Design Engineer for balustrade
Quote a balustrade properly, in the time it takes to measure it.
Set the run out, pick the system, and Kabaido gives you the cutting list, the glass panel schedule, the dimensional checks and a price with its working. Level runs, corners, raked and stepped stairs, Juliets and wall rails, in eight system families.
The job as it stands
The take-off is the job
The measuring is quick. It is everything after it that takes the afternoon.
A 6m balcony and a straight flight of thirteen. Half an hour on site, then back to the desk to work out the posts, the bay widths, the bar count that keeps a 100mm sphere out, the panel sizes on the rake, the metres of handrail, how many 6m lengths that comes to, the elbows at the transitions, the end caps, the base plates, the anchors, the kilograms for the galvaniser and the square metres for the coater. Then the rates, then the typing, then the covering letter with the exclusions on it.
Two hours, if nothing interrupts. And when the architect moves the going by 10mm, most of it happens again.
Not re-typing the same forty line items, not missing the elbows and the end caps and handing the glass supplier a panel schedule they can price as it stands.
That is what this is for. Not to replace your judgement, your supplier discount or your engineer. To do the arithmetic you have already done a thousand times, in front of you, with its working shown, so you can check it in ten seconds and send the quote.
Try it here
Move the run. Watch the parts move.
This is the real engine, not a video and not a mock-up. The elevation is the same 2D line work the DXF export writes. The quantities are the same take-off the platform produces. The price is computed by the same worker, from the same rates.
Switch to a raked stair and watch the panels become parallelograms and the rail metres follow the pitch rather than the plan. Switch to frameless glass and watch the posts disappear and the channel arrive. Nothing here is staged.
Sections and plate
- Posts5 off50 x 50 x 3mm box section, 5 at 1058mm
- Stock lengths for the posts1 lengths6000mm bars, 88 per cent used
- Handrail4.80 m42.4mm round tube
- Stock lengths for the handrail1 lengths6000mm bars, 80 per cent used
- Bottom rail4.80 m50 x 10mm flat bar
- Base plates5 off120 x 120 x 10mm plate, 4 holes
- Total fabricated mass101.70 kgMild steelWhat the galvaniser weighs in.
Infill
- Vertical bars40 off12mm square bar, 40 at 928mm106mm centres, 94mm clear gap.
- Stock lengths for the bars7 lengths6000mm bars, 88 per cent used
Fixings and hardware
- End caps2 off42.4mm round tube
- Anchors20 off4 per plate, plus any channel and bracket fixings
Finishing
- Hot dip galvanising101.70 kgTo BS EN ISO 1461, charged by weightAgree the vent and drain holes before the steel goes out.
Workshop and site
- Shop fabrication4.60 hoursCut, drill, weld and dressAn estimate from the part count. Tune the rate against your own shop.
Systems
Eight families, one runtime
Every elevation below is drawn by the configurator from a real configuration. Nothing on this page is an artist's impression.
Posts with bar infill
Vertical bars set out so no gap reaches 100mm, on box or round posts.
Posts with glass and clamps
Toughened infill panels in clamps, four to a bay, on a glass compatible post.
Frameless glass in a base channel
A continuous channel carries the run. The glass is the guarding.
Frameless glass on spigots
Individual spigots under each panel, with a visible gap between them.
Point fixed glass on standoffs
Four standoffs a panel through the fascia, holes on the schedule not on site.
Posts with tension wire
Stainless rope through the intermediate posts, tensioned at each end.
Posts with mesh or perforated panels
Woven mesh, perforated sheet or a laser cut pattern, framed into the bays.
Handrail only
A wall rail on saddles, the highest volume line most fabricators quote.
Post sections run from 42.4mm and 48.3mm round tube through 40, 50 and 60mm box to 60 x 12mm flat bar, each with its own spacing limit and whether it takes glass clamps. Glass runs from 8mm toughened infill to 25.52mm toughened laminated for crowd loading. Bars come square, round or flat. Every one of them carries its real mass per metre, because the galvaniser charges by weight.
Stairs
Raked, stepped and the landing at each end
The stair is where a balustrade quote goes wrong, so it is modelled properly rather than approximated.
Raked
Handrail and infill run parallel to the pitch line.
Stepped
Level rail sections stepping down at each post. More posts, more welds.
Flight with landings
Level guarding at each end with the rake between, set out as one run.
Survey the flight as rise, going and riser count, the way you actually measure it, and the rake comes out of the arithmetic rather than off a protractor. Thirteen risers at 190 on 250 is twelve goings, 3000mm on plan and 37.2 degrees, and the set out follows from there.
