The Mahogany railings for the elevated rear deck are being constructed, and Bob meets with Kevin Parquette who is doing the final assembly work. The deck features ample room for entertaining and is surrounded by a a simple, easy-to-construct railing. The railing is assembled from readily-available materials, and features decorative rail caps for a finished look. Parquette is using 8-penny stainless steel nails to assemble the railings. The nails are pre-coated with glue. When driven into the wood, the heat generated by the friction of the nail passing through the wood activates the glue, creating a strong and secure fastening system. Layout for the railing is done on the surface of the deck. The vertical balusters are sandwiched between two horizontal rails along the bottom, with a store-bought top rail securing the assembly. Once assembled, the railing sections are simply secured between the four-by-four-inch posts.

Tim Berky is building the cedar deck railings, first by notching the edge board to receive the posts. Each post sits flush with the trim once it is fitted into the notch. Berky attaches the post to the facing board by driving deck screws into predrilled holes in the post to avoid splitting the wood. He then builds the railing sections using cedar rails and stiles. Once assembled, he attaches the entire section to the deck posts by driving screws through the top and bottom rails.

In this segment Bob watches the crew install the railing on the deck. The composite railing product comes pre-milled to accept all the railing components. As with wood decks, building codes calls for a post every six feet between the railings. The posts are pre-hollowed for wiring if the homeowner decides to light the deck with post-mounted lamps. The balustrades and railings are cut to length on site. Stainless steel screws are used to assemble the pieces. The use of stainless fasteners is an added cost, but longevity of the deck material means that uncoated fasteners would rust long before the deck might need replacing.