My wife and I added a front porch to our house 3 years ago, and our contractor installed white vinyl structural posts, newels, and railings. These have now gone through 3 winters and 2-1/2 summers here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, which means they have seen wintertime temperatures in the single digits and summertime temperatures in the 90s (like the past three days). I'll try and respond to your specific questions: 1. Our contractor used his preferred supplier's vinyl posts and railings, which I do not believe are made by Certainteed - although I have a hunch most manufacturers will have similar characteristics. Although, it appears from the literature he gave us that our structural posts are rated higher than the Certainteed ones. 2. I'll answer the whiteness issue first. Ours have shown no sign of yellowing. They look like new three years after installation - including those parts that get a significant amount of summer sun (at least 6 hours). 3. The "plasticy" question is most likely in the eye of the beholder. Like I said, our posts look like new, so they look like they have been freshly painted. From a distance (in our case, our porch is within 50 feet of the public road), the posts and railings look like wood. Quite honestly, they feel solid like wood to me when you put your hand on them or try to squeeze them (I've had friends do that, when they find out they are vinyl. I think they believe plastic will give - but it doesn't on ours.). Now if you wet your finger and rub it on the post, then yes, it will probably sound like plastic - but I've not tried that. I'll admit this is the most subjective issue in deciding between wood and plastic building material. I think you really need to see the finished project in order to evaluate it - and by then you are already committed. By the way, my wife and I and our family love the front porch - and the vinyl posts and railings. 4. Yes, our posts, newels, and railings look like traditional turned wood. Now, a couple of other points: 1. I recommend getting the 6 inch porch posts. The 4 or 5 inch posts simply look too narrow to me. If this is for a front porch, you really want the look of the 6 inch posts. 2. It sounds like you are doing this project yourself. If so, I recommend you go the the Vintage Woodworks web site - do a search on the web to get their web address. The are located in Texas, but ship all over the U.S. They specialize in porch posts, newels, railings, and the decorative "gingerbread" items for porches. If this is a new project you are planning, I would order their book titled "Porch Design". It is excellent and we used it to help our contractor design our porch. 3. The Porch Guy recommended HB&G porch posts, which are made of polyurethane and can be painted. I looked at their products for our porch, so I still have their web page bookmarked. Vintage Woodworks now carries polyurethane structural porch posts that can be painted. They did not have these 3 years ago when we did our porch. 4. Since you are looking for porch posts to be painted, check out the wood posts at Vintage Woodworks. They make them out cedar or hemlock, and we almost ordered these for our contractor to use.

My son purchased his home several years ago. At that time, he knew that not having a railing around the flat roofed addition seen in the picture below was both a liability hazard and against code because the door up there allows access to that area. He wasn't concerned because he lived by himself and had no intention of using the area as a deck. Recently though his insurance carrier did an inspection of his property and notified him that he must correct the situation or his coverage would be dropped. There is a rubber type roof on the area and there has been no problems with it. My son would like to avoid compromising the roof with the installation of any posts for the necessary railings. As you can see, there are also gutters in the way of attaching posts on the outer edges if that's even possible Any suggestions how to remediate this problem would be greatly appreciated. Cross posted in the Home Repair forum

Thanks for you responses. Too bad my son didn't think of changing the door out to a window when he had new windows and new siding installed last spring. i just remembered that he actually used that door once. He had bought a new dresser that didn't fit up the bend in the staircase so he had it hoisted up on that roof and got it into the house through that door. I guess he may need that door to get the dresser back out someday if he moves, although he could include it in the sale of the house. He will have to look into the cost of turning it into a window vs installing a railing. Vith, Can those post bases you linked really be sealed well enough to not cause any leaking?

So it's two things I realized 1.) city water has a high ph which hibiscus don't like. 2.) city water (at least where I am) can have a lot of salt in it which builds up in potted plants. :/ what I'm trying is I let my tap water sit for 24 hours before use to allow the salts to sink to the bottom. For high ph I add vinegar to my bottle of water. Vinegar is good because even if you add a bit too much it doesn't stay in the soil for too long. It's a bit experimental so I'll give you an update in awhile but so far so good. I got a new sprout since I started.