Reprinted from Festivus, The Holiday for the Rest of Us, 2nd Edition, by Allen Salkin.

It is not fair to say that the most boring job in the world is manufacturing stairway railings, but let's just say that it is a profession which could benefit from a little goosing up. Festivus is a world class gooser.

One day, when Tony Leto was sitting around the offices of The Wagner Companies, a railing manufacturer in Milwaukee, he read an article about the spread of Festivus, a holiday which requires straight lengths of aluminum.

"We make straight lengths of aluminum," Mr. Leto, the executive vice president of sales and marketing thought. He met with his boss, "I told him," Mr. Leto recalls, "'We're not going to make a fortune, but we're going to have fun and get a little attention.'"

They bought the domain name festivuspoles.com. Research and development followed. A product emerged. The full-sized model, an unpolished six-foot pole with a snap-together base. . .[and a] table-top model. . .

The governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, a Seinfeld fan, proudly posed with his Wagner pole that year and donated it to the Wisconsin Historical Museum in 2006.

We love having visitors tour the Wagner operation here in Milwaukee. For many of you though, coming to visit isn't that convenient.

For those of you not in the neighborhood, you now have the opportunity to take part in a virtual tour of our facility. Click here to view our floor plan and click on a department to see how we continue to make products in the USA.

In last November's Pipeline, we included an article that asked the question, Is a Top Railing Required for Glass Railing?. It was hoped that some consistency would would come to pass on this issue but problems remain.

Per the International Code Council (ICC) interpretation, a rail is required on top of a guard in a glass railing installation and that top rail must be able to withstand the required loads should one of the minimum of three panels fail. The 2009 codes do permit the elimination of a top rail if the balusters are laminated, tempered glass.

Despite this, glass railing installations are being approved for applications across the country without a top rail. One state has actually gone so far as to take the position that a handrail attached to a guard is enough to meet the code requirement.

At the recent ICC code hearings in Baltimore, a code proposal was introduced wherein the 4 X safety factor for glass railings would be clarified to only apply to the glass. At the public hearing, an engineer spoke in opposition to the proposal claiming that it was not necessary to change the code since the 4 X safety factor is never enforced anyway. While the logic of that statement misses us completely, the committee voted down the change for lack of supporting documentation. It will be resubmitted for review by the ICC membership.

So while we thought this issue had been clarified, it is not. Always check with your local authority having jurisdiction to confirm the interpretation of this and any other building code issue.

World's First Festivus Pole Lot in Milwaukee

Wagner Virtual Tour