SS Cable For Deck Railing

[Ken Krawford]

I want to replace the 2x2" wood balusters on a deck with 1/8" stainless steel cabling. I spoke with the local building inspector and his main point is to plan for cable deflection so that there is less than a 4" space between runs. I'm planning on 4 ft spacing between 4x4" posts and adding additional 2x8" blocking around the area where the post and joist(s) intersect. The cap between posts will be a vertical 2x4" and horizontal 5/4x6" attached to the 2x4.
My research seems to point to a 3 1/8" horizontal spacing between cable runs. I'm planning on use RH & LH threaded studs to attach the cable at each post. https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Ste...4&sr=8-15&th=1. The cable will attach to the studs with swages.
Please critique my plan and feel free to add any additional "words of wisdom".

[Larry Edgerton]

Good you checked, they are knocking down cable railings with 4" spacing around here. Think a baby's head.

[Earl McLain]

I did cable in my deck rebuild last spring, used 3 1/2" spacing. We're out in the country, so no building inspector--on hot days we'd have been marginal on the 4" requrement to 3 1/8" should be fine. I used the "Deck Man" hardware, and one year in we've had no issues. I picked up about the cheapest crimping tool i could get--it worked, but it made it the hardest part of the job, should have spent the money for a better crimper.

To set consistent spacing, i cut a piece of white oak and drilled it as a jig to set the top mounting screws--and did a set of holes for right & left side posts since the 4 x 4's varied by more than 1/4" in thickness. This really sped up keeping the cables level and the same distance back from the outside of the posts. The whole thing was easier and faster than i expected--and really opened up the view!!

Good luck.

[Zachary Hoyt]

i have been helping with a deck replacement at a museum where I volunteer and they were thinking of using the cables but gave up when they were not able to get them tight enough. The thing is that each cable you tighten takes some of the tension off the cables next to it. It's like tuning a harp, very frustrating.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I spent several hours looking deck railing over last month and learned a lot from the Trex website.

Wow! I just went back to the Trex website and it has changed from last month. Cable has vanished. The brochure I dropped off with my client still has cable as an option. She opted for square vertical balusters.

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[Richard Coers]

The end posts will probably need more solid fastening to the deck to handle the stress of tightening the cable. Mid posts are easy.

[Derek Meyer]

There is a company called RailFX that makes a DIY cable rail system. You can either drill holes in your posts or use their plastic clips that screw on to the back of the posts. They have all the cable, hardware and tools available. You can buy the cables in lengths from 10' to 70' to get continuous cables over a longer stretch of railing. If your post spacing is greater than 4', they have metal midspan supports that are low profile and nice-looking.

They recommend that you add blocking between your posts at the top, to prevent the cables from pulling the out of plumb when tightening. I plan on capping mine with a 2x6 for on top of the blocking, so it will work great for me.

Derek

[Ken Krawford]

The RailFX system looks pretty slick but no prices on the web site and the "Get an estimate" left me a bit confused as it didn't seem to offer wood 4x4's as a post option.

[Tom M King]

I don't believe wood will be stiff enough for keeping long term tension in the cables. BIL used it on one of their porches some years ago that had 4x4 posts, and he ended up changing it all in just a couple of years.

[Derek Meyer]

It's not cheap. I bought the supplies and tools to do a 10' section of rail and a 40' section of rail. I decided to use the plastic clips rather than try to drill perfectly level holes through that many posts. My posts are just under 4' apart so I didn't need any midspan supports. I spent $800 on everything, and that was at probably 30% discount for being an employee, so retail would be more like $1000 or more.

Our store has a stand-alone display rack with all the literature and parts in one place. I just picked everything I needed and put it in a shopping basket, then took it up and checked out. They had everything I needed in stock, including the tools and the template for marking the clip mounting locations on my posts. It will probably be another month or two before the weather is good enough for us to finish installing the deck boards and then get the railing installed. I'll post pictures and my thoughts after the install is complete.

[Ken Krawford]

Derek, what brand was the system you purchased?

[Rob Luter]

I just had a deck built and the contractor suggested a different approach. I like the look of cable, and it's easy to throw shovelfuls of snow through it. My contractor cautioned that with a timber deck frame, tensioning the cables would be pretty tough and the stress placed on the corner posts would cause them to deflect.

We went with an aluminum railing with small black spindles. It's easy to look through and all the posts just mount to the surface of the deck. No special anchorage is required. It's not the ultra modern look we were originally after, but it's still a clean look.

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[Earl McLain]

It's not cheap. I bought the supplies and tools to do a 10' section of rail and a 40' section of rail. I decided to use the plastic clips rather than try to drill perfectly level holes through that many posts. My posts are just under 4' apart so I didn't need any midspan supports. I spent $800 on everything, and that was at probably 30% discount for being an employee, so retail would be more like $1000 or more.

Our store has a stand-alone display rack with all the literature and parts in one place. I just picked everything I needed and put it in a shopping basket, then took it up and checked out. They had everything I needed in stock, including the tools and the template for marking the clip mounting locations on my posts. It will probably be another month or two before the weather is good enough for us to finish installing the deck boards and then get the railing installed. I'll post pictures and my thoughts after the install is complete.

No disrespect intended to your employer, but that's a bit salty. I just looked back at my invoices--for 7 sections totaling right at 70' (7 strands) my total spend was $419--including the swaging tool and i still have about 250' of cable left (i've used a bit since, and will keep finding uses for 1/8" cable). In fairness--all i bought was the end turnbuckles--and a chunk of your total was likely the fasteners i didn't use and i recall that those sleeves and such added up quick when i looked at them. As mentioned earlier, making a template for the mounts made it really easy and quick to keep all the runs at consistent heights.

[Derek Meyer]

I bought the RailFX Classic 102 series cable kits, with the plastic brackets, tool kit and template.

Earl, my total was higher because I elected to get the plastic clips that screw onto the posts rather than drill holes through my posts and sleeve them. Since I have 13 posts, I bought a lot of clips. At 9 per post, I ended up with about 120 total. I'm sure those were a big chunk of what I spent. I haven't looked at the fasteners for the clips yet, but I will likely replace them with stainless steel screws if they aren't already. I'd rather they not rust and streak down my posts.

[Earl McLain]

Gotcha Derek. I just looked at their site--that is a lot of clips. Hope it works well for you, i don't think my "project manager" would have liked the black brackets.