I have used componants from kingsmetal.com as detail in a ipe rail system combined with alum balusters but I am thinking your project requires a complete metal hadrail. I painted the fancy steel balusters at the shop with several coats of high solids industrual black paint but it is what it is , they will require paint as needed. I use a local steel guy for post brackets and such He builds rail systems all week long but the cap rail is thin. That would be the trick geting a wide cap rail to shelter the actuall balusters and bottom rail from colecting rain as well as the conections not offering a place for water to colect. Usually the conection to the deck is a bolted little plate a person should be sure its painted all around with a rubber gasket. I bid and did a refinish welded steel rial around 300 ft 4 years old it had started to rust in all those 3 places. We built a plastic tent around the whole thing,taped off everything, sprayed it black with an airless,four coats. $3,800. J.

I still have the aluminum patio furniture that I bought 17 yrs ago and it's held up extremely well. During strong winds the chairs are light enough to blow around the patio but they've never lifted off into orbit! When I know there's going to be a wind storm sometimes I'll push them over into a corner where they will be more protected, just so they don't bang into other things. Usually those types of storms are in the winter so if you are really worried about individual chairs moving just buy a patio cover that is large enough for the table and all the chairs around it. Last year I bought a pair of wrought iron chairs from Smith & Hawkins, they've got a black finish on them to protect the iron. S&H sells a protective cream for this type of furniture, it's expensive but if it keeps the chairs from rusting it will be worth it. As you know we get our rain in the winter and ours is a dry climate so I doubt wrought iron chairs are going to rust like they might in a more humid climate. I use Koveroos covers for all my outdoor furniture and when I know rain is coming I just throw it over them and remove when the sun is shining again. I haven't had these chairs long enough to know if they're going to rust or not but with these precautions I'm taking I'm pretty confident they'll hold up for many years. And if they do rust, well there are products to stop that from spreading. This may sound like a lot of maintenance but they're still a lot easier to keep clean than the white vinyl on my aluminum chairs. My neighbor bought a complete set of patio furniture from OSH a couple years ago, including a gazebo-like tent for overhead. I couldn't believe all that cost her only a couple hundred dollars. The problem with buying patio furniture from discount stores or hardware stores is the cushions. Better to find a set that doesn't require cushions because that's what desintegrates first. The original cushions that came with my set all faded very badly. To replace them would have cost a fortune but I know how to sew so I ordered a bolt of Sunbrella fabric from Calico Corners and made new ones. Unless the fabric says "Sunbrella" you're going to end up with faded fabric. Furniture sold by K-Mart,etc is not going to have Sunbrella fabric on it. In that case, chose a cushion that is light in color and definitely no prints. It's one thing to sew new cushions it's another when you have an unbrella that is also fading. Even though all the red & green color on our expensive Brown&Jordan unbrella had faded to a disgusting yellow I had no idea how to replace it so that one we pitched and I bought a new unbrella, this time in a solid color and using Sunbrella fabric.

Hi, I'm pretty rusty on volute turnouts, but the component they send you will have a sweeping arc at the top to accommodate any rise/run up to 45 degrees. You need to super carefully measure your stair angle and cut the sweep of the volute tangentially 90* so that it's exactly at that angle. It connects to the straight rail with a rail bolt; the joint is 90*; a butt cut. Expect to pare away portions of both abutting members to get a smooth transition. IOW if both profiles of both were identical out of the box, that would be a miracle. You want to lay out the ballusters evenly on the treads first, then plumb them up to the rail. On the underside of the rail,mark the first regular balluster, then mark the last; the neat trick is to then use a set of dividers precisely adjusted to lay out tick marks on the rail in exactly even increments. Takes a few tries to get the setting just so, but it really looks well to have them spot-on. By "regular" I mean not part of the turnout of the volute below; those are "special". I usually use a figure of 2.25" from the face of the riser to the center of the first balluster; just allow 3/4" Min. between the nosing and the balluster. The intermediate ballusters are centered exactly between those closest to the risers. Not familiar with the shoes (I work in wood) but if they fit an angle up to 45* you'll be fine, as most rails are by code far less than 45*, more typical to be in the 40* to 42* range. I would take it that these trim covers are adjustable within a logical range of angles. I have never (yet) had an inspector hassle over a semi-enclosed stair railing not being continuous. We always make sure they are at the exact same height, and that the proper returns are placed to not catch on sleeves, etc. I bet there are good online instruction manuals for ascertaining and cutting the appropriate angles for the volute/sweep. I'm sure I have confused things further, so my work here is done. Casey

Thanks for all your replies! I went and looked at some historical homes over the past couple of days since they seem to have taller/heavier doors. I decided to go with a 42" door. I originally thought 6" wouldn't make much of a difference but it really did. I think Ron is right that 48" might have been too big and not looked right. I like the size of the 42"; now I'll just have to hope it's not too heavy on a daily basis. If it is, I guess I can always take the iron off. Sierra, Thanks for the tips. I'll make sure my contractor takes care of it.