Worth it to replace deck railings with composite?

[snoopy7548]

I'm in the middle of stripping the old stain off my deck and I spent five hours setting up and stripping about half of the top of the deck - never mind the stairs! It's only a 10x10 deck, but god are there a lot of spindles. I mean, it's insane. I didn't even do the outside face of them!

So considering the house is only 5.5 years old and I've stained it twice (after I spend probably another few weekends fully stripping it, this will be the third time). Do you think it's worth it to spend the time to replace the railings/spindles with a composite material? This would make it far easier to stain in the future; I'm already dreading having to stain after I strip the deck. Or just replaced the spindles with something that's not wood? I'd definitely keep the PT lumber for the flooring, as that's not a pain at all to maintain.

Granted, I've never done work on a deck besides staining it, but I feel like it would be far easier to replace all that crap than having to maintain 50 spindles and probably 50' of linear railing - my deck is elevated with ~10 steps.

Or has the heat gotten to me and I need a rest?

 

[boomerang]

I replaced our railings in 2016 with composites. We sold the house the next year but the railings will need nothing more than a hosing off to get the dust off now. That's about as maintenance free as you're going to get.

I would go with a whole system. Top rail, bottom rail, spindles. I put post covers on the posts and of course caps too. I replaced the decking with composite too. In our case all the horizontal surfaces were a PITA to maintain but the verticals needed next to nothing.

It's a personal decision. The costs can really add up. If I'd had an inkling we'd be selling in a year I'd have cheaped out. Our spindles were cedar and they held up excellent despite being in place for 22 years. The top rail was pretty much wasted. I could have replaced the top rail and been done with the railings.

 

[Greenman]

I've only used a composite rail system once. I forget who made it, but it was expensive, clunky, and aged very poorly.
Copper pipe makes great balusters, and they look better the older they get.

 

[snoopy7548]

Moving has been on my mind lately, but eh. I've been putting off some projects for years because "I might be moving soon" but I should start to finish some.

Looking around, copper pipe does look nice. I'd probably go with either that or black aluminum. Not sure what I'd do for the railings, though, but I'll think about it. Maybe cedar. I probably wouldn't want to spend more than a total of ~$500 to replace all the balusters and railings.

For now, though, I'll keep stripping but I won't bust my ass doing it (on the balusters, at least). Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Exterous]

What kind of stain are you using? Some of them you can reapply every 1-4 years (depending on how badly the weather messes with them). I got 3 years out of SIkkens in MI although I only got another year after I reapplied. Turns out they completely reformulated it to make it cheaper and turned it into shit. So we stripped and sanded the deck and went with TWP. Seemed like it was doing well but we sold the house 7 months later so...

 

[snoopy7548]

What kind of stain are you using? Some of them you can reapply every 1-4 years (depending on how badly the weather messes with them). I got 3 years out of SIkkens in MI although I only got another year after I reapplied. Turns out they completely reformulated it to make it cheaper and turned it into shit. So we stripped and sanded the deck and went with TWP. Seemed like it was doing well but we sold the house 7 months later so...

I bought a gallon of Sherwin Williams SuperDeck oil-based semi-transparent. I got it during the 40% off sale, so it wouldn't be a huge downer to switch to something better if you or anyone has any recommendations.

I previously used Benjamin Moore stain. I don't think they sell it anymore - it was the Exterior Finish alkyd translucent. The first time I stained my deck, it looked pretty nice but it didn't really hold up all that well so I stained it again with I think the same stuff after a couple of years. Since then, my deck has been more of an ugly brown color that I hate.

Yesterday I only spent about 3.5 hours and I managed to strip the rest of the interior railings/balusters on the top and the backside of the longer railing. I ended up buying a tile grout brush which helped a ton with the tighter areas. I think today I might either finish the floor of the top of the deck or the exterior of the railings. Once I'm finished, I'll probably do some spot-cleans in areas that I might have missed.

Here's a photo showing one stripped railing against the old stain:

 

[Exterous]

I don't really know if TWP would be better or not. There are some pretty strong opinions out there on deck stain but good testing is hampered by the disparity in weather conditions

 

[snoopy7548]

Yeah, I'll just use the gallon I bought.

I've decided to stop wasting my time on the railings and build new ones. I'm thinking maybe cedar for the railings (I'll keep the existing 4x4 posts) and Deckorators black round aluminum balusters. My local Lowe's has them in stock.

Though I keep going back and forth on the railing material. Cedar or composite wood. I could use cedar and stain it, and if I ever need to re-stain just mask the tops and bottoms of the balusters, or I could go with composite and not worry about it... the only problem is I'd need to add some supports for the longer runs of composite, which maybe isn't a big deal at all. Or maybe just re-use the wood I already have since it's in good condition.