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Once again soliciting you good people for opinions and ideas:
Building a deck. Three section “types” involved: 6’x12′ elevated 8 feet with glass railing, 20’x10′ near ground level with benches built in at the edges and 20’x10′ elevated 3-4 feet with some non-glass railing (post and picket perhaps). Eventually the last deck will lead to a 12′ octagon gazebo with steel roof to match the house. Eventually ~1000sqft.
The decking material will be clear/select PT SYP with no knots ($1.5/sqft) with thompsons water seal factory applied. I plan on putting an oil based water seal/preservative (ie CWF) with a cedar color stain.
The problem I’m having is coming up with materials to use for the railing. I’d like to keep some consistency across the different “railing” types. The 6×12 deck (actually two of them) are going to be railed with 3’x6′ tempered glass held by posts and upper/lower rails. Standard 4×4 railing posts around here (St Louis, MO) are PT and they are really horrible, not much better than the 3×4 landscape timbers. Aside from the often large knots, I’ve seen these things twist and shrink terribly. I planned on insetting the glass support rails into shallow dados on the post, but this would probably look awful with PT 4×4 after a while.
Anyway you get the gist of my concern (I hope). Any ideas? Trex now makes a 4×4 for railing (though I don’t think you can notch it).
Thanks again!
SteveW
Replies
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DuraRail from Duradek can do both. It is aluminum with a 25 yr warranty. Check http://www.duradek.com
*Around here we use the PT 4x4 for structural and then build a box to slip over it out of nicer material with glued joints. You can flute, reed or detail it however you want. Inside of box should be backprimed first. I like to use a plastic shim to keep it up off the deck to let it breathe amd drain. It also helps to be able to do a little extra shimming for plumb while installing it.
*Steve, lumberyards in places I've worked often have 4x4 red cedar in stock, which is perfect when you want the finished dimension to be 4x4. Don't know where to mail-order it from, though. Maybe http://www.bostoncedar.com Mike
*Mike -I just checked out the Boston Cedar site....since I live in MA it intrigued me. Do they only deal wholesale or will fill "small" orders?What experience have you had with them if any?ThanksSJ
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Once again soliciting you good people for opinions and ideas:
Building a deck. Three section "types" involved: 6'x12' elevated 8 feet with glass railing, 20'x10' near ground level with benches built in at the edges and 20'x10' elevated 3-4 feet with some non-glass railing (post and picket perhaps). Eventually the last deck will lead to a 12' octagon gazebo with steel roof to match the house. Eventually ~1000sqft.
The decking material will be clear/select PT SYP with no knots ($1.5/sqft) with thompsons water seal factory applied. I plan on putting an oil based water seal/preservative (ie CWF) with a cedar color stain.
The problem I'm having is coming up with materials to use for the railing. I'd like to keep some consistency across the different "railing" types. The 6x12 deck (actually two of them) are going to be railed with 3'x6' tempered glass held by posts and upper/lower rails. Standard 4x4 railing posts around here (St Louis, MO) are PT and they are really horrible, not much better than the 3x4 landscape timbers. Aside from the often large knots, I've seen these things twist and shrink terribly. I planned on insetting the glass support rails into shallow dados on the post, but this would probably look awful with PT 4x4 after a while.
Anyway you get the gist of my concern (I hope). Any ideas? Trex now makes a 4x4 for railing (though I don't think you can notch it).
Thanks again!
SteveW