What really blocks the view is that heavy horizontal 2x4? 2x6? 4x6? underneath the top rail. Can the railing be redesigned so it is not so hefty?

Wow! Such a beautiful view!

I also don't find taller chairs comfortable.

Is there room enough to makes a platform to put on top of the deck that will hold a few chairs? A multi layer deck type thing.

ML

Funny you should post this...I have EXACTLY the same problem. We spent all this energy and money on railing the back deck and front porch, and when I sit down, I look directly into the top rail.

It will have to just be, since I cannot afford to change it.

Nancy

I just ran out to measure mine. It's 37 inches. My yard is smaller than yours and the trees appear closer, but the railing is prominent none the less. When I want to enjoy the view while seated, I look up.

Do you think 6 inches lower would enable you to see the trees?
Since you can't do it over, I would just try to enjoy being able to go outside, enjoy the weather , read, have a cup of coffee etc.

It's extremely frustrating when these things happen. It would have been just as easy for it to be your preferred 36 inches.

What maddie said....would DH be opposed to build up one area to a platform one step up? Or, without seeing the whole deck and not sure how it would look, could he make some of the railing lower in certain sections...hi, low, hi, low....might look ok if planned correctly...then you have your view and he has his comfort height to stand and rest his drink.

It's not at all clear to me that lowering the railing would substantially change your view. I've been on other decks with lower railings and had the same frustration....even if the spindles were gone, the hand rail is still at eye level. It's why we went with glass for our railing...in our case our view is down and any railing would've been an obstruction. I know of no solution beyond changing the railing, or learning to enjoy the patio below the deck....

Lovely back yard!

I think it's a pretty decent view sitting as well, unless you really want to see the grass (like do animals run around?). You still get a lot of the trees.

I would probably find myself looking through the railing eventually, instead of at it.

I know how you feel. My ex-husband is a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than I am and this is the kind of situation I could have found myself in.

If I were you, I would first go to a good outdoor furniture store and try out some patio bar stools. Don't scrimp on them - get ones that work for you, with the foot rest in the right place for you.

You might be able to redesign a section of the railing.

It has been my experience that one automatically finds oneself looking through the slats, and they disappear. Unless you are really mad and silently cursing the person who built them, in which case they explode in size. I am only half kidding; but to me, railing slats disappear. It's kind of an odd phenomenon, akin to looking thru binoculars.

Could you add a comfortably wide bench in one corner that would be high enough that you could see over the railing when lounging on it? This is kind of narrow, but gives you an idea of what I mean.

Thank you for all the posts and the nice comments on our yard!

DH said he needs to finish the deck and get it inspected. After it passes we will revisit the issue. The deck is only about 8x10ft. So a raised portion is not an option.

As for redesigning the railing, it could be modified but the most it would do is give me 2" more view at the bottom. Hope that makes sense.

Yes, we do get animals, deer, ducks, rabbits, sometimes fox, and lots of birds.

DH is concerned that our kids 18 & 20 would attempt to sit on a lower railing or start roughhousing with their friends and someone would go over. DD agreed that this was likely. We had a deck when growing up and I fell off it many times and treated it as a jungle gym.

Interesting how things don't turn out like you thought they would. I am going to start looking at outdoor furniture but not buy any until we are sure.

It will actually be very nice looking. The back half toward the yard is like a pergola. It should cast some shade toward the house. When its done I will post photos.

No cursing the builder, LOL. Just disappointed it wasn't what I thought.

We did consider built in benches. Decided not for various reasons, one being this entrance it the only/best entrance for big appliances to come thru. If there were builtins we would have to remove them to move stuff in and out.

DH was just saying how this started out as just stairs, then a landing and stairs, then a small deck with stairs, then a pergola on a deck with stairs. The pergola part was his idea as he said it was so hot in the sun while building the deck we would not be able to sit out there without some shade. Things just snowballed.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Mon, May 12, 14 at 21:34

maybe replace a section of balusters with plexiglass

Well, your spot is so lovely; I, too, would be annoyed every time I tried to look into the yard and that railing was in the way. The main problem is the horizontal piece below the actual railing. There is no reason it has to be that wide/thick (unless that's where he added the 6"?) If you had something like this it would be easier to see thru the verticals and wouldn't obstruct your view nearly as much.

If he added that board to gain the height, perhaps he could be convinced to add it at the bottom instead, or one half that size on the top and the other half at the bottom.

I agree that a tall bench (doesn't have to be built in - it can be moveable) with a cozy pad on the seat (and maybe even on the back against the railing) might get you up high enough to see over the rail.

Quite frankly, if code is good enough to protect the masses, then if someone acts stupidly and tumbles off the deck, 6" is probably not going to make one whit of difference.

That is indeed frustrating, but after all the work of finishing it, I can understand your husband not wanting to redo the railing. I just finished a major hallway trim project, and I feel like it's the most beautiful dad-gum hallway this side of Versailles, just because of all that work! When I gave DH the "it's done!" tour, he saw several imperfections, but I told him to tell me his complaints only after the nail gun was not still accessible! ;-) He is fabulous in every other way...but not not NOT handy!

