12/14/2023 0 Comments Wire cable deck rails![]() ![]() I would suggest that if you’re building your own cable railings, you’ll want to aim for 200 to 300 pounds of force. Since wood’s reliable safety rating is about 335 pounds per square inch, this is cause for some concern, and would suggest proceeding with caution when creating a wood-framed cable railing. ![]() Five hundred pounds of force is stated fairly often, and 1,000 pounds has been mentioned as a goal. Estimates of the typical tension of a cable railing range from 200 to 400 pounds of force, but there are even higher estimates out there. There are too many different manufacturers of cables and cable railings, and too many types of frames to definitively say. While codes specify that cables should be tight enough that they cannot be stretched apart to allow an object through, there is no single set standard for how tight cable railings should be. As my friend’s example demonstrates, though, you can exceed this by just being overenthusiastic. Metals are stronger, with steel tubing able to carry around a 1,000 pounds along a 6- or 8-foot section before yielding. This a force load that you can easily exceed with a tensioner and a wrench, which means that wood can be broken as easily as it is bent. While, as we mentioned earlier, wood has some flexibility to return to its original shape and position if you bend it through overtightening, wood’s strength is also a universal-and pretty measly-335 pounds per square inch. To tension your cables correctly, you need to know how much force your frame can take before bending or breaking How Tight Should Cable Railings Be? Consider Frame Strengthīoth wood and steel are popular materials for cable railing frames, and they require slightly different tensions. However, it is possible to crack the wood by overtightening, and it might not be obvious that this has happened. If the wood hasn’t been damaged, it should return to being straight. ![]() Wood, on the other hand, has more flex to it, and an overtightened cable in a wood-framed railing can be released. Bent steel and aluminum have different, weaker force distribution characteristics than unbent metal, and bending permanently weakens them. Since railing codes dictate the height of the top rail this is also a potential code violation, and a safety hazard. Overtightening can also result in both rails–or posts, in the case of horizontal cable railings–bending inwards. My friend’s cable railings are vertical cable, and the result was a bent bottom rail on one of the shorter sections of the railing. From his work in construction my friend knew this, which is why his first impulse was to massively overtighten. Even if no children are in the home, maintaining enough tension to prevent cables from moving or stretching is still a requirement to pass a building inspection. Loose cables let children stretch them and widen the space between cables to crawl or stick their head through. This is for child safety reasons, to prevent small heads and shoulders from being able to squeeze through the space. International residential codes specify that a four-inch diameter sphere shouldn’t be able to pass between vertical or horizontal cables. Loose, sagging cables aren’t attractive, but more importantly, they’re not up to cable railing deck code requirements. While the cables in your railing shouldn’t be tight to the point where they bend your rails or posts, they absolutely cannot be too loose. Cables Shouldn’t Be Too Tight or Too Loose Many people try to put together their own cable railings, and it can be hard to figure out what tension is required in each case. If you’re asking, ‘How tight should cable railings be?’ you’re not alone. To his credit, it was only one section, but it still marred an otherwise beautiful back patio. It may make him an unbeatable board gamer, but when installing railings, the result of learning on the fly was that he overtightened a cable and a bent bottom rail. He’s always been inclined to figure things out as he goes, hence the reason his brother had to keep poring over the game rules to find out if his moves were allowed. In his usual way, he just got started without doing much research. In order to get a better view of the lake behind the house, my friend had installed cable railings, which he decided were the best railings for a view. When my friend’s little brother came out to see if we were ever going to come take our turns, I got the whole story. During one of the many times his brother was trying to make sense of the rules of the game, we retired to the back porch, where I noticed something odd with one of the sections of his cable railings. One of my friends-a guy I used to work with on construction projects-had me over to his house the other night for an evening of board games. ![]()
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