Wanted Perspex for balcony

I_love_Airedales

Hiya, we are doing some work on my dad's balcony. We live in South Devon across the road from the sea, literally [sp]. The railings are very rusty and I am trying to make this maintainance free as it is me that has to rub down and paint them.
My first thought was glass with stainless steel supports, after getting a very rough quote I thought perspex would look quite nice. I was also worried about the weight of the glass. We live in a conservation area so I am not even sure that we will be able to make this change.
This quest started from the balcony leaking water into the flat below. Over the weekend we have stripped off several layers of felt and we are going to seal the edge of the balcony and wall to get rid of this problem. The balcony is 43' x 9'
Has anyone used perspex for this and any advice would be helpfull. Also the cost of the perspex a rough estimate would be good.
Thank you, ILA

Little_John

You mention the railings and the leak but what use are you planning to put the perpex to?

Perspex is a great material and can do many things but the sizes you can buy it in are limited and certainly not a single peice 43' x 9' I think the largest sheets are about 3.5m x 2m and thickness can go from 1mm to 63.5mm. There are loads of different types including UV absorbing or transmiting and being down that way you proberbly would need to look in to that type to prevent damage from the sun.

The thinner sheets can be worked with very easily if you need to shape them using a heat gun just heat and shape the thicker ones you will need to cut and weld back together.

the downside of perspex is that you cant polish it, it is too soft a material, you will scratch the surface and it will start to look like plastic and not give the impresion of glass.

I_love_Airedales

Thank you Little John for your reply. I wanted to use the perspex in place of railings, in sections attached to posts, not one length. I think you have put me off as I don't think it would wear well and that defeats the object. When we had some storms in the winter the waves came over the sea wall and reached our flat. We are on the third floor. The waves had lost some energy by the time it reached us though.
I think it is back to some sort of metal railings. I did want to avoid maintainance as much as possible. I think it going to be galvinised metal as stainless steel would be too expensive. Thank you for making a good point about the perspex.
Take care, ILA

Little_John

If you were looking to replace the railings then you would be advised to get a company in to do the job for you to install posts and sutable peices thick enough to replace the existing fence. I have seen perspex used in this way in the past as an alternative to glass. I will proberbly be cheaper to replace the current fence with a stainless steel fence.

annual painting with hammerrite well the smooth version should be enough to keep the rust away. but you do need to sand the curent fence and get shut of the current rust first.