One of the projects that has been on my to-do list for a couple years now.  When I built the railing about 20 years ago I had made several mistakes.  It looked great at the time, and even with deterioration it was pretty solid.  But, rot had set in and it needed fixing.

 

 

It was constructed with cypress lumber, and given the conditions has held up extremely well.  But, like I said, mistakes were made.

1.  Caulking - not really a painter, when I caulked all this up I caulked all the way around the joint.  Well, any water that penetrated the joint had nowhere to go.  Result = rot.  The new rail is caulked on the top and side, not on the bottom.

2.  At the base of the handrail, where the handrail butted up to the post, it was just a butt joint all caulked up.  The new handrail has a cut out centered at the post.  Any water running down the handrail now has an escape path. 

3.  I had a piece of trim at the base of the post directly on the brick.  I believe this trim was PT pine, but it still deteriorated.

4.  The lower rails were pretty low to the steps/ground.  This kept everything in line with the railing on the porch itself, but it also was difficult to weed eat around.

5.  I had allowed the shrub at the corner to grow up and into the step railing.  I will keep this trimmed back.  Live and learn.  I still haven't lived long enough to learn it all...

 

To correct the above, in addition to the caulking and drain hole, I made new rails and post wraps from PT pine.  This was 2X material I salvaged from our swimming pool deck.  So it has been drying for 20 years.  I was able to clean up and mill several pieces to allow me to rebuild the rails.  The spindles for the most part was in pretty good shape.  I think I had to replace about 9 of the 24 spindles on the step runs.  Fortunately when our son and I turned the spindles we turned about 13 or 14 extras.   I did trim them a bit so that the new rails were up above the step/ground a bit higher than they were.

 

After removing the step railings for the rebuild I turned my attention to the porch railing.  I thought a simple clean up and repaint would be in order.  Again, I uncovered a few mistakes.

 

 

In addition to incorrect caulking, between each of the spindles I had made filler blocks.  A quick inspection revealed about 3 or four had beginnings of rot.  Not so bad, I could salvage some of the step handrail to make up some new spacer blocks... except that wasn't the whole picture.  After poking at them with the painters tool there were more like a dozen that were soft.  I determined that for an inside or completely protected rail these spacers look nice.  In this application, however, it was a mistake.  I was able to drill and cut them all out with a minimum of hassle.  It was more of a hassle to clean up the inside rail edges and paint than actually removing the spacers.  I did have to replace one of the porch posts that had some rot where the trim piece was attached and caulked improperly.

 

So, the job is done.  The wife helped with a lot of the painting

Looking at the pic, almost done.  I need to order two corbels for the corner post that was replaced.  And I need to get the swings hung back up and rockers back on the porch!

 

 

 

 

Nice Cal.  I really love that porch.  You have accentuated it nicely.

Great detail on what went wrong and how you came back and corrected it.  Now the finished product?  WOW!!!  That red accent on the handrail really sets the place off!!!  Beautiful looking place.

 

WOw! What @HandyDan said about the porch! I love it!

10 hours ago, Gunny said:

Great detail on what went wrong and how you came back and corrected it.  Now the finished product?  WOW!!!  That red accent on the handrail really sets the place off!!!  Beautiful looking place.

 

+1 !!

Love the porch, the railing and all the work.  Wife did a great job painting.  I also love the copper clad top on the post.  That is a big protection.  If you can keep that end grain covered, it will last much longer.  You got an excellent value for 20 years from untreated cypress or PT pine.  That is a huge job and glad you got it all done before summer.  As Gunny said, beautiful job and place.  

Thanks fellas, I will pass along your kind comments to the painter!