Working the Railings

The weather has not been great as of late.  I took the sunrise picture on Sunday morning.  Red sky in morning, sailors take warning goes the saying.  Or maybe it should be deck builders take warning.

We've had several days and evenings of rain unfortunately. Wednesday night I was able to attach one section. Getting all the tools out on the deck is half the battle so I decided to take over the area inside the door to the kitchen and stage tools there for the next couple of days.
Completing the second rail section last night section was somewhat difficult. There was nothing different from the first section that I put in, but mentally my head was not into it. I cut a support piece short which I was able to correct, but the rest of the night was measure six times, cut once. . .

Tonight was smooth sailing and the third railing section was installed in about an hour. Once we installed the third section, the skies were threatening and I had to break down. It started raining almost immediately after we got things in. 
I have tomorrow off. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough to get work done. Three sections done, nine to go.

Some tips if you are installing TimberTech's Radiance Rail:

- My lumberyard recommended using rough cedar for posts because they have seen pressure treated material crack the post covers.

- Start with a rail section that will give you a good size piece of leftover piece of top and bottom rail.  Use the scrap rails to test fit the rail to post joint.  This will allow you to determine the angles to cut the rails, leaving a tight joint between the rail and the post.  Generally I had to cut the rail either a half or whole degree one way or another.

- As you get more scrap pieces of railing, mark the scraps with the angle they are cut at.  This will allow you to quickly figure out what angle you need to cut the rails at.

- Cut your rails slightly long, check, then trim an 1/8" off the rail.  Repeat this process until you have reached the correct length.  The top and bottom rails should be very tight to the posts to have a tight joint.

- Work hard to ensure your posts are plumb.  If your top and bottom rail are different lengths, your posts are not plumb.

Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures tomorrow.