Steel Balconies

Balconies that are engineered, not just welded

A balcony holds people up in the air. Everything about how we build them follows from that.

We make and install Juliet balconies — the guarding across a full-height opening or French doors, with no floor projecting out — and full balconies with a walkable deck, cantilevered from the structure or carried on posts or brackets.

The part that matters: fixings

The failure point on a balcony is almost never the steelwork. It is what the steelwork is fixed to.

A Juliet balcony has to resist a horizontal load applied at handrail height, which puts significant leverage into the fixings. That is straightforward into solid stone or good brickwork. Into rendered blockwork, thin masonry, or a timber frame with a brick skin, it needs proper thought — because the brick skin on a modern timber-frame house is a cladding, not a structure, and fixing a balcony to it alone is not acceptable.

We survey every balcony before pricing, we establish what the wall actually is rather than what it looks like, and we specify resin anchors or through-bolts to the structure accordingly. Where a structural engineer sign-off is needed we will say so rather than press on. The same fixing questions apply to railings and balustrades.

Regulations

Balcony guarding in a dwelling is generally required to be 1100mm high where there is a drop of more than 600mm, with no gap permitting a 100mm sphere and no horizontal detail that a child could climb — which is why we advise against horizontal bar infill on domestic balconies even though it looks superb. Glass infill, vertical bar and perforated or laser-cut panels all comply and all look excellent.

Styles and finishes

• Vertical bar — the traditional choice, suits stone and period properties, always compliant
• Glass infill — toughened or laminated, in a steel frame or with minimal clamps, for an uninterrupted view
• Laser-cut panels — patterned steel panels, increasingly popular on contemporary builds
• Decked balconies — steel structure with composite, hardwood or open-mesh deck

Galvanised and powder coated as standard for external life, in any RAL colour.

Where we work

Balconies throughout West Yorkshire — Keighley, Bingley, Ilkley, Skipton, Leeds, Bradford, Halifax and Harrogate — and further afield for larger developments.