If you have multiple posts, measure the distance all the way between the furthest posts and then cut your wire to be just slightly longer than that.īefore installing the first cable, line the cable you just cut up with the edge of the remaining cable and mark where the cable ends with either a sharpie or some painter’s tape. We’ll finish screwing them in later to tighten the wire. As you’re screwing them in, don’t tighten them all the way. You can tighten your drill around the end of the swage lag screws to quickly screw them in place. The right side screws will screw in normally, but the left side screws will be screwed in by turning in the opposite direction, aka by flipping the drill into reverse. Once cleared, place a protective sleeve into each side of the middle posts.įor the two end posts, you have two different swage lag screws, one for the right side and one for the left side. The sawdust can get clogged in the hole and make it really difficult to get the wire through. STEP 4: INSTALL SWAGE LAG SCREWS AND PROTECTIVE SLEEVESīefore adding the protective sleeves to the middle posts, poke something through the holes in the middle posts to remove any sawdust. When drilling in center posts, you’ll connect the holes from either side so that there is a hole all the way through the center. You’ll use the straight guides for around your deck and then you can use the 30-degree guide for stair posts. Grab your drill guide and use the drill bit provided with the guide to drill into the posts at each of the points you marked. We clamped the guide to each post and marked through each of the holes. We marked for each of the cables on our scrap wood guide and then drilled all the way through the guide using a drill bit that was large enough to fit a thin marker through. We decided to use 10 cables and place them each 3 1/16” apart. Double-check the code in your area, but we needed our railings to be close enough together that we could not push a 4” sphere through the cables. We wanted our railings to be in line with the edge of the deck, which was 1.25” in from the side of the 4×4 post. Grab a scrap piece of wood and cut it down to be the same height as the distance between your deck and the handrail.īecause of how our 4×4 posts were positioned on the deck, we marked 1.25” in from one edge of the board. Yes, you’ll likely have a little touch-up paint at the end, but it’s nice to have the majority of it knocked out prior to installation. Each of these items should be painted or stained. Whatever spot you’re in, you want to end this step by having 4×4 posts secured to your deck and a handrail installed. Fill any holes with Bondo, remove any excess caulk, and sand the posts down to prep them for paint or stain. In that case, you can cut the caulk around the 2x2s and then pry them off. Some people will have the same railing style that we did. Some people will have existing railings that differ from ours. Some people will be starting from scratch and need to install their own 4×4 posts to the deck. How to Install DIY Cable Railing STEP 1: PREP YOUR DECK RAILINGĮveryone is going to have different starting points. Scrap wood or cardboard to use as as guide.⅛” cable (the amount will vary depending on the size of your deck).Cable cutters (we tested a few and the ones that come with this wire are by far the best option). But if you’re working on a larger area, it can be a more budget-friendly deck rail option.Īlright, let’s start DIYing! Recommended Tools: If you have a super small area to change the railings on, it might not be the most cost-effective solution because it does require an investment in some pretty uncommon tools. It was significantly cheaper this way and lucky for you, we did the hard work of testing things out and seeing what worked and what didn’t.īefore we dive in, I just want to say that this DIY cable railing is significantly cheaper than installing glass, and depending on how large of an area you have, it can even be cheaper than installing wood! We ended up making our own cable railing installation kit vs. If you’re looking to update your deck railing and want something that is cost-effective and looks amazing, I can’t recommend DIY cable railing enough! Because we opted for the thinnest cable, it looks almost invisible from certain angles! The cable deck railing opens up the space and doesn’t block the view. We opted for some clean, modern DIY cable railing to replace our existing vertical wood slats.Īnd I’m so glad that we did. We decided to move the deck stairs and then realized while we were at it, we might as well replace the railing on the entire deck. As many DIY projects do, our DIY patio project quickly spiraled out of control.
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