Railings part 2

Last week we looked at Deckorators balusters and accessories, we forgot to review Deckorators new aluminum kit railing product Aluminum Railing System  This kit rail system has a maximum span of 6' and comes pre-drilled for all the different Deckorators balusters. It also has a snap on top cap rail with no exposed fasteners. There is also post sleeves to cover 4x4 rail support posts. The top and bottom rails are basically a aluminum 2x4. The Aluminum rail system comes in black and white colors.

It will be interested in seeing what the price is of this system. If it is more affordable or about the same as the basic vinyl railings on the market it will be a good option on wood decks, the railings are the biggest labor in staining a deck.  Judging by the pictures they show it with (composite decks) it will be about the same cost as a composite kit rail system.

So back to this weeks reveiw of different deck railing ideas, we are going to do a basic overview of the main deck and porch railings we see here in Michigan. Treated pine is still the main choice for decks and railing in the metro detroit area deck and porch market.

Wood deck and porch rails

We generally build all of our treated wood deck railings with a 2x4 top and bottom rail and the metal balusters, Sometimes we add a deck board as a top cap which gives the top of the rail a continous look.

 Or we will run the rail post above the top rail and add a post cap to the rail posts as you see here in the picture on the right which is a cedar deck. Notice the rail pocket hole attachment method we use on all the cedar decks we build here in Michigan.

Here is the same basic treated pine railing with a deck board top cap, but with  2x2 wood balusters. This is on a handicap ramp we built in Macomb County Michigan.  On angle of the railings on the ramp,  it is harder to use the metal balusters,  so we went with the standard wood 2x2s.  In one variation or another this is the most common wood railing

The Pictures below are from the web

Here is a interesting railing,  I believe from Deckorators with stained glass inserts and mix of vertical and horizontal balusters. Also tiffany post caps

Here is a wood rail posts and a top cap rail used with cable rails

                                           Here is some baluster patterns.

                                                          Chipendale 

Sunburst

                                                                               New England style

                           Glass balusters

Thank You for reading our blog, next week we will again be looking at different railing ideas

Railing and baluster ideas ( Deckorators)

Hello, For the next few posts we are going to talk about different railing and baluster products and ideas.

For alot of our railing projects we use Deckorators balusters. Usually the classic 26" balusters, here in the picture you can see the 3/4 round baluster used with a composite 2x4 railing.

The connection to the top and bottom rail is done with either a standard baluster connector, or a designer baluster connector. You can also drill out the top and bottom rails to receive the 3/4 round baluster.

Standard baluster connector

                                                                 Designer baluster connector

The Deckorators classic 3/4 round 26" balusters run about $1.60 per baluster, in comparison a treated 2x2x32 runs about $1.00 per baluster and a cedar 2x2x32 is about a $1.35

So for a typical 400 sq ft treated wood deck with railings the added costs would only be about $175

 and on a cedar deck it would only add about $50. On composite deck railing you actually save money

 over composite 2x2s

The labor time to install is a little more than just nailing on pre-cut 2x2s . We probably average a couple more hours per deck using the metal balsuters and connectors. We have a jig for the layout of the balsters and the jig holds the connectors in place to screw down to the rails. We start by finding the center point of each railing section - between rail post. We then layout the centers of the baluster at 4.5" or sometimes 4 1/4" on center depending on the distance between the posts, and we usually stay about 2" away from the ends of a rail section.

Here you can see the pre-drilling and attachment method used in composite and hardwoods

Finished cedar wood rails with the metal balusters

 

Treated Wood railings with metal balusters

 

Keep in mind that the big benifit of the metal balutsers is that they do not require painting or staining like a wood baluster. One of the worst parts of staining a deck is staining the balusters

Deckorators are  - powder coated aluminum with a lifetime warranty

Deckorators has many other differents styles of metal balusters.

My personal favorite is

                                                                 The  Estate (square)

Which is a little larger looking and I think it gives  richer look. I personally think the estate baluster are easier to install also. In the picture you see a 2x4 composite railing with Estate balusters in a bronze color with diamond pattern basket layout. 

                                          

                The Colonial 

                                                                                     The Architectural

      

Scenic  (glass)                                                                           

Deckorators has a some different accessories that are nice options.

Fleur de lis centerpiece with baskets on each side

Here some of their baluster accesories

Deckorators also has a nice line of post caps, post covers, and post skirts

Here is a link to Deckorators website

http://www.ufpi.com/product/deckorators/index.htm

We are going to keep reviewing different deck railing options in our next blog posts

Thank You for reading

Outdoor living spaces - pictures of different design

Here is a bunch of different pictures of outdoor living spaces
 For some design ideas

http://www.hgtv.com/designers-portfolio/outdoors/index.html



Michigan deck and patio builder

Outdoor living spaces can increase your home's appeal at a lower cost than an additional room

Here is a article we came across from US News about the value of adding outdoor living spaces

Adding a Deck: A Cost-Effective Way to Protect Your Home’s Value

http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2008/11/21/adding-a-deck-a-cost-effective-way-to-protect-your-homes-value.html

Hottest Outdoor Living Trends for 2010

Here is a artical on the hottest outdoor living trends in 2010

ttp://www.housingzone.com/probuilder/article/CA6721745.html


Structures

Arbors – 87.2%

Ornamental water features such as fountains or splash pools – 86.7%

Pergolas – 83.4%

Decks – 83.0%

Fencing (includes gates) – 82.9%

Porches – 76.4%

Steps – 74.6%

Utility shed (tool shed, garden shed etc.) – 64.8%

Gazebos – 58.6%

Pavilions – 58.0%

Art (sculpture etc.) – 58.0%

Columns – 43.7%

Awnings, including retractable – 42.8%

ADA-accessible structures (ramps, bars, accessible shelving etc.) – 21.4%
 
 
I would like to add one more - small greenhouses or backyard greenhouses.

