stability to the handrail.
  Gooseneck
  The vertical handrail that joins a sloped handrail to a higher handrail on the balcony or landing is a gooseneck.
  Rosette
  Where the handrail ends in the wall and a half-newel is not used, it may be trimmed by a rosette.
  Easings
  Wall handrails are mounted directly onto the wall with wall brackets. At the bottom of the stairs such railings flare to a horizontal railing and this horizontal portion is called a "starting easing". At the top of the stairs, the horizontal portion of the railing is called a "over easing".
  Core rail
  Wood handrails often have a metal core to provide extra strength and stiffness, especially when the rail has to curve against the grain of the wood. The archaic term for the metal core is "core rail".
  Baluster
  A term for the vertical posts that hold up the handrail. Sometimes simply called guards or spindles. Treads often require two balusters. The second baluster is closer to the riser and is taller than the first. The extra height in the second baluster is typically in the middle between decorative elements on the baluster. That way the bottom decorative elements are aligned with the tread and the top elements are aligned with the railing angle.
  Newel
  A large baluster or post used to anchor the handrail. Since it is a structural element, it extends below the floor and subfloor to the bottom of the floor joists and is bolted right to the floor joist. A half-newel may be used where a railing ends in the wall. Visually, it looks like half the newel is embedded in the wall. For open landings, a newel may extend below the landing for a decorative newel drop.
  Finial
  A decorative cap to the top of a newel post, particularly at the end of the balustrade.
  Baserail or Shoerail
  For systems where the baluster does not start at the treads, they go to a baserail. This allows for identical balusters, avoiding the second baluster problem.
  Fillet
  A decorative filler piece on the floor between balusters on a balcony railing.
  Handrails may be continuous (sometimes called over-the-post) or post-to-post (or more accurately newel-to-newel). For continuous handrails on long balconies, there may be multiple newels and tandem caps to cover the newels. At corners, there are quarter-turn caps. For post-to-post systems, the newels project above the handrails.
  Another, more classical, form of handrailing which is still in use is the tangent method. A variant of the Cylindric method of layout, it allows for continuous climbing and twisting rails and easings. It was defined from principles set down by architect Peter Nicholson in the 18th century.
  The earliest spiral staircases appear in Temple A in the Greek colony Selinunte, Sicily, to both sides of the cella. The temple was constructed around 480–470 BC.
caption: Neo-Baroque wooden stair in the House of scientists, in Lviv (Ukraine)
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