How to Install an Outdoor Wall Mounted Handrail

We’re switching gears over at One Hundred Acres Home with projects over at my in-laws house. They are getting older and could use some mobility aids. We’re trying to help where we can. So today, we’re adding an outdoor wall mounted handrail next to their sliding glass door. The finished product in the photo below. You can see it adds a nice handrail for the patio step. This post will how you the steps and tools used to install this exterior wall mounted handrail on a stucco wall.

Determine Handrail Placement at Wall

The first step in installing your wall mounted handrail is to determine where on the wall you want it to be. You’ll need to consider a few things:

1. Height of the handrail from the door or steps. Check your local building code as there is likely some guidance on handrail height. For reference, the International Residential Building Code 2021 states that handrails should be located 34 inches to 38 inches from the stairs or platform (Section R311.7.8.1).
2. Wall stud location. Use a stud finder to determine the location of your wall studs. The handrail need to be connected to wall studs to be properly supported. I used a stud finder from the inside of the wall to check the number of studs that are located along the edge of the sliding door in the photo below. We could only determine two studs (which seemed low!). The studs are very close to the door opening.
3. Make sure your location does not have electrical wires. Some stud finders have settings that check for electrical wires in the wall. Avoid those spots!

The photo below has two blue tape marks along the wall. The lower blue tape is the top of the wall handrail plate so that the handrail provides nice support for the stair below. The upper blue tape marks the top of where we may add an additional grab bar to help at the door.

Connect Wall Plate to Handrail Bar

Below is a photo of all the parts that come with the wall mounted handrail. There is a wall plate, the handrail bar, and various wall screws for different wall conditions.

The wall plate screws to the handrail bracket from the backside of the wall plate as you can see in the photo below.

Before we screwed the plate to the handrail bar, we want to add a little extra waterproofing by caulking the connection of the handrail to the wall plate. Below is the black silicone high performance caulk we used.

We placed a bead of caulking around the end of the handrail bars where they connect to the wall plate. Below is a close up of the bar to the wall plate. You really can’t see the caulking, and we hope it will add water protection at that joint. You don’t have to do this! It’s totally optional. We’re simply trying to avoid any rust.

Drill Holes for Wall Plate

Once you determine where you want the handrail to be connected to the wall, use a sharpie and mark the holes of the wall plate on the wall. Now you’re ready to drill the holes! Below is a photo of my husband starting the first hole in the stucco. Remember we determined the wall stud is very very close to the door opening.

We used a special drill bit to get through the stucco. Once through the stucco, we used a regular wood drill bit into the wood. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see the small black marks where we’ll drill the other holes.

Prepare Stucco Wall for Handrail Plate

The stucco is a bit bumpy, so we lightly chiseled away the rough high points to help smooth the area for the wall plate. Be careful with this because you don’t want to crack the stucco.

Next we added a small bead of clear silicone caulking to the wall holes for added water protection.

Since the stucco still is a little bumpy, we added a strip of foam called Comfortseal between the wall plate and the stucco. Again, this is overkill! It’s not needed. Below is photo of the Comfortseal we found at Home Depot.

I cut a small piece to fit the wall plate seen in the photo below.

Install Screws through Handrail Mounting Plate

Now it’s time to connect the outdoor wall mounted handrail to the wall. Simply install the screws through the wall plate into your pre-drilled holes. You can see the started screws at all plate holes in the photo below.

The handrail kit came with black outdoor screws with about 2-3/8 inch length. We wanted a little more connection into the wall studs as the stucco is about 1 inch thick here. So we found some matching diameter, stainless steel screws with a 3 inch length at Home Depot. We can always paint the screw heads black to match.

We trimmed back the pink foam with a razor and tightened the screws in place. Below is the installed exterior wall handrail at the stucco wall.

Add Caulking for Water Protection

One last thing for extra water protection – add caulk around the upper edge and sides. It’s up to you if you want to add it along the bottom. Gravity should keep water away from that edge.

To make a clean line of caulk around the plate, use some blue tape as you can see in the photo below.

Then we applied the black silicon caulk. It looks messy below. Simply wipe away the excess for a clean look. Then remove the tape. Let the caulk dry before touching further!

Finished Outdoor Wall Mounted Handrail

This is our installed outdoor wall mounted handrail! The in-laws are very pleased and feel much safer using the patio door and step here. We’re glad to help them out.