We had our front porch and sidewalk redone with flagstone as well as an bathroom renovation done in our house. We just started to refinace our house two weeks ago.

Long story short...we don't have the front porch railing in yet and the bank won't approve the loan without a railing. All the local ironwork companies in our area are giving me a 4 - 10 week turnaround time so we have to "temporarily" install something else and then have the appraisor come back out to approve it meets code.

Our mortgage broker is telling me to install a wooden railing until we can put the iron railing in it's place. Anyone know how we can construct a "temporary" wood railing to pass code? We can't secure it to the flagstone and I really don't want to drill into our brick house to secure it. Would posts in the ground along side the steps and around the landing suffice? Do the post have to be set in concrete?

More Details: Our porch (and house) are brick with flagstone treads and landing. The porch is about 3.5' tall and the entry is from the side, so we would need to construct a stair railing up the left side and then have it wrap around the landing to the house (L shape). The flagstone landing extends out past the porch so there is a lip and we would not be able to sit posts directly against the porch.

Thanks!