Media Coverage of DecKorators

Pipe Dream?
A better way to rerail your deck.
By Tom Sweeney
Handy Man How To,
March/April 2000

Want to make your deck look better than the day it was built, the envy of all who see it? Maybe all it needs is a new set of rails.

The railing on this old deck used to be a series of 2x2 wood pickets nailed to the skirt at the bottom and a band of 2x6s at the top. In addition to looking just like most of the others in the neighborhood, it blocked the view of a scenic pond from inside the home and was a nuisance to maintain.

The new railing combines slender aluminum pickets with natural cedar posts and rails for a distinctive look with lots of advantages. While the green pickets accent the 4x4 wood posts and 2x4 rails beautifully, you tend to see through them because they are only half as wide as typical wood pickets and they resemble the color of the landscape. Best of all, they never need to be refinished.

We took advantage of precut prefinished spindles from DecKorators. The St. Louis, Missouri, company offers aluminum pickets with architectural-grade baked-enamel finish in forest, white, black and Clay - all guaranteed for life not to fade. DecKorators also provides advice on how to fabricate wood posts and rails to work with the 26-in. long pickets.

This is a great remodeling project if your current deck is sound but the rails are ugly or if the picket spacing is so wide it flunks local building codes and poses a fall hazard to young children.

Codes for deck rails and stair rails are very demanding and specific, and they will affect the way you lay out your railing. The top rail must be at least 3 ft. from the deck surface. A 4-in.-dia. Sphere cannot pass between the pickets or under the lower rail, and the railing should not have ladder-like horizontal members that children could easily climb. The railing also must be able to withstand the force of a 200-pound person falling against it. DecKorators advised us on the layout and fastening techniques shown here. However, you should clear the design details with your local building department when obtaining a permit for your own project.

Layout Issues

The spacing between posts can be up to 8 ft. if you incorporate a cap rail that stiffens the assembly laterally. Posts spaced about 5 ft. apart look best, according to DecKorators President Kelly Jones. He says it usually is better to adjust the posts space so the spans look about the same than to make some spans noticeably shorter than the others. For instance, the main section of this deck is slightly longer than it is wide, so we spaced the side posts 60 in. OC and the end posts 56 in. OC. The ¾-in.-wide pickets are installed 4-1/2 in OC to create spaces of 3-3/4 in. You'll need three pickets for each linear foot of railing. You also can order a decorative centerpiece for each railing section if you like the look.

To figure out your post layout, begin by measuring the deck itself. Keep in mind that the railing will be longer and wider than the deck surface because the posts overhang the deck. For maximum strength with the relatively soft cedar, we only notched the posts 1 in. to rest on the decking skirt. But this resulted in a limited bearing surface at the outside corners, where the posts overhang the deck in two directions. If we did it again, we would make the notch 1-1/2 in. deep. The posts will look best and the notched bottoms will be strongest if you orient the vertical grain facing in and out rather than side to side. DecKorators suggests that you mark the center of each rail for a center picket and lay out the pickets 4-1/2-in. OC in both directions. That ensures that you can mount on ornamental centerpiece (photo, page 48), but it can result in narrow spacing between end pickets and posts. Instead of doing the math and laying out the components with a tape rule, we made a sample story pole a bit longer than the rails and marked the picket layout. Placing the story pole on the rail stock, we could see whether the end spaces would look best with a picket or a space at the midpoint of the rail before we marked and drilled the lumber. By showing where every piece fits, the story pole also prevents math errors.

Posts First

We preferred the look of the clipped-top posts shown here to a continuous cap rail that extends along the upper rail and over the posts. If you are really good with a circular saw you can do all of the end detailing freehand. We achieved more consistent results beveling the ends of the posts with a compound miter saw and a stop.

You can cut the post notches in two passes on a band saw or three passes on a table saw. Since the lower part of the table saw blade cuts ahead of the top, you need to know when to stop the notch rip without seeing the blade. To do this, raise the blade as high as it goes and set the rip fence so the 4x4 just fits between the blade and the fence. With the saw off, advance the stock until the blade meets the shoulder of the intended notch. Then mark the table or the fence at the shoulder. Reset the fence to the correct ripping width and saw until the shoulder reaches the mark. After you make the first cut in all of the posts reset the fence and rip from the opposite face. You still will have to complete the cut with a handsaw whether you use a table saw or a circular saw.

The posts must be plumb in both directions, even if the skirt board around the deck is not. They also should align with each other when you sight along the edge of the deck.