Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum banner

Cable rails

13K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  John Hyatt 
#1 ·
Who do you all use for cable rails? Suppliers that is.

I seem to remember someone posting links but, I couldn't find that thread.

TIA
 
#3 ·
I use Feeney Cable wire.

http://www.cablerail.com/index_2.shtml

They are very helpful and do give contractor discounts. I have even given them layouts and they have planned all the wire runs.

I can't comment on whether they are the cheapest though. I don't know.

Allow a couple of weeks for delivery, as they make runs to order.
 
#4 ·
Thanks Mark & Mac.

I've had customers ask about cable rails before, but like you Mac, have never had one bite. A GC that I built a TT deck for had a cable rail put on it after I was done. He used SS post which looked pretty good. He had his men put in on so it can't be too hard to do as his men were about as sharp as marbles.

All that said I hope my customer likes the deckorators & I won't have to fool with the cables.
 
#8 ·
I have looked at sites like that,seen how they go together, how they look.

Looks like shetttola to me. All the silly wires going in strange directions down the stair way and around the posts. Stupid. Mabey on a com job but I am backing out biding it on that project hard times or no. JonMon
 
#10 ·
Cable rail is very easy to install but it can get tricky for stairs. We use Feeney also with a few Atlantis systems here and there. They do sell sleeves. I would recommend it if you have a softer wood or angles.
We normally use ten rows spaced 3 1/4". Check with your county if it is allowed. We have only two counties in my area that approves the horizontal cable system.
Clemens
www.finedecks.com
 
#14 ·
I see from looking at your site you've done a good bit of cable rails, very nice looking rails.

Do you always or just perfer to double post the corners? Besides the look I'm guessing another reason, ease of streching cable maybe.

I've seen the cable rails around so I'm guessing it's allowed here, something I should check on even tho this job is out in the country & no juridiction there. Travis county permits are a joke, all they do is check to see if the deck is in the flood plane, if not here's your permit for 50 bucks, no inspections of any sort.

A couple of more questions, why the tighter spacing, the 3 1/4"? Do you think you need a sleeve if using ipe 4x4's w/holes?
 
#16 ·
I pluged the price in over the phone they were sucking air so hard there next breath came hard. I figured in using composite post wraps shimed inside and the metal sleaves with washers 3'' oc cable rail on 36'' high, earthwood TT with the clips.

You would have thought I sugested wanting to eat there first born,total ungule delam on the price. They both got on speaker to tell me what I rip off I was trying to be. Guatta Love It JonMon
 
#19 ·
I love the cable railing the stuff is really easy to install plus it looks amazing. The only thing I hate is how expensive the connectors are, the cable isn't the bad part it's all your connection pieces. I will look for some camera phone pics here in a minute of the last railing and cable system I completed, I will take better ones tomorrow so you can actually see the connections: I used sleeves for all my angle pieces where stairs or a change of elevation was an issue.
 
#20 ·
Call Indital, they have a cable/post system called INOX, it is available in steel/galvanized/ and stainless. They will be able to help you out. Whatever you do don’t try to go cheap and use aircraft cable, the oil will leach out the middle and look like crap in less than a year, ask me how I know:whistling
 
#21 ·
As Mark stated above, we recently finished an cable rail install with Ipe posts.

To say it was ridiculously painful would be an understatement.

Although I fabricated a jig to drill all the posts with the proper holes and spacing, it was INCREDIBLY slow prepping the posts. You cannot just drill through an Ipe 4x4 in one pass like you could in any other material. You have to up and down the drill bit probably 15 times a hole to clear the flutes.

Then a bit breaks inside your post. Then you break another one no matter how careful you are. Now you have to try to save the post and remove the broken bit. It's hard to do.

You are dealing with very tight tolerances and it's just miserable to do with Ipe.

Every post has at least 10 THROUGH holes. Some posts have 40 holes.

Did I mention it's painfullly slow?

When you finally get to installing the cables, that is slow too. Unless you get pre-swaged fittings. We swaged on site and that took forever too. Three swages per fitting TIMES 10 per run. The swaging is physically tough to do (you have to crank on the tool) so it goes slow.

If you get a bad fitting, you are screwed. The stainless is very prone to galling and bad threading.

I would do it again, but not with Ipe unless I figured 2 hours at least per post prep time.

I see you guys talking about doing it with post sleeves and I'm laughing because I can't imagine trying to do it with a post sleeve. Talk about asking for trouble. Any void in the sleeve and post would instantly deform/crack the sleeve because of the tension applied by the fittings.

I'm sure it's possible to do, but bid accordingly because it's not going to be 1-2-3.

BTW, I purchased from Max as well and he was a good guy. We had some hiccups along the way because he didn't spec a few things correctly from my drawing, but in the end, we got it done.
 

Attachments

#22 ·
Our last remodel the owner wanted cable rail. After researching we ended up using Feeney. It was a PITA fishing the cable through the corner posts. Looks good, but I personally would not want them in a house with small kids. They'll be climbing these within a couple years.

We are still waiting on the owner to pick out some heart pine to finish the top rail.

Handrail Hardwood Floor Stairs Wood flooring
 
#25 ·
Greg after thinking about it I am really glad I dident get that job, I hate to turn anything down and I like something new but what a pain that would have been with composite. Becides the rail looks like a stock fence.

I was going to look around for a long shank forstner to drill the holes. J.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top