Stepped and raked are a real fork in the price, not a style note. Stepped puts a post at every nosing with a level rail section between each pair, so the same flight takes thirteen posts instead of three, the rail carries a vertical at every step and the panels come out rectangular. Raked runs the rail and the infill parallel to the pitch line: far fewer posts, every one the same length and angled glass instead. The two produce different cutting lists and different prices, and the tool prices what you picked.
Handrail height on a flight is measured from the pitch line and on a landing from the floor, which is exactly why the two do not match at a transition. The checks know the difference.
| Mark | Cut size | Rake | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 1200 x 1037 | Level | 4.47m |
| P2 | 987 x 1787 | 37.2 deg | 4.55m |
| P3 | 987 x 1787 | 37.2 deg | 4.55m |
| P4 | 987 x 1787 | 37.2 deg | 4.55m |
| P5 | 1000 x 1037 | Level | 4.07m |
A raked panel is charged on the rectangle it is cut from, so the schedule carries the cut size, not the visible size. All glass 21.52mm toughened laminated, heat soaked.
A raked panel is charged on the rectangle it is cut from. Most quotes forget that. This one prints it.
The cutting list
Every part, every size, every drop
Posts come out grouped by cut length, packed into 6m bars longest first with a 3mm kerf allowed at every cut, and the yield is stated as a percentage. When a run is longer than a stock length it is jointed rather than pretending, and the sleeve is counted.
Where a yield drops below eighty per cent, on the posts, the handrail or the bars, it says so and tells you a shorter stock length would fix it. That one line is the difference between a 6m bar cut into 1050mm pieces and a bar you actually use.
Sections and plate
- Posts5 off50 x 50 x 3mm box section, 5 at 1058mm
- Stock lengths for the posts1 lengths6000mm bars, 88 per cent used
- Handrail4.80 m42.4mm round tube
- Stock lengths for the handrail1 lengths6000mm bars, 80 per cent used
- Bottom rail4.80 m50 x 10mm flat bar
- Base plates5 off120 x 120 x 10mm plate, 4 holes
- Total fabricated mass101.70 kgMild steelWhat the galvaniser weighs in.
Infill
- Vertical bars40 off12mm square bar, 40 at 928mm106mm centres, 94mm clear gap.
- Stock lengths for the bars7 lengths6000mm bars, 88 per cent used
Fixings and hardware
- End caps2 off42.4mm round tube
- Anchors20 off4 per plate, plus any channel and bracket fixings
Finishing
- Hot dip galvanising101.70 kgTo BS EN ISO 1461, charged by weightAgree the vent and drain holes before the steel goes out.
Workshop and site
- Shop fabrication4.60 hoursCut, drill, weld and dressAn estimate from the part count. Tune the rate against your own shop.
What it asks for
Six things, and the rest follows
Forty-odd parameters in named sections, and only the ones your configuration actually uses are ever on screen.
The run
Level, a corner, a stair flight raked or stepped, a flight with a landing at each end, a Juliet or a wall handrail on its own.
The stair
Rise, going and riser count the way you survey it, or the pitch angle and the plan length. The rake, the panel geometry and every post length follow.
The system
Bar, glass in clamps, frameless in a base channel, frameless on spigots, point fixed on standoffs, tension wire, mesh or perforated panel, or handrail only.
The use class
Which sets the minimum height and the line load, and whether the 100mm sphere rule applies.
The material and finish
Mild steel, 304, 316, duplex 2205 or aluminium. Galvanised, powder coated, duplex, satin polished or mill finish, priced by weight or by coated area as each one actually is.
The fixing and substrate
Top fix, side fix, core drilled or welded, into concrete, precast, steel, timber, masonry or a substrate not yet established.
The price
Every line shows what it charged for
Steel by the kilogram at your rate for the grade. Glass by the square metre it was cut from, plus polished edge by the metre and heat soaking. Galvanising by weight because that is how a galvaniser charges, and coating by coated area because that is how a coater does. Fabrication by the hour, estimated from the part count and tuned against your own shop.
Because each quantity came from the cutting list, the price reconciles with the parts. You can put the two side by side and check them.
- Steel, sections and plate£239.02101.71 kg, works out at £2.35 per kg
- Fixings and hardware£56.00
- Workshop fabrication£191.104.55 hours, works out at £42.00 per hour
- Galvanising£48.820.10 t, works out at £479.99 per t
- Delivery£96.204.80 m, works out at £20.04 per m
- Drawings and setting out£40.00
Every quantity above came from the cutting list, so the price can be checked against the parts, and the per unit figure is the line divided by its quantity rather than a rate off a table. These are the example rates the preset ships with; you load your own.
