Monday, May 23, 2005

Back Porch Handrail pt.2

Well the handrail is coming along. I haven't finished the rail at the top yet. I need to strip the paint off of the post, and repaint it first. I borrowed the neighbours heat gun. It works pretty good, not much faster than the chemical stripper though. It looks like the trim was a canary yellow at some point. We're going with black for the trim, even though I've heard dark colours need to be painted more often. The rail is a lot safer than what was there before. When the guardrail is done, we won't have to worry so much about the kids out there.



We went camping on the weekend, so we took a little break from working on the house. It was nice to get away, too bad the weather was horrid. If it wasn't for all the tarps we had set up, I don't think we would have lasted the first night. It rained over 60mm (2.5") in 2 days. At least most of it fell at night, so we had some fun during the day fishing and going out in the canoe. Hopefully we can finish this porch sometime this week.

4 comments:

Scott in Washington said...

I think thats the first time I've seen 2x2s and 2x4s alternate like that in railing slats. It looks good. How did you fix the slats to rail? Did you come down through the rail or drive diagonally up through the top of the 2x2? I use 2x2s for my slats too but am not entirely satisfied with my technique for attaching them to the railings.

Derek said...

they're actually 1x2" and 1x4". I ripped a 1x6" on the tablesaw to get both sizes. There are 1x1 nailers that the boards are nailed to, just to keep them in position, one on each side. It's the way a lot of fences are put together.

Anonymous said...

WOW. You know, we talk about this stuff at work and I guess I had to see it to realize just how much you guys have accomplished ...i thought WE did alot in one years time...you guys are amazing!

Anonymous said...

Nice work, Derek! The railing is looking great. Camping sounds good too- maybe this will motivate us to pick a weekend to go somewhere!