Jenny Trice
04-20-2013, 9:20 PM
I am planning to redo my deck this spring/summer. I will keep the existing under structure but replace the decking and railing with low maintenance products. I have heard good things about the AZEK decking product but they offer little that I’m interested in for railings. I currently have just 2×6 railings with 2×2 balusters. I am considering aluminum or wrought iron balusters but I do not have any posts in my current construction. The problem I am having is choosing a material for the rails and probably posts (I think I will need posts with the aluminum or wrought iron balusters). We have various bird feeding and bird bath accessories that need to be mounted to the deck rail or posts so I have ruled out any of the extruded curved rail shapes.
I would like a 2x type of rail product but AZEK doesn’t offer one and I’m concerned about mixing composite materials, mostly because of color matching. I have entertained the thought of trying to glue up AZEK 1” deck boards to create my own 2x rails and even 4×4 posts. It looks like the stuff is tricky to glue but it may be possible with exterior construction adhesive. I believe the color is all the way through this product and it is pretty ‘machinable’ so I think I could route a roundover on the 2x glue ups. I do not know about the strength or how far I could space this type of posts to support the deck rails. Am I crazy? Or, is there a better way?
Also, when I searched, I found a number of posts referring to AZEK materials but I'm wondering if people are referring to a class of materials as AZEK, rather than actual AZEK. Maybe there were other material forms in the past??
I would like a 2x type of rail product but AZEK doesn’t offer one and I’m concerned about mixing composite materials, mostly because of color matching. I have entertained the thought of trying to glue up AZEK 1” deck boards to create my own 2x rails and even 4×4 posts. It looks like the stuff is tricky to glue but it may be possible with exterior construction adhesive. I believe the color is all the way through this product and it is pretty ‘machinable’ so I think I could route a roundover on the 2x glue ups. I do not know about the strength or how far I could space this type of posts to support the deck rails. Am I crazy? Or, is there a better way?
Also, when I searched, I found a number of posts referring to AZEK materials but I'm wondering if people are referring to a class of materials as AZEK, rather than actual AZEK. Maybe there were other material forms in the past??