How To Build A Porch Railing Yourself
This railing is on a porch rather than a deck but it is quite a typical design.
How to build a porch railing yourself. This how-to shows the steps we took to install Schedule 20 PVC pipe as railing on our existing porch with pre-installed posts. Darek built this railing up his front porch steps using this Surface Mount Railing Kit. Our mission was to build a railing that was sturdy and inexpensive yet a thing of beauty to behold.
1 2x4x10 pressure treated to use as rails 5. An affordable simple quick porch railing build including balusters and a newel post. Then buy balusters and wood according to your measurements or cut the wood down to size yourself.
The short side of the wood porch railing segment took a little more time due to a wood-to-brick mount required. Another option is to build a 36-in-high knee-wall along the edges of the porch and add screening only to the top portion of the wall. Typically the railing is built inside the screening as in this photo from my book Best Practices for Residential Construction.
The carpenter then build. Generally any deck raised 30 inches above grade is required by code to have a railing. Mark Kranenburg walks you through how to construct a simple wood deck rail on a deck and down a set of stairs.
Measure how far off of the porch deck you want your bottom rail to be. Overall the railing is beautiful but unobtrusive. With one of our railing kits or a custom built solution using Kee Klamp pipe fittings its possible to build a railing in just a few hours many of.
A home improvement center or lumberyard maintains an inventory of these materials. Select pre-formed porch rails and balusters. Cut several small blocks that length off of your scrap 2x4.