This has bugged me for years:
When you have a railing at the edge of a deck or a balcony, what is the correct term for the vertical members that go between the top and bottom rail?
In particular, sometimes these vertical members are boards that have been cut into a pattern with a scroll saw or band saw. You see sometimes this in fancy Victorians, and it is a common style in Russia and the Balkans. What is the correct name for these boards?
Also, is “railing” the correct term for the whole assembly? That doesn’t sound quite right.
-Skhu
Replies
Skhu,
The entire assembly is called a guard.
The vertical members are balusters.
There is a top rail (horizontal) and usually a bottom rail.
baluster=vert. member
Balustrade= the whole shibang.
Dave
Those are Ballusters.
There is a more specific name for the cut out ones like you mentioned, but I can't remember right now.
Overall we call the whole a railing but ballustrade is more correct.
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The top rail on a level surface is called a guardrail. On a stairway it's a handrail or stair rail.
Balustrade is the term I would use for the whole assembly.
Balusters are the ups and downs.
A vertical board in a railing, especially a decorative one, that is plank-like as opposed to square or round is called a 'picket' - just as in a picket fence.
Jeff
Yes, but there is still another name the English use....
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Bloody picket? ;o)Perhaps you are thinking of 'fretwork' or 'fret-cut' baluster?Jeff
There ya go! That's it.
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