SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The standard allowance most suppliers and estimating guides assume for ordinary work.
The total vertical height the staircase climbs.
Measure from the finished lower floor to the finished upper floor.
Tools needed: Tape measure
The total horizontal distance the staircase covers.
Measure horizontally from the first riser to the last.
Tools needed: Tape measure
Any more of the same rail, already measured: along a landing, round a turn, up another flight.
Leave it at nothing for one straight flight. For a rail that runs on, add the level rail along each landing, the rail round each turn and each further flight's sloped length, so the allowance and the lengths are worked over the whole rail. The extensions past the top and bottom risers, where your code asks for them, can go here too.
The length handrail stock is sold in.
Longer stock means fewer splices along the run.
Extra rail on top of the sloped length, for the end cuts and the joints at the newels.
The page opens at 10%: the angled cut at each end where the rail meets a newel or a wall, and the offcut where a joint is set over a newel rather than wherever a length runs out. It is not the level rail along a landing or the extensions past the top and bottom risers; add those as further rail.
Handrail length needed
15.86 linear ft
- Sloped rail length (before waste)
- 14.42 linear ft
- Sticks needed
- 2 x 8 ft sticks
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Handrail Length Calculator: 15.86 linear ft — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- A staircase handrail follows the stringer's slope, so its length is the hypotenuse of the total rise and total run: length = sqrt(rise² + run²)
- 10% waste is standard for a straight run to account for end cuts and post transitions
- Handrail stock is racked at 8, 10, 12 and 16 ft where stair parts are sold by the foot, and at 2.4, 3, 3.6 and 4.8 m where they are sold by the metre
Inputs used
- Total Rise
- 8 ft
- Total Run
- 12 ft
- Further Rail (Landings, Turns, Other Flights)
- 0 ft
- Stock Rail Length
- 8 ft
- Cutting Waste (%)
- 10
Intermediate steps
- Sloped rail length (before waste)
- 14.42 linear ft
- Sticks needed
- 2 x 8 ft sticks
What this calculation does not cover
- The hypotenuse is the pitch-line length between the bottom and top of one straight flight and nothing else. It excludes the horizontal extensions past the top and bottom risers that accessible and commercial stairs are generally required to have, a distance that is jurisdictional and usually given as a fixed run at the top and one tread depth at the bottom, and it excludes goosenecks, easings, volutes and wall returns, which are bought as fittings rather than cut from the run.
- The headline figure already contains the cutting allowance and the stick count is worked out from that same padded number, so ordering the sticks and then adding a further margin buys the allowance twice. The count is a plain division of padded length by stock length, which assumes the offcut from one length carries on the run and that a joint may fall anywhere; a rail that must be one unbroken piece, or spliced only over a newel, needs a longer stock size than the count shows.
- The stick count is not a converted number, because metric rail is genuinely shorter than the imperial length listed beside it: 2.4 m is 38 mm under 8 ft and 4.8 m is 77 mm under 16 ft. The same staircase can therefore call for one more length on metric than on imperial, and that extra length is real stock rather than a rounding artefact.
- This is a purchase quantity, not a support schedule. It sets no bracket or newel spacing, no mounting height above the nosing line and no grip profile, yet the fixing interval is what decides whether the rail resists the concentrated load demanded of a handrail in your jurisdiction, a figure commonly quoted near 0.9 kN (200 lbf) applied in any direction at any point.
Estimated cost — your price
This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.
Part of bigger jobs
This trade is one line of a job takeoff. Run the whole job and every other trade comes back with it, off the same measurements.
Or plan the space itself: measure it once, doors and windows included, and this figure comes back worked out on that space, with what goes with it.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-10-11 · v1.1.0
Regulatory standards & verification citations3
- A staircase handrail follows the stringer's slope, so its length is the hypotenuse of the total rise and total run: length = sqrt(rise² + run²)
- 10% waste is standard for a straight run to account for end cuts and post transitions
- Handrail stock is racked at 8, 10, 12 and 16 ft where stair parts are sold by the foot, and at 2.4, 3, 3.6 and 4.8 m where they are sold by the metre
Cite this page
Your workspace
Most jobs need more than one number. Add the calculators you need next and they open right here, underneath this one — your figures stay on screen and nothing is lost to a page change.
Tools and safety for this job
To fit the handrail and balustrade. Generic types, no brands, no prices.
Protection this work requires
- Hardwood dust is a recognised carcinogen: extract at the tool and wear a P2/N95 respirator when cutting or sanding indoors.
- Saws, grinders and breakers run above 85 dB, where hearing damage accumulates and does not recover: defenders or plugs for every cut, not just the long ones.
Show the 4 tools this job needsHide tools
Essential
Cordless drill/driver
Mitre saw
Spirit level
Tape measure
Also needed as materials: drill and driver bits, mitre saw blades.
what each carpentry tool is for, and the spec that decides which to buy where one does.