Hi everyone! I'm new here and very glad to have found this forum. I live 75 miles east of Toronto and am just starting to thaw out :).
I built a 16 ' by 32' deck four years ago using Elk decking, which is a man-made product consisting of oak and polypropylene (I'm unsure of the ratio). I laid the decking with the recommended non-toothed clips and encased both ends of the deck with a decorative rim joist.
The hand rail is face mounted on the rim joist. Problem: the railing is tipped outward about two inches on the top. Underneath, you can see where the end joist is pushed outward. To clarify, I supported the decking with 2x8 PT joists, and then mounted the 2x10 rim joists over (lag bolted from behind to hide the fasteners) the 2x8 joists. I did this to hide the end holes in the decking. I fear this method has caused the railing to tip outward due to the deck expanding in the freeze-thaw cycle.
I could remove the rim joist so the deck ends have room to expand, rip some sort of decorative cap for the deck board ends, and then use a deck mounted railing. The complication is, I use four 4x4 posts to support a non-waterproof wooden shade structure. The 4x4 posts are bolted to the rim joist and railing for support. So my questions are:
- Do you think it's the freeze-thaw cycle that's causing the railing to tip out?
- Is there a way I can fix this without modifying the existing design?
Perhaps I need to post a diagram of my problem before you can answer? At any rate, many thanks for the help!
- Lee
I built a 16 ' by 32' deck four years ago using Elk decking, which is a man-made product consisting of oak and polypropylene (I'm unsure of the ratio). I laid the decking with the recommended non-toothed clips and encased both ends of the deck with a decorative rim joist.
The hand rail is face mounted on the rim joist. Problem: the railing is tipped outward about two inches on the top. Underneath, you can see where the end joist is pushed outward. To clarify, I supported the decking with 2x8 PT joists, and then mounted the 2x10 rim joists over (lag bolted from behind to hide the fasteners) the 2x8 joists. I did this to hide the end holes in the decking. I fear this method has caused the railing to tip outward due to the deck expanding in the freeze-thaw cycle.
I could remove the rim joist so the deck ends have room to expand, rip some sort of decorative cap for the deck board ends, and then use a deck mounted railing. The complication is, I use four 4x4 posts to support a non-waterproof wooden shade structure. The 4x4 posts are bolted to the rim joist and railing for support. So my questions are:
- Do you think it's the freeze-thaw cycle that's causing the railing to tip out?
- Is there a way I can fix this without modifying the existing design?
Perhaps I need to post a diagram of my problem before you can answer? At any rate, many thanks for the help!
- Lee
Decking expansion problem?
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