New timber stair and handrail run built against a historic brick mill building, Rome, Georgia
After the frame is up
Deck Railings and Stairs
Rails, stairs and the room under a raised deck are the three additions that change what the deck is actually for.
Northwest Georgia and the north Atlanta metro
The rail is a lever
Lean on a railing and you're not loading the rail. You're loading the bolts at the base of the post it sits on, and you're loading them sideways. Which is why a rail post fastened only through decking works loose eventually, however many screws went into it.
The load wants to rotate the post, and a deck board has no depth to resist rotation. The fix is unglamorous.
Bolts through the rim joist, blocking added in the bay behind it, and the post picking up two directions instead of one.
Balusters, cable and glass all pull differently
Wood and aluminum balusters put almost no sideways load into the end posts. They fill the space and that's all.
Cable does the opposite. Every run is tensioned, and all of that tension arrives at the two posts at the ends of the run. Those posts have to be built for it, or the rail bows inward and the cables go slack.
Glass panels bring weight and wind instead. A glass rail on an exposed corner catches gusts, and that's a load the frame underneath has to take.
Stairs are the fussiest part of any deck
A stair run divides the drop from the deck to the ground into equal parts. Not roughly equal. Equal.
People sense a step that's a little shallower than the ones above it, and they trip on it. After two steps a body has already decided how far the next one is. So the layout starts at the bottom. Where the run lands sets the total drop, the total drop sets the number of steps, and only then does anything get cut.
Stringers land on concrete or on a pad, never straight onto soil. A stringer with its bottom end sitting in dirt is a stringer with a countdown on it.
The room under a raised deck
A deck standing eight or ten feet off the ground has a room under it. Most people use it for the mower. The reason it's not a patio is water.
Deck boards have gaps, so everything that lands on the deck arrives underneath a few seconds later. An under-deck system solves that one of two ways. Panels or membranes above the joists catch water before it reaches the joist tops, which keeps the frame dry as well. Troughs below the joists catch it after.
Either way it has to reach a gutter at one edge and go somewhere. Once the space stays dry, a ceiling, a fan and lighting turn it into the shaded half of the yard.
In August that's the half people actually sit in.
Where this connects
The frame that all of this bolts to is on the deck building page. Loose rails and dropped stair runs on an existing deck are usually a symptom, not the fault, and deck repair starts at the right end.
For what rails, spindles and stair layouts look like once they're done, deck design ideas pairs each look with what it does to the framing behind it. If a covered space is what you're really after, a screened porch or enclosure may be the shorter route.
Our work
Finished railing jobs
New timber railing installed along a long stained deck overlooking open water, Cartersville, Georgia
New timber stair and handrail run built against a historic brick mill building, Rome, Georgia
Wide entry steps and landing in fresh timber, with cable railing, meeting the flagstone path at a cabin door, Blue Ridge, Georgia
New elevated deck with railings and a long stair run to grade, Dacula, Georgia
New deck with roof structure and stair access built onto a manufactured home, Dalton, Georgia
Stair treads landing on the poured concrete pad, Stockbridge, Georgia
Long switchback accessibility ramp in pressure-treated lumber with full-height railings, rising through wooded ground to an elevated rear entry, Woodstock, Georgia
Evening view of the extended deck above the new covered space, Cumming, Georgia
Finished deck at dusk, Adairsville, Georgia
Fire pit and seating on the patio below, Cumming, Georgia
Deck rebuilt in Trex with black metal railings, over a poured concrete landing at the foot of the stairs, Stockbridge, Georgia
What actually happens
Three additions, three different jobs
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Rail posts before rail
A rail is only as solid as what its posts are bolted to. Those bolts go into the rim joist or a blocked bay, never into the end grain of a deck board, and the blocking often has to be added from underneath first.
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Stairs get laid out from the landing up
Where the bottom step lands decides everything above it. We set the landing first, then divide the total drop into equal steps, because an uneven run is the one thing everybody feels and nobody can fix later.
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Under-deck drainage before ceiling
A ceiling under a deck without a drainage layer above it is a tray. Water has to be caught between the joists and carried to an edge before anything gets installed below.
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Matching what's already there
New work beside old work always shows if nobody plans for it. Post sizing, spacing and finish get matched to the existing deck, not to whatever is quickest.
Questions we get asked
Before you call
Can I put a new railing on an old deck?
Usually, but the rim joist has to be sound where each post lands. If the rim has softened, the rail is the visible half of the problem and the frame is the other half. We check from underneath before quoting a rail on its own.
Cable, glass, aluminum or wood?
Wood is cheapest and needs refinishing. Aluminum is light and doesn't. Cable and glass are both bought for the view and both cost more, and cable puts real tension into the end posts, which changes how those posts have to be built.
Why do stairs cost so much for their size?
Because a stair run is three or four structural members, a landing, and a rail on both sides in a very small area. Per square foot it's the most labor-heavy part of a deck.
What's under-decking, exactly?
A system installed between or below the joists of a raised deck that catches water passing through the gaps in the boards and carries it out to one edge. The room underneath then stays dry enough to use, which is where the ceiling, the fan and the lighting become worth doing.
Can lighting go in at the same time?
Low voltage lighting in posts, stair risers and under-deck ceilings is far easier to run while the framing is open than to retrofit later. Say so at the quote and the runs get left in place even if the fittings go on afterward.
Where we work
Towns we cover for this
Adding rails, stairs or a dry space underneath?
Tell us what the deck is like now and what you want to use it for.