Base Shoe Railing

This railing system utilizes a heavy aluminum channel known as a base shoe. The base shoe can be exposed as a design feature, or set in the floor or deck so the glass appears to come straight out of the floor. The glass comes in a variety of types and sizes, including frosted, tinted, and more.

Specifications

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The Base Shoe Marvel

In many states, it can be installed without a cap rail (California is an exception). Our base shoe railing system is engineered for California’s strict code, meaning it will meet other nationwide codes. It simply requires specific blocking and framing, with a 1/2″ glass minimum.

Onsite Examples

Frosted Glass, Concealed Shoe

This job features a base shoe railing utilized as a privacy fence. The frosted glass lets light in and provides privacy for the courtyard. We wrapped the shoe in wood to match the rest of the fence and ordered special 1/2″ frosted glass. At the end of construction we installed the privacy glass. Because this is used as a fence and not a railing, we were not required to have a cap rail.

Interior Bridge and Staircase

This project features a base shoe that was integrated into the floor of the residence. This design detail gives the illusion of the glass coming out of the wood. The glass used is 1/2″ Starphire with 2″ spacing between panels to represent a railing post and features a small-profile stainless steel cap rail. We also built the staircase and continued the theme on the stairs as well as the tile floor on the lower level.

McAndrew interior

Hills Baseshoe

This project features a side mounted base shoe bolted to a rim joist every 12″ per engineering. There is a minimal anodized aluminum cap to match the base shoe. The glass is set at 36″ above finish floor.

Stainless Clad Base Shoe

For this project, we removed the existing railing and replaced it with an aluminum base shoe clad in stainless steel sheet metal with a minimal stainless steel cap rail. The glass is 1/2″ clear tempered and there are only joints in the corners — every run uses a solid piece of glass. This jobs also illustrates how the railing works on staircases.

Bronze Anodized Base Shoe

This project features an exposed anodized aluminum base shoe top-mounted to a structural beam. This job did not require a cap rail and from some views appears like no railing is there at all. For this project we used 1/2″ clear tempered glass with 1/2″ gaps between the glass. We also installed a matching aluminum handrail going down the stairs.