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Deck Railings in Cochrane, Alberta
Arch & Bow builds aluminum and glass deck railings for homeowners in Cochrane, sized to the Town's own published guard and handrail figures — which are stricter in two specific ways than Calgary's.
Get a Free Design ConsultationDoes Cochrane use the same railing code as Calgary?
Not quite. Cochrane's own Building Safety Codes packet sets a narrower handrail-height band than Calgary's, Airdrie's or Okotoks', and requires a handrail one riser earlier than the "more than three" rule those other jurisdictions use.
Guard height is 0.9m (3') for a deck 0.6m to 1.8m above grade, and 1.07m (3.5') above that — the same split as everywhere else in the region. Openings in the guard can't exceed 100mm (4"), though the triangular gap formed by the stair risers, treads and the bottom rail has its own, looser limit of 150mm (6"). Where it differs: the Town's own wording requires a handrail on "stairs with 3 risers or more," not "more than 3" the way Calgary, Airdrie and Okotoks phrase it, and that handrail has to sit between 865mm and 965mm from the nosing — a narrower window than the 865–1070mm range used elsewhere. It also has to stay continuously graspable along the full stair flight, with at least 50mm of clearance behind it.
Verified against the Town of Cochrane's Building Safety Codes — Requirements for Residential Decks, checked August 2026.
Why does this matter if I've read Calgary's rules already?
If you've read our stair & railing code guide and assumed the "more than 3 risers" and 1070mm-max figures carry over to Cochrane, they don't — a design built to Calgary's numbers can land outside Cochrane's on both the riser trigger and the top of the handrail height range. We check against the Town's own document, not the Calgary guide, on every Cochrane project.
Ready to build in Cochrane?
See our Calgary deck railings page for material options and pricing — the build is the same; only the code citation changes. Get a free design consultation.