[Summit] Replacing Front Porch Railings

[Greg Gerritt]

Part of the problem is forest practices.  Trees growing in real forests grow
a bit slower and develop better.  When you clear cut and herbicide you get
faster growing trees of lesser quality.  About when I quit the carpentry
business 15 years ago  another thing we noticed was that the 2x4¹s seem to
be as big a piece of lumber as you could cut from the tiny trees they are
harvesting because they had to harvest before maturity to have any wood at
all.   A clear case of forest depletion showing up in the low quality of
wood we see today.  Greg gerritt


on 10/1/09 11:13 AM, Breslers at breslerfamily at gmail.com wrote:

> I am sorry to say that all kinds of wood seems to bow these days.  I do a fair
> amount of my own building projects and "straight as a board" has become a bad
> joke.
> 
> It seems to me that they may be doing something to the trees to make them grow
> faster??  The grain/slash growth rings are larger than I remember, and that
> effects the stability of the wood adversely.  The finer the grain, the
> stronger, and the slower to dry out.
> 
> I'm not sure what to do about it, except I spend time picking the straighter,
> stronger stuff when I really need it to be straight.  It's not cheap either!!
> 
> Good Luck
> Elianna
> 
> On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 9:25 AM, Eric Martin <think3mm at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm replace the railings on my home on 10th St.  It's a two-family that needs
>> railings on both levels of the front porch.  It had lower (27"?) railings
>> that perhaps were original to the house, but now code says they have to be at
>> least 36", which will look bad as they will obstruct the windows.  I don't
>> think I have a choice with the 36" unfortunately.  My question: has anyone
>> else in my situation replaced their railings?  What did you use and where did
>> you purchase them?  If you don't mind, how much did they cost?  I'm
>> intentionally trying to stay away from PVC railings from the Big Guys, since
>> they don't seem to match the style of the house.  I may also try to stay away
>> from pressure treated since p.t. ballisters I've seen have bowed after a few
>> years.  Not sure what options that leaves.
>> 
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> 
> 


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