Foothills east of Seattle
..Home Page.. || ..Cable Railing Thumbnails..
This is a very nice cable railing job installed in a new house using our standard aluminum railing package with
custom paint and 3/16" cable along with extra fittings (turnbuckles) to enhance the look of the system. The house was unfinished
at the time of these photos.
We have set photos in a reduced size to fit two side by side or as needed. You can click on any photo to take you to
a larger version to see more detail. Use the "Back" button in the upper left of your screen to return to this page.
The link at the bottom will take you back to the Cable Thumbnail page.
These two photos show the way we handle the corners to minimize fittings to keep costs down. In this length of cable a turnbuckle is not needed since threaded studs at each end of the cable do the job nicely even through two 90 degree turns. Special grommets allow the cable to slide easily during the tightening process.
The two photos below show some details of the walkway through the greatroom in the house. Note the stairway mid post and end
posts. We had to use "Deck Toggle" style of fittings along with turnbuckles because the owner wanted to see the fittings to enhanace
the overall look. The cable could have run continuously from the bottom of the stairs, through the top post and been adjusted at the
other end if one would want to simplify things on a similar job elsewhere.
Note on the stairs that we started and stopped the cables at the top post. The cables running through the mid post on the stairs worked
out well by marking and drilling 3/8" holes that were in line with the cables and the special grommets we use. The cables started at the
bottom post with "Deck Toggles" which allowed the cable to angle upward and did not require another grouping of off-set holes. Note
how the top of the railing called the "Grip Railing" passes over the mid-post which is a code requirement so the hand can pass smoothly
along the entire length of the railing while going up or down the stairs.
Two photos below show us in the process of installing the cable with a turnbuckle in the middle of the main deck as seen in the first two photos on this page. The one on the left is how we determine the turnbuckle position to allow us to cut the first length of cable so we
can then field install the threaded studs. The one on the right shows the tools laid out which were a cutter and a crimper. We had two
of each on this job so installers could work seperately and speed up the installation.
Photo below shows measuring the cutting point on cable. In this case the depth of the cable bored hole in the marine fitting was 1-1/2". Since we needed enough threaded stud showing on the other side to do the adjusting and were using posts that are 2-3/8" square,
it was determinded that marking the cable with a magic marker on the cable side of the post was the ideal length for this application.
We like all the adjustment that we can get and initially only needed enough thread showing to allow one flat washer and the nut to be
installed. Keep in mind that you need to add a second nut to cut off the excess stud, remove that (acts as a thread chaser) and then
add a cap nut which is locked onto the original nut. By marking all the cables that way we could easily measure and cut all the cables
prior to installing the threaded studs. It also frees up a tool for another installer to use if necessary. We had duplicate tools on this job
for two installers and a third working on the stairway because of having to drill and tap for the Deck Toggle fittings plus swage one
end on all of the stairway cables.
..Return to Cable Thumbnail ..
