Deck Railing in Fort Thomas, KY

Fort Thomas (ZIP 41075) is narrow streetcar-suburb lots where the side setback decides how wide a deck can be, so the frame gets set out carefully to a line. What people forget is that the frame is not the last thing on that side of the deck. The guard is, and the guard does not stop where the posts do.

A cap typically overhangs the post by an inch or two on each side. A planter box hooked over the rail hangs three or four inches further. A privacy screen fixed to the outside face of the posts sits proud of them, and a light or a hook adds its own. None of it is much on its own and all of it is on the far side of the line the deck was carefully set out to, on the one lot dimension that had no room in it to begin with.

So on a lot where the setback is the binding number, the guard gets drawn in section and not just in plan. The cap overhang is taken on the inside face instead of split evenly, anything mounted goes on the deck side of the posts rather than the outside, and the frame is set back the extra inch or two at the design stage where it costs nothing. Done that way you get the full width the setback allows and everything on the deck sits inside it.

It is a five minute conversation at the estimate and it is a great deal easier than having it afterward.