Cable Railing for Decks

[RWebb]

school me on this guys...

AFAIK, you can DIY but need a spendy tool to tension the cables...

This will use existing 4x4 redwood posts - just need to drill them

I am trying to get away from having to restain the hundreds of 2x2s on the railing .... hence the idea of cables

The deck is 25 ft. off the ground so it may not be a great DIY project anyway...

[Deschodt]

I did it all myself, what spendy tool ? I tensioned with a 8mm wrench.

Did it twice actually, once with steel posts (best), once on redwood posts (not as nice).
You measure the cable length, tie it at one end with the supplied hardware, cut based on the end fitting, and use the adjustments in the hardware to tighten up. They stretch over time, so I can see when I'll eventually run out of adjustment and have to recut, it's not hard. The only tool I used was a strong cutter for the cable and 2x 8mm wrenches.

Now, it is insanely EXPENSIVE. The hardware and cables might as well be gold plated. The redwood posts have "given" a little so it's always looser there. The steel ones have not moved but it still stretches the cables over time. So I prefer steel, and tighten once a year or so. I love the look so much I replaced a pony wall near stairs in my house with more cables...

[908/930]

Check with your building codes first, they are easy for kids to climb over, some areas up here don't allow them, I really like the look.

Don't they just have a turnbuckle at one end? Standard marine rigging.

[tevake]

I like the look of well done wire under a solid top rail.

If you are thinking stainless steel, there are many different qualities of stainless.
For example, I got some English die formed standing rigging wire for Tevake in N Z.
Then replaced it about ten years later using 1by 19 wire available from West marine. It started to show rust stain in about three years. The old wire was still clean after 13 years.

Getting swaged end fittings gives a very clean look, that's done at a rigging shop.

Nicropress sleeves you can do your self, but the thimbles for the ends don't look as clean as the swaged terminals.

Doing it with galvinazised wire and hardware is a much less pricy way to go if you can find good quality galvinazised materials.

Cheers Richard

[Deschodt]

Here's mine inside and out... inside are wood (painted), outside steel posts.

[dad911]

Timely question, I have a cable rail project coming up. No affiliation, but I am in the trades and just received literature from buyrailings.com. I have not priced yet.......

[cantdrv55]

I have them on my deck. The cables are starting to sag after 10 years. Time to tighten them up.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by dad911

I have not priced yet.......

see the above spendy as gold post )!!(

they use SS cables but apparently the pretty tensioners are the real cost (tho, yes, one contractor did tell me you can use regular turnbuckles too)

I think I'm ok with the building code...

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

Here's mine inside and out... inside are wood (painted), outside steel posts.

very nice!

how are those exterior posts anchored?

[look 171]

Originally Posted by dad911

Timely question, I have a cable rail project coming up. No affiliation, but I am in the trades and just received literature from buyrailings.com. I have not priced yet.......

When these were the hot thing out here 10 years ago, my architect sped' out lot of cables railing for many of the jobs up on the hill side to take advantage of the view in many of the hill side homes compared to glass which is about 15 times the cost. Stay away from the hardware store turn buckle junk. They look horrible.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by RWebb

school me on this guys...

AFAIK, you can DIY but need a spendy tool to tension the cables...

This will use existing 4x4 redwood posts - just need to drill them

I am trying to get away from having to restain the hundreds of 2x2s on the railing .... hence the idea of cables

The deck is 25 ft. off the ground so it may not be a great DIY project anyway...

One thing I have to tell you is to make sure the Redwood post is solid with no movement (factor in expansion and bolts eating into the soft Redwood) or else the cable will sag for sure over a short period of time.

I posted a photo of an old deck (from the other deck thread) I built for my neighbor a couple houses from me, about 35-40' off the ground. Post are Mangarus. I drilled all the holes on my drill press to ensure all holes are perfectly lined up and the spacing is even. I suppose it can be done on site with a hand drill but just make sure its comes out straight or else the difference on cable enter and exit point will read like like a book. Out here, code is 4" apart (I am sure its like it where you are too?) so 1/4" off with the holes will be noticeable.

See post 24

Need deck board layout help

There is not one 90 degree angle on this stupid thing. About 10-15' in back of me, there's a pool with some stupid curve up against concrete where we had to scribe each piece to the stone (on top of a big concrete pad over a huge retaining wall) PITA

[Bill Douglas]

Cables can start playing tunes in the wind. No big deal, you just adjust the tension. But letting you know.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Cables can start playing tunes in the wind. No big deal, you just adjust the tension. But letting you know.

How cool if you could tune them to a specific chord!

[wdfifteen]

We too have some deck railing that is blocking a nice view of the ravine behind our house. We are looking at cable, and also hog fence. The hog fence is WAY less expensive, but more rustic. Rustic would work well in our location.

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by RWebb

very nice!

how are those exterior posts anchored?

They are bolted onto the deck support beam (under the planking), 2 mongo bolts each. No movement at all.

Below that pictured deck, I have a downstairs deck with redwood posts (done later). Those are also attached the same way but they sagged after a few years. The cable tension is strong and the wood is weaker and "gives" over time. The metal posts are much better for the job IMO. I would not do a cable job on wood posts again - you can use more hardware to terminate the cables and balance the load a bit (imagine a post being pulled from both sides?) but that stuff is pricey as hell, so you try to use only 2 posts for tensioning (one at each end) - that'll fail on wood eventually unless it's bolted like a bank safe. Not saying it's impossible, saying in my experience steel won that one and requires less hardware.

Also it's been 5y and the cables look perfect still, I never maintained them in any way. I like the view they provide, modern, boat like, way more open views as they disappear into the trees or whatever...

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

We too have some deck railing that is blocking a nice view of the ravine behind our house. We are looking at cable, and also hog fence. The hog fence is WAY less expensive, but more rustic. Rustic would work well in our location.

I like the look of that hog fence I will look into that for our deck . It looks like it is sandwiched in between boards around the perimeter . Nicely done

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

They are bolted onto the deck support beam (under the planking), 2 mongo bolts each. No movement at all.

Below that pictured deck, I have a downstairs deck with redwood posts (done later). Those are also attached the same way but they sagged after a few years. The cable tension is strong and the wood is weaker and "gives" over time. The metal posts are much better for the job IMO. I would not do a cable job on wood posts again - you can use more hardware to terminate the cables and balance the load a bit (imagine a post being pulled from both sides?) but that stuff is pricey as hell, so you try to use only 2 posts for tensioning (one at each end) - that'll fail on wood eventually unless it's bolted like a bank safe. Not saying it's impossible, saying in my experience steel won that one and requires less hardware.

Also it's been 5y and the cables look perfect still, I never maintained them in any way. I like the view they provide, modern, boat like, way more open views as they disappear into the trees or whatever...

Yep, agree with you on the post taking all the tension abuse and eventually it get loose. Problem is, people like wood and so do designers. We brace the end post like if it has to survive the next nuclear bomb so there's no movement.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

how cool if you could tune them to a specific chord!

♪♪ ♪ ♪♪

[RWebb]

Thanks, Look171 - the contractor I talked to mentioned post stability. His idea is to
[1] ensure the 4x4 posts are well bolted to the rim
[2] add 1x8 at the bottom in between the posts - tight fit to brace them
[3] put 2x4's horizontal in in between the posts at the top - again, a tight fit

The existing long 2x12 top 'rail' will remain.

How does the above sound to you?



I should have thought of hog fencing myself - a neighbor has that as their fence. Are those powder coated?

[look 171]

I dislike all but agree with number 1. Taking family out to dinner. Draw you pic later tonight when I get back to this regular programming. How wide are the floor joists?