Thank You
For Reading

2010 deck products - Timber Tech

Hello ..  We have been writing about the new products for decks and patios for the 2010 year.
 Having already reviewed Correct Deck CX and their lifetime warranty on LABOR and materials.
 We also reviewed the new awesome looking Horizon Tropics  from Fiberon.

Today we a going to look at one of our original favorites

         

Timber Tech has been the most inovative composite/pvc decking product manufactures on the market. Their XLM deck board has made huge waves in the low maintenance decking arena. 

The  Radiance rail is the nicest looking, best quality kit railing in my opinion. They have a few new products that I have heard about this year.

The main one being the Reliaboard     
Which is a deck board product geared towards the budget minded consumer, who wants a low maintenance deck but at a more affordable price. It comes in two colors Cedar and Grey, and it has more of a square edge profile. The Reliaboard is to be screwed down and there is no a hidden fastening system for the Reliaboard. The big plus for the Reliaboard is the fact that it prices out at about the same cost as Cedar wood decking. The budget composites make up about 30% of the share of the low maintenance decking category.

The railing that should be paired up with the Reliaboard is Timber Tech's Builder Rail  Which is a composite 2x4 top and bottom rail with 3/4 round metal balusters.

The budget composite products are not for everyone and they work well in some conditions and not very well in others, so do your homework when considering a budget product. There is reasons why the XLM is the price it is or other ultra low maintenance products are priced higher, they are just about as close to fail proof as there is in decking product choices.

Timber Tech also came out with a new XLM color at the mid to end of last year called Desert Bronze  Which is a black colored streaked deck board which mimics the look of a tropical hardwood. A very nice looking product that has all the durability of the XLM with the enhanced look. In Michigan I have heard it did really good, but it is expensive. I would like to see the Desert Bronze color become more affordable.

The other - some what new Timber Tech product which came out last year

was DeckLites  Which is low voltage lighting for decks. 

There is three different option in the DeckLites -  Post caps, Accent lights, and Riser lights

 First the DeckLite Post Caps are just for use with the Timber Tech railing post sleeves.

       The DeckLite Accents can be used on any                               deck or in combonation with any other decking product.

The Accent lights can be mounted just about anyway you would like.

 

          Finally, the DeckLite Riser lights are for the riser boards on steps.

Timber Tech also make a high quality transformer to use with their DeckLites.

The low voltage lighting is a really nice addition to a deck and is reasonably priced.

Timber Tech generally offers a 25 year materials warranty on all the products, the low voltage has a 5 year warranty

Thank You for checking out our blog

New products for the 2010 deck and patio season

We are looking forward to spring and getting out and building some new decks, porches and patios. I personally love designing and building outdoor living areas.

This year there has not been allot of changes in Composite/PVC products on the decking market. Trex and Fiberon have come out with both of their cap layer composite deck boards, Trex Transcends and Fiberon Horizons We wrote about the Trex Transcend product earlier this year and we are going to monitor the new Trex line and see how it preforms. The Fiberon Horizon composite cap layer product is interesting. The Horizon Tropics line came out at the end of last year. We did get a chance to build two decks from the Horizon line and I was really impressed. Here is a link to their site.

http://www.fiberondecking.com/

FIBERON HORIZON TROPICS

Fiberon Horizons Rosewood deck we built last year

The center of the triple border is Correct Deck CX pebble color. The rest of the decking is the Fiberon Horizons Rosewood. You can see the dramatic dark streaking in the red colored Rosewood board which mimics the look of a natural Brazilian hardwood. The Horizon Tropics line has two different colors Rosewood and Ipe and there is actually seven different colors used to make up the colors in the Rosewood and Ipe deck boards

The Fiberon Horizon Line has a twenty year fade and stain warranty which guarantees against any fading or staining. This was the first warranty of this kind for a composite decking product.

Here is a link to a composite/pvc comparison chart put out by Fiberon

http://www.fiberondecking.com/products/compareHorizon

In the link you can see the core of the Horizon deck board is first generation composite and the outer cap layer is what they call "PermaTech" which is the cap layer. Another good point about the Horizon line; is the deck board is two sided, so the "PermaTech cap layer is on both side so it is reversible which is completely unique in that no other manufacture that I am aware of has a two sided cap layer.

There is four solid colors in the Horizon line also

Sand, Brick, Bronze and Slate

The railing system is called Horizon Plus which comes in six colors: white, black, sand, brick, bronze, and slate. The Mission profile is a flat top and standard bottom rail in all six colors, and the Provencal which is a bread loaf rounded top style, it only comes in white.

The Brick is the base color for the Ipe and the Bronze is the base color for the Rosewood. So if you wanted to have matching railings to the tropical colors you would choose the brick or the bronze colors, or you would go with a contrasting white or black colored railings.

We like the Fiberon Horizon Tropics because the price point is close to the basic first generation composite. But it has the durability of the more expensive PVC products and it looks the best of any other Composite/PVC products on the markets.

The Fiberon Horizon Tropics should be a big hit, and in my opinion it is the best looking composite/pvc product on the market.

Thank You .... For Reading Our Blog