Is azek structural enough for railing balusters?

[kurt_rose]

I have about 200 balusters to cut and the customer wants them to be maintenance free. Do you think Azek board would be structural enough to use? I don't want any safety issues. They are a tad under 24" long x 5 1/2 x 3/4. Your input is greatly appreciated.

[CNYDWW]

Any of the expanded pvc foam trim boards are not considered self supporting. If you stand it up against a wall, it will flex and end up keeping that shape if left. Higher temperatures cause it to sag if not properly secured as well. Attaching them as balusters should be fine at 24" however using them to support the rail wouldn't work out well. I would suggest a heavy duty pvc covered railing with treated posts so many feet on center that provide the real support for the railing. Using pvc post covers will hide them and you can get steel reinforced pvc handrailing although it may be a special order. Weighing the pros and cons of this material, with the right support it's a great product. Also keep in mind you can shape it with low temp thermo-forming, something that i'm planning on experimenting with at some point.

Regards
Randy

[kurt_rose]

I appreciate the feed back Randy. This is kind of a weird situation. Cape May is a sea town with a lot of Victorian homes. They have an historical society that dictates what kind of material can be used in the district. I'm afraid that they will notice the PVC coated railing right off. We'll probably be lucky to sneak the balusters buy them. They really want to see wood. I know they make an exterior mdf but I know nothing about it. There has to be a sheet good out there that would fit the bill, but with my limited experience I'm clueless.

[CNYDWW]

Unfortunately if it's the historical society pulling the strings, it's probably gonna be hard to get any man made materials into the project. You can mill dimension lumber such as 5/4x6 or 1x6 cedar across the full bed of the machine efficiently too. You affix fences along the bed of the machine. 1x2 mdf would be fine. Space them far enough apart so you can place the material in between them plus room for whatever clamping system you'd like to use. Once they're setup use the machine to mill the fences square to the machine. It takes out the human error. Just make sure each fence is the same distance apart and as square to the x axis as possible. When you setup your vectors, offset them so that you can cut multiple parts within each program.

[taylor]

here is a simple design with everything being azek. except for the post which are vinyl over treated wood. the one inch thick azek worked great for this deck

[CNYDWW]

Mark just popped another thought in my head. The composite decking is structurally more rigid although usually there are more and large air pockets in the material. It would work better for the balusters and easier to throw in there for the historical society.

Good luck
Randy

[geometree]

I've made a similar baluster for use in a similar situation, historic preservation area. We used cypress for all the parts, rail, balusters, some scroll work and posts. Should last another 100 years. Even if you don't have the capacity to process rough lumber, you should be able to to purchase the lumber S3S, surfaced 3 sides for less than the price of azek and not have to "get away" with anything.

[Chuck Keysor]

I have only made one Victorian porch, but it was pretty big, with a curve so it was on two sides of the house. But depending upon your railing design, the top and bottom rails are really held up by the vertical posts at each end, and the balusters really are just suspended between the top and bottom rails. But again, this all depends on the design. If your top rail is actually being primarily supported by your balusters and the bottom rail, then you would need to really think twice about this. A picture of the complete railing assembly would be important for anybody to really offer a good opinion.

Also, when I was building the big wrap-around porch, I found Wood Web to be an excellent source for experienced advice. I would recommend you go there, and supply pictures of the balusters and the entire railing system.

A note as to cyprus. I used it only one time in an outside application. I was not personally pleased with the grain of this wood, it telgraphed though the paint. At least the material I got was flat sawn and it seemed as though the layers would easily separate.