Checks
The rules you already apply, applied while you type
And a clear line about what this is not.
| Use class | Level | Flight | Line load |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single family dwelling, internal | 900mm | 900mm | 0.36 kN/m |
| Single family dwelling, balcony or roof edge | 1100mm | 900mm | 0.74 kN/m |
| Other residential, communal areas | 1100mm | 900mm | 0.74 kN/m |
| Office, institutional or educational | 1100mm | 900mm | 0.74 kN/m |
| Retail | 1100mm | 900mm | 1.5 kN/m |
| Assembly, bars and crowd areas | 1100mm | 900mm | 3 kN/m |
| Factory or warehouse, light traffic | 1100mm | 900mm | 0.36 kN/m |
Heights referenced to Approved Document K (2013, England) Diagram 3.1; loads to the barrier load table Approved Document K points at through BS EN 1991-1-1 with its UK National Annex and BS 6180. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own guidance. You confirm every value before going live.
Guarding below the minimum for its use class blocks. A clear gap that would let a 100mm sphere through blocks where children under five may use the building. Free standing or point fixed glass without a laminated makeup blocks, because BS 6180 containment practice puts toughened laminated on work that has to stay in the opening after breakage.
Twice the rise plus the going outside 550mm to 700mm warns. A private stair over 42 degrees warns. A substrate of timber, hollow masonry or not yet established warns and says a pull test or an engineer is needed before an anchor is chosen. Mild steel with no coating outdoors warns. Post centres beyond the table warn.
What this is not: a structural calculation. It produces a take-off and a quote. The adequacy of the barrier, and of the structure it fixes into, stays with a competent engineer, and Building Control acceptance depends on calculations or test evidence for the specific assembly. Your name is on the calc; nothing here tries to take it off.
The paperwork
The quote, generated
A specification and quote sheet with the dimensioned elevation, every parameter, the price with its working and the assumptions the job rests on: the height datum, the stock length the list was cut from, the rake, the widest clear gap and whether the substrate still needs checking. The assumptions go on the paperwork rather than living in your head.
Alongside it, a DXF of the elevation with the posts, rails, channel, infill and plates each on their own named layer, in millimetres, carrying the configuration id. STL and GLB of the model are proven. The balustrade DXF and the STEP export are generated and structurally valid, and both stay in verification until they are confirmed dimension-perfect in independent CAD software.
From enquiry to order
The configurator is the middle of the job, not all of it
- The enquiry arrives
- Paste it, forward it, or connect the inbox and let the Sales Engineer read it. It pulls out the dimensions, the finish and the use, asks about what is missing rather than guessing, and hands the result into the configurator. See the Sales Engineer
- The quote goes out and comes back
- Quotes, orders and customers live on the same platform, so an accepted quote becomes an order without re-keying anything, and a repeat of the same balcony next month reuses the design you already saved.
- The configurator on your own website
- Putting it in front of your own customers is part of Commerce: a managed website, store and trade portal we build and run, with the configurator inside it and your rates behind it. Setup is priced on application, then £129 a month. See Commerce
In detail
What comes out of a configuration
Six things, every time, for every system family.
- A cutting list, not a total weight
- Posts by length, one line per cut size, packed into 6m bars with the kerf allowed and the yield stated. Handrail metres split into stock lengths with a joint sleeve counted at every split. Bars, base plates, anchors, clamps, spigots, standoffs, channel, wedge kits, elbows and end caps. The lines an estimator forgets are the lines it counts.
- A glass panel schedule your processor accepts
- One line per panel with a mark, the cut size, the rake, the makeup and the polished edge metres. A raked stair panel is priced on the rectangle it is cut from, because that is how a processor charges it, and the schedule says so instead of quietly losing you the margin.
- A price you can check against the parts
- Every line names the quantity it priced and the rate that quantity was charged at. Steel by the kilogram, glass by the square metre it was cut from, galvanising by weight, coating by coated area, fabrication by the hour. Nothing is a lump you have to take on trust.
- Dimensional checks while you configure
- Guarding height against the use class, the 100mm sphere rule on every gap, twice the rise plus the going between 550mm and 700mm, glass containment on free standing work, post centres against your own spacing table and a flag on any substrate that needs a pull test. It applies the rules you already apply, and it says which rule and why.
- The paperwork, generated
- A specification and quote PDF with a dimensioned elevation, every parameter, the price with its working and the assumptions the job rests on. A DXF of the elevation on named layers. STL and GLB of the model. Every file carries its configuration id.
- A revision that takes a minute
- The architect moves the going by 10mm. Change one number and the panel geometry, the cut lengths, the schedule and the price all move with it. You reissue rather than redo the take-off.
