deck railing job

[honeydoman]

here are several pictures of a deck railing job we are doing.  this deck 2 years ago we ripped off all the old treated lumber boards and replaced with evergran composite lumber.  but did not replace the railing.  about 75' of railing plus the stairs.

the guy sold the house 2 months ago and gave the new owner my info and said if you want any work done call kreg.  so he did  

he wanted this style using wire grid, this stuff is used at stores to hang and display clothes.  I recommended  ceder wood and he gave me basic of what he wanted so this is one section.  and we are also doing the skirt below with board on board using treated fence boards, with board on board design i recommended to match house siding  then he will stain.  about 300 boards covering about 100 feet.

will post finished pictures when done.

what I am doing is running the post through my dado on my unisaw a 3/4" dado  1/2" deep as he wanted the grid wire to be removed then sandwich between 1x4 on both sides with a 2x4 cap.

then when done will shoot a laser and cut post about 3" above cap and will add a copper cap with a solar light on each one.. sweet

the other pictures is the view that we have to look at all day long

 

[jonny round boy]

Kreg,

Nice job, but that railing looks very, very low. And I know you're not the tallest of people either (sorry!). What height is it? It would need to be 900mm to pass regs (code) here...

Edit: How are the posts fixed to the deck?

 

[Deansocial]

Kreg,

Nice job, but that railing looks very, very low. And I know you're not the tallest of people either (sorry!). What height is it? It would need to be 900mm to pass regs (code) here...

Edit: How are the posts fixed to the deck?

yup and how far apart are the posts? no more than 1800mm here and handrail height increases to 1100mm for commercial

 

[honeydoman]

2400 mm or shy of 8'. But it is secured very well

The post are timberlocked bolts in. I will take pictures of these new bolts they are cool

The railing is 34" tall

And yes this railing acts as a ladder for a kid. However these are 60 year old and no kids and he is aware of issues.

 

[peter halle]

Kreg,

What is the finish on the grid wall panels?  Is it fair to assume that they are the 3" x 3" grid that is standard?

Peter

 

[Deansocial]

2400 mm or shy of 8'. But it is secured very well

The post are timberlocked bolts in. I will take pictures of these new bolts they are cool

The railing is 34" tall

And yes this railing acts as a ladder for a kid. However these are 60 year old and no kids and he is aware of issues.

they are just black hi tensile screws arnt they?

 

[Electric Trim]

Where did you get the grid Kreg?  Looks sharp.

I don't think I could tolerate the view unless I could jump in at lunch and the end of the day!

We had a porch job last year that went through all 3 summer months.  I jumped in the pool at least 3 times a week especially on the super hot days.

We would "accidentally"  drop something in the pool so that we "had to" jump in and get it out at the end of the day (it was usually a screw or nail)

Although... one day my brother dropped his 18v Makita impact driver from 20 ft. off the ground, took one bounce and in the pool it went.  That really was an accident!  Lol, we waited until the next day to pull the trigger after we let a fan blow on it over night.

Side note for Festool fanatics (we could have "accidentally" thrown a Festool drill in the pool every day if we wanted to, seeing as how their virtually indestructible [cool])

 

[Deansocial]

Where did you get the grid Kreg?  Looks sharp.

I don't think I could tolerate the view unless I could jump in at lunch and the end of the day!

We had a porch job last year that went through all 3 summer months.  I jumped in the pool at least 3 times a week especially on the super hot days.

We would "accidentally"  drop something in the pool so that we "had to" jump in and get it out at the end of the day (it was usually a screw or nail)

Although... one day my brother dropped his 18v Makita impact driver from 20 ft. off the ground, took one bounce and in the pool it went.  That really was an accident!  Lol, we waited until the next day to pull the trigger after we let a fan blow on it over night.

Side note for Festool fanatics (we could have "accidentally" thrown a Festool drill in the pool every day if we wanted to, seeing as how their virtually indestructible [cool])

well im wrapping my new 1 in cottonwool just in case

 

[Kevin Stricker]

Hey Kreg,
 Railing looks real nice.  About securing it though, those timberlocks are nice but not a long term option.  I renovated several handrails over the last year and all the lag screws were pretty scary.  The bolts are fine, but the wood around them just turns to mush after a while.  The other problem is the rim joist loosens up as well so even through bolts secured only to the rim will eventually fail.  All decks obviously eventually fail but there is a better way...and it just happens to be a requirement in the IBC, the use of tension ties.

I started using Simpson Tension Ties on the last two deck jobs and will not do another handrail without them.  They are expensive, but if you want to make something that is going to last I think they are the answer.

I finished up a handrail rehab job a few weeks ago.  Builder had skipped several posts on one long side and the result after 15 years was a handrail you could easily push out about 20 degrees....It was about 16 feet up and was scary.  I added three intermediate posts and used 5 tension ties and the result was pretty amazing considering the sorry state it was in.  I had of course told the homeowner that they would be better off replacing the rail ( and the deck) but that was not in their budget right now.  Considering it is a 3500 sqft deck I will hopefully get it in the future but at least for now they can let people out there without worrying someone is going to get killed.

Anyways maybe it is too late on this job but you should check them out for any future decks you get.  They are REAL nice I promise.