Upcoming Project

curapa

16' x 12' w/ 3' x 8' grilling station

TT XLM grooved / cedar with concealocs

White Radiance railing


Nothing special but its my first opportunity to use quality materials. I'M EXCITED!

curapa

I will post progress pics.

BreyerConstruct

Congrats; keep us posted!

~Matt

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deckman22

For making money those smaller simple decks are where it's at, for me anyway.

Good luck on the new project.

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curapa

Some progress pics

Tearing down the concrete porch was a pain in the ass!

I should be running the decking in the morning after some more blocking and the stairs go on.

The rails changed from TT Radiance to Cedar with metal balusters.

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curapa

routed post

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curapa

I finished up today,

I really like working with the hidden fasteners, they clean up the deck real nice and the Evergrain is a pretty nice material.

The posts are going to be topped off with Tiffany glass caps. I ended up making some post skirts out of cedar and i'm waiting on my post caps to be sent out again after recieving them and every one of them being broken.

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curapa

My finger after my screwgun found its way of the screw head and down on my hand.

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Greg Di

Looks nice.

Why did you combine composite and cedar? I am boggled by people making this decision as it doesn't make too much sense maintenance-wise or looks-wise.

I'm guessing it was due to budget since you downgraded to Evergrain from XLM, but how do you feel about combining them?

Also, how long did you tell them those little cedar post trim rings were going to last. Sitting on the deck, with 4 tiny miters, I don't think they'd hold up too long.

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curapa

It was a budget issue but I dont have a problem with it. Looks wise, I feel it actually matched the property better than a composite railing system would, the house has black iron posts on the front porch along with a matching double gate going into the back yard. The black metal balusters complement it well.

Labor wise, The only other option for decking would have been PT. Cedar decking is unheard of in these parts and ipe is way too expensive. Having composite decking and cedar rails is still way less maintenance than all wood.

About the post skirts, I have done them this way before with no problems other than slight shrinking. What would you have done for post skirts on cedar rails?

Greg Di

It's just an unusual combination of materials but it makes sense to keep it low cost. I make it clear to people that the cost savings with synthetics is about 4-5 years out. When you tell people how much they'll NEED to spend yearly to keep a new wood deck looking pristine, synthetics all of a sudden look a lot more budget friendly. Most times, your average HO isn't aware of the costs to really maintain wood properly by a professional. Even if they've done the work themselves on their previous deck, it's easy to point out that even with all the work they perceived they were putting in year after year, it still didn't help too much and now they are looking at replacing manky wood.

I rarely do wood railings, but when I do, I don't use skirts. We make the hole cutout very cleanly with a plunge router and template. I think some company actually makes a milled or one-piece cedar post skirt. You should check into that. I could be wrong, but I recollect seeing them someplace.

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jclem

Hey Curapa, A few observations: nice little deck, I like those, too--you're there for a little while but not too long and have still constructed something nice. I also like the Dekorator balusters, whatever the shape they are all relatively unobtrusive, not as much as cable rail, but certainly better than 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" view blocking balusters, (of course sometimes the HO is looking for privacy, I realize).
I like your homemade trim rings, the routed edge to match the posts is a nice touch. Lots of little pieces to monkey with and I too would think they'd tend to open up, but I guess with some good exterior glue, they should hold up a while.
One very small framing point, and maybe you addressed this later and it just wasn't pictured--the tops of the 6x6 posts ought to either be beveled to shed water or covered with felt or flashing cuz it is end grain ready to collect water. However, as I said it's just a picayune little thing, the framing looks quite solid.
I, too, really prefer HFS, in fact I practically insist on it. I just hate marring the deck surface with screws, whether they're stainless, painted, or plugged they still show. I've used eb-ty, some proprietary fasteners and one of my favoites--Tebo, all with reasonable success. I have no intention of ever surface fastening.
Keep up the good work.

BuiltByMAC

Cut 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" blocks out of 2x6 cedar.
Drill and jigsaw out the inner 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" hole.
Rout the outside edge.
Drop skirts on posts before installing handrail sections.

Mac

redwood

Mac,

I can't beleive that you have done that before, leaving 2 sides with end grain showing.

Mark

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BuiltByMAC

I was actually lookin' around for some pics, but apparently I haven't done that before! I just thought of it as a solution...
Although, what's worse - 4 opening miter joints or 2 end grain sides? If you set the end grain sides under the handrail sections, you've got side grain facing you both when you're on the deck and when you're off the deck looking at it.

What am I missing?

Mac

ETA: Alright, crap... Now I have to go make one tomorrow just to see what it looks like! I'll post some pics after I play around with it.

redwood

Mac, you don't have to do that.

One, if you had a lot of them to make, it would be a pain in the ass. Look at all the debate on Greg's post about cutting out for posts.

Two, at least with the material that I work with, I could see a lot of them splitting in half, with the grain.

Three, the end grain never seals like the rest of the material, colorwise.

Four, there has to be another reason why you and I have never tried it.

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