Against the spreadsheet
Where it helps, and where it does not
A spreadsheet that works is a real answer. This is what changes.
| Task | Spreadsheet and pad | Kabaido |
|---|---|---|
| Measuring the job | You | You |
| Deciding the system and the spec | You | You |
| Working out posts, bays and bar count | By hand | Set out for you |
| Raked panel geometry | By hand, easy to get wrong | Derived from rise and going |
| Cutting list with stock lengths and yield | Rare | Every job |
| Glass panel schedule | Typed again | Generated |
| Height and sphere rule checks | In your head | While you type |
| Price working shown line by line | Sometimes | Always |
| Reissue after a 10mm change | Redo the take-off | Change one number |
| Structural calculation | Your engineer | Your engineer |
| Anchor into an untested substrate | Survey judgement | Flagged, never specified |
| Your supplier discount and your rates | Yours | Yours, loaded once |
Getting started
Fifteen minutes to your first real quote
No card at signup, and the free plan is not a trial.
Sign up and open the configurator
The balustrade category is the first one on the list and it opens with example rates so you can price something immediately.
Configure a job you have already quoted
One you know the answer to. Compare the cutting list against yours and see where the two differ.
Load your rates and your stock
Under rates and stock for the category. Your organisation gets its own copy and every quote from then on is yours.
On the call we configure one of your own jobs with you, against your rates, and you keep whatever comes out of it.
Questions
What fabricators ask first
- It does not try to fit a catalogue product to your job. It models the way a run is built: legs, segments, bays, posts and panels. That shape covers a straight balcony, a corner, a raked flight, a flight with landings, a Juliet and a wall rail without a special case for each, and eight system families sit on top of it. Where a job goes beyond it, you export what the tool did produce and finish the odd detail by hand.
- Yes, and that is the default because it is how a stair is surveyed. It derives the rake and sets the panels out as the parallelograms they are. On a raked flight the rail is parallel to the pitch so every post is the same length; on a stepped flight the rail is level between posts, so the posts differ and the cutting list carries each size separately. You can give the pitch angle and a plan length instead if that is what you have.
- From yours. The preset ships with clearly labelled example rates so you can try it immediately, then you load your own material, glass, hardware, fabrication, finishing, delivery and installation rates and every quote from that point uses them. Your organisation gets its own copy of the category the first time you save, so nothing you enter touches anyone else's.
- It sets the bars out so no gap in the finished job is wider than the maximum you set, and 99mm is the default because it keeps a 100mm sphere out. It blocks a configuration that would leave a 100mm gap where children under five may use the building, and it warns on horizontal bar and tension wire infill, because Approved Document K asks you to avoid horizontal rails in that situation.
- No, and it never presents itself as one. It produces a take-off and a quote, applies the dimensional rules you already apply and shows the moment a line load puts on a post base so the number is in front of you. The adequacy of the barrier, and of the structure it fixes into, stays with a competent engineer, and Building Control acceptance depends on calculations or test evidence for the specific assembly. It will not specify an anchor into a substrate nobody has tested.
- Guarding heights are referenced to Approved Document K (2013, England) Diagram 3.1, and the line and infill loads to the barrier load table Approved Document K points at through BS EN 1991-1-1 with its UK National Annex, PD 6688-1-1 and BS 6180. Glass containment follows BS 6180 practice for free standing and point fixed work. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own guidance, and every value ships labelled as an example until you confirm it against your own reading.
- Not as a self-serve widget you drop in yourself. Putting a configurator in front of your customers is part of Commerce, the managed website and store module: we build and run the site, and the configurator sits inside it with your rates behind it. Setup is priced on application, then £129 a month.
- About as long as it takes to type six numbers. Pick the run, set the length and the height, choose the system, the material and the finish, and the cutting list and the price are there. If that is slower than your pad, the tool has failed and you should carry on with the pad.
- That is the Sales Engineer's job rather than the configurator's. Forward the email, or connect the inbox, and it reads the enquiry, pulls out the dimensions and the finish, asks about what is missing rather than guessing, and hands the result into the configurator ready to price. Anything it cannot read from the message it says it cannot read.
- You can set post centres yourself rather than taking the section maximum, set the maximum panel width, set the maximum clear gap and choose every section and makeup. Where an override goes beyond the example engineering table, the tool says so rather than silently accepting it.
- The Free plan carries the configurator on every category, with one seat, 250 products, two categories you can customise and the Kabaido footer on what you send. There is no card at signup. Starter is £149 a month and lifts the seat and product limits. Configuring and exporting are never metered: you can move the numbers all day, and take the PDF, the DXF and the model files, for nothing. Credits meter AI work only, and Free includes 25 a month.
- It stays yours. Export is a click, nothing is deleted when a plan changes, and caps enforce softly: at the cap the action explains the limit and offers the upgrade rather than removing anything.
Configure a job you already know the answer to.
Sign up free, open the balustrade configurator and price a balcony you quoted last week. If the cutting list does not match yours, tell us where it went wrong.