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Adding a screen porch to your home extends your outdoor living lifestyle. Whether your screen porch is used as a dining porch, sleeping porch or just to relax. It allows you to enjoy the fresh air and outside environment without dealing with unwanted bugs and critters.

When deciding on your screen porch design, it is important to understand the building codes in your municipality. Typically, a guardrail is required for an elevated porch of 30 inches or more above ground level. In addition, if the screens extend to within 24 inches of the floor or walking surface, a guard rail is required. Cable guardrails add an extra level of safety to the screens, especially for toddlers and pets that could push through a screen. A cable guardrail maintains the open airy feel while preserving your view and providing an added level of safety protection. Residential guardrail requirements that do not act as handrails are required to be a minimum height of 36 inches.

There are a number of ways to add a cable guardrail to your screen porch while maintaining your view. They include adding it to the outside of your screen porch, to the inside, or using cables lagged into the wood columns. See some unique approaches below.

Screen Porch with Exterior Cable Guardrail

The cable railing guardrail for this home was made to complement the architecture and wrap the outside of the porch. The exterior of this home marries a variety of materials including wood, steel, and stone, with modern crisp architectural lines. The desire to enjoy the outdoors and extend the season led to designing a variety of multi-purpose exterior spaces. The covered screen porch was added to this home’s design to provide a functional space that could be used year-round.

The home’s floor plan was designed to easily transition from the interior to the screen porch that overlooks a beautiful pool and golf course. The cable guardrail wraps the exterior of the screen porch and matches the deck and stair railings creating symmetry across the facade. We fabricated this railing in our Ithaca style with an aluminum top rail and powder-coated it oil-rubbed bronze.

Screened Sun Porch with Interior Cable Guardrail

A coastal sunroom is a great place to relax and take in the beach views while enjoying the ocean breeze. With floor-to-ceiling screens, this project required the addition of a guardrail. To maintain the views the owners chose our Ithaca Style cable railing system. We fabricated the cable railing posts to fit in-between the interior of the home’s screened window columns. The posts are anodized aluminum, with the addition of escutcheon plates to cover the hardware and create a more refined look. The cables and fittings are made of 316 stainless steel. To maintain consistency the same cable railing system is used on the exterior deck and boardwalk.

Cable Guardrail Attached to Porch Columns

This cable guardrail protrudes through then lags into the existing wood columns, so it does not require additional posts. Living near the forest is a wonderful place to enjoy the serene tranquility of nature. Since the objective was to bring the natural outdoor environment closer to the living space, a screen porch was a perfect choice. To maintain a minimal aesthetic and implement the required guardrail this customer chose a cable lag system. Our unique cable railing fittings are available with lag hardware that screw directly into the wood columns. The deck railings on the exterior of the home feature our curved Keuka Style cable railing system.

At Keuka Studios, we custom fabricate residential and commercial stairs and railings to fit your style, space, and requirements. To learn more about how each cable railing project moves from vision to reality. Take a look at our custom railing design process. We take pride in building craftsman-quality and commercial-grade stairs and railings for interior and exterior applications. Contact us to get started on your project.