This one is just a small point that i have never seen on any big “railing” manufacturers website, but i am sure its something most of us small makers say to nearly all our clients.

When having a low wall railing made or even free standing fencing type railing that going to have railing heads that are below 4ft tall finished height, i would always advise the use of blunt railing heads over the sharp type railing heads

Same style railing head one the tradition type, the other with a rounded or blunted top. The blunted top type tend to be a little more expensive than the tradition type ones, but it would only add a few pounds to the cost of a railing panel.

Much depends on where the railing is going but if it is close to a foot path or on property frontage, the sharper type railings carry a greater risk of injury than the blunt type ones. Above 4ft high and it isn’t so relevant in my opinion because your chances of injury are almost nil. Below 4ft and it could be possible for some one to slip and possibly (slim possibility)  cause and injury. To my knowledge there is no rules governing this in terms of building regulation, but its just common sense really. Normally a comment i pass to clients when working on a railing design, just to add more confusion.

If you have a fresh start, no existing brick piers or posts its worth making sure you do it right first time. An opening for an 8ft wide pair of gate is enough to allow a car to pass through with a little space either side,  but this is only if you can drive through in a straight line with the gates. This means if your driveway is set off the road. If you are turning off from the road then you could be passing through the gateway at a slight angle, this mean you should increase your width to around 10ft wide or possibly more. Don’t worry if the gates are wider than the driveway, its better than the gates being to narrow and risking damaging the car or the gates.

Now if your having new brick piers built for your wrought iron gates and you have plans for a large pair of gates 5ft tall or more tall, i would seriously suggest that you have steel beams concreted into the ground hinges can be welded to the beam so as to reduce the loading on the brick work. obviously the hinges will be longer than normal as the they need to allow the extra length so once the brick pier is built around them. They poke out from the brick work the correct amount for hanging a gate. Once the brick work is built around the beam this should leave a hollow void in the middle which should be filled with concrete. This will give you an increadably strong brick pier capable of with standing any knocks and more than capable of holding a heavy set of wrought iron gates.

Now if the brick piers are just to carry a set of low height gates, i have seen experienced brick layers use reinforcing rod in the middle of the brick pier. setting the reinforcing rod into the foundations of the pier then building up around it and concreting the middle. This works perfectly well for a pair of driveway gates.

For a pair of estate gates i would recommend a 27 inch brick pier, that is 3 full bricks acrossed the width. For a pair of 4ft or lower driveway gates an 18 inch wide or 2 full brick pier should be fine, much depends on the width of the gates as well as this effects the weight they need to support.

As far as planning permission goes as a general rule, you are normally allowed up to 1mtr high if the gate or railing is adjacent to a highway, if off of a highway it is normally 2mtrs high. Best answer is to speak to the local authority planning department, who will advise as to if planning permission is required.

http://www.ironworks-crawley.co.uk/wrought-iron-gates.php

So you want to enhance the garden, have a wall built and add some railings between the brick piers. Ideally you should be looking at keeping the gaps between each brick pier the same (i am assuming more than one section of wrought iron wall railings), where possible keep the gaps between brick piers at around 5 to 6 foot. Shorter and they tend to work out more expensive per foot run. Long panels and they tend to be flexiable, i certainly wouldn’t recommend much beyond 8ft long.

The point of keeping the gaps as close to the same as possible is because if you have a pattern in the railing designs, different size railings can effect the way the pattern looks. Now this isn’t always possible so it may be worth getting a railing design in mind before a brick is even laid. Easy enough to draw something out to scale and revise it,.

My opinion of what looks best is a 50/50 split. Thats half of the height made up as wall and the other half made up of railings. This is effective if you are also having a gate to fit between the wall as well. This allows any design to be split on the gate, so you have effectively a top and bottom pattern, thus allowing the pattern in the top half of the gate to be continued through on the railings.

Brick are not cheap, neither is the cost of having a wall built. If funds allow i would suggest a 12 inch pier (That is a brick and a half) and a double skin wall rather than a single skin wall, just because it is far more robust.

It certainly is worth it if you have the time is to draw it out to scale, graph paper is ideal for use in scaled drawings, a little bit of planning will get a much better results. If you have access to a CAD program this makes it far easier.

So what is wrought iron? nearly every one of the gate makers says wrought iron gates or wrought iron railings, are we making them from special metal?

Well the answer is simple.
We are all telling small lies, wrought iron is no longer available in any quantity any more. So every one is using mild steel to make a gate or railing and has been for many years. So in truth the term wrought iron now really is a descriptive term for decorative steel work.
Being as the word wrought means to shape or form, perhaps every one should change it to wrought steel gates and wrought steel railings. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as wrought iron though.

To my knowledge there is only one company in the UK that still makes wrought iron
http://www.realwroughtiron.com/

I notice the main site gets a lot of page views on the building regulations page. So i thought perhaps it was worth an explanation as far as i understand it. Then people can ask questions or post additional info via the comments section..

Part K of the building regulations, is the bit that refers to stairs, hand rails and balconies, so quite relevant to wrought iron work really. Much of it is common sense, but at times it can be a little difficult to work which bit refers to what. As there are different standards for different types of property. To keep it simple i will just stick with the residential aspect of it. That is the bit that refers to your house. Section K2/3 (protection from falling, guarding rails) is really the most relevant, as this covers Juliet balconies, hand rails and stair rails.

Section K2/3 guarding against a fall

Any fall of 600mm (2 foot) or more should be guarded against a fall.
So if you have a raised patio area and the drop is 600mm or more you should have a hand rail around the patio area. More less any where that has more than 2 steps and a landing, so this could include the front of the house if raised above the ground.

Internal Stairs and landings should all have guarding rails of a minimum of 900mm high. That is both stair landing and bannister / stair rail.

External is slightly different, Stair hand rails must be a minimum of 900mm high, but any landings, balconies must be a minimum of 1100mm. This refers to Juliet balconies, roof balconies and any raised patio area, front door steps if greater than 600mm.

Where children under 5 years old have access to the building, openings should be such that a sphere of 100mm cannot pass through any gap. Horizontal rails should be avoid so that children shouldn’t be able to climb it.
In our opinion this also refers to scroll work that would allow a child to gain a foot hold and climb the guard rail. So care should be taken into consideration when choosing a design. Some designs are not really suited because of the extensive scroll work.

The building regulation rules only apply to any work that you have had to apply planning permission for, or where local authority building control will inspect the work.
Having said that it’s all common sense and safety, so it really doesn’t hurt to follow building regulations even when they don’t apply