FWIW I was told by online vendor that cost for materials including shipping is between $100 to $140 per lineal foot for 36" high cable rail system. This was borne out by their bid for my job which came in at about $125 for stainless steel; fascia/side mounted; 1/8" cable. And this included one 12' stair run and latter is typically more expensive than level deck runs. They also indicated to my ? that a 2 person crew typically can install 15 LF per hour.

Home inspectors when I've sold houses before, note when things are not to code and with our previous minor issues (like a hand rail being too thin?), they don't prevent the sale of the house, they just alert the buyer. Anyways, not concerned about this specific picture's accordance to code, just looking for the cost estimate. Palimpsest - thanks! That's what I was estimating in my head, great to know!!!

It's a pretty good guess - could be more depending on the steel fabrication costs. My builder just put in some stainless cables and paid $8K just for the hardware. Working with steel his more expensive and required to get the open feel you are looking for. Labor is high due to the demand in commercial building for welders, etc. Expect it to continue to rise.

We used livestock fence panels for our deck. We lived in a rural area out West so no difficulty finding ranching/livestock supplies. It was tricky finding panels that had the same size holes across the whole panel. The hog panels that Virgil mentioned have very small openings at the bottom and graduate to pretty darn big holes at the top. DIY by DH and friend. He bought online aluminum U-channel to make a frame for each panel and attach to the post. Then used aluminum-colored spray paint to help protect the galvanized panels and match the aluminum trim and silver-painted steel posts. The holes in the panel are right around 4", and our dogs were big enough not to fit through those holes. It was hard, tedious work as it was a second-story deck, but it sure looked wonderful when done. We used Timbertech composite for decking and for the railing. This is showing off the underrail LED lighting against the snow. Pretty cool! Edited to add: we also considered glass and cable to preserve the view but the costs were prohibitive. These panels virtually disappear during the day.