As he said, maybe after a little while he'll be up for a re-evaluation of the rail height. Hope it works out for you!

Compromise: keep the sides high and sturdy, and make the area directly between you and the backyard 6" lower with a skinny rail that no one will be tempted to sit on, lean against or be-drink. If people are leaning, they'll lean on the sides and can easily direct their gaze to the backyard. Best part is, he can keep all the stringers, get rid of the 1x6 view killer, keep the middle post tall to further discourage sitting, and use a wimpy 1x4 as the top rail on that side. Or something rounded. Or pointy. Seems like a good way to ensure you will be just as happy as he is. And make sure it's a higher priority than the pergola! You can use a patio umbrella this year.

Ps either way, lovely deck and backyard! Our deck is the worst view killer of all time (inherited) and I do use it a lot regardless.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Tue, May 13, 14 at 0:19

Beautiful yard! I understand your frustration. We were recently at an outdoor coffee shop at the beach and they had the nicest seating area. There were tables for two that were tall (pub height) with matching tall adirondack chairs. Very comfy with places to rest your feet. Maybe something like that would solve the problem.

I would consider buying really low furniture so that I would be looking through the slats rather than at the top board. That seems more comfortable to me than sitting up high.

I would buy a bar-height taller table and a couple of chairs for that part of the deck ..... and enjoy a lower level deck/patio with a great seating area ....covered and uncovered ....

... for the birds and the view ... perhaps consider adding a pretty fountain?

sorry ... forgot to mention that the key to a more comfortable bar/pub-height chair is to find one with a foot-rail .... and arms ...

I think this is a good lesson in communicating *before* building and you just need to get over it. You *can* get used to it if you put your mind to it and how much do you really look at the view while reading a book or enjoying the sunshine with your eyes closed? I know it doesn't meet your expectations but next time you will insist on seeing a sketch to scale of whatever your DH builds.

Here is a pic of the view out my kitchen window, while I am standing, so when I am sitting on the deck even more of the view is obstructed and it's never bothered me. I know how beautiful my view is and what it looks like and when I really want to admire it I stand up and lean on the railing. Often with a glass of wine which enhances the experience!

Buy some comfortable normal height deck chairs, a table for your book and drink, and spend some lovely relaxing time on your new deck. Your back yard is wonderful!

We had the same problem at our beach house and I think our railing is lower than yours. We bought the high chairs and absolutely love them. Ours were made by telescope and do have a footrest and arms, and they are stackable.

Best purchase ever. We find them extremely comfortable and the height makes them very easy to get in and out of so we actually prefer them to our other standard height chairs.

Check the height of the chairs; some are called counter height, which are lower than the bar height chairs we have. It will make a big difference, I promise. Even if you don't have a ton of room you can put two of these chairs on your deck with a small bar height table between them and have a lovely spot to sit and enjoy your view.

What is it with men and their need to have such sturdy coffee cup placement. I've had this "conversation" with my DH; it is frustrating that when it comes to decks, men and women are light years apart. Then throw the codes in and this somehow gives license to poor design.
As far as your children are concerned; they are adults. They should know better than to rough-house on the railing. Seriously this was just an excuse to warrant the tall railing.
Your husband should remove the 2X6 support under the top rail and replace it with a 2X2 to attach the spindles. That would help.
Go buy the best tall patio chairs and bistro table (Lowes has a cute set that's cheap and they are comfortable)
Your next mission is to get in on the ground floor design of the first floor patio that will be built. Make sure everything down there is something you can live harmoniously with.
If it were me I'd be ripping that railing out myself, you have such a pretty yard its a shame.

What a shame . Code says mine has to be 38 and that blocks my view. I am going to use skinny metal spindles or dh has offered to put in metal rope (sorry I don,t know what its called) the next time those spindles need staining. They are the single hardest thing on the deck to stain and it takes as much time to do just them as it takes to stain the entire rest of the deck. Hopefully your husband will hate staining them as much as I do and be willing to look into other options .

I'm not a good commenter here, as I'm not a deck fan. I'd much rather be IN the yard than OVER the yard. I prefer a patio hands down and would either not buy a house with a deck or I would tear it down immediately and put in a patio.

But - with your situation, I agree with you - if I can't see my yard, what's the use of it. And I don't want to stand up when I'm supposed to be relaxing.

Sorry for the disconnect between you and your DH. Good luck!

We had large 3x3 awning windows in the old 50s ranch and I hated them as every time I stood up, the mullion was at eye level, and every time I sat down, the other mullion was at eye level. I never got used to it and we replaced the windows with casements and vertical mullions so we could actually see the yard.

And though the glass...well especially the custom brackets...were very expensive, we are delighted with our deck railing. I love being able to see the yard and the view which is below. Had we had a mountain view, I think the railing would've been less bothersome. But as we are in the "tree tops" looking down below, the glass was the best decision. Even better than cables.

I wonder if there isn't a way of sectioning the railing so you could do a different railing in some areas to maintain the view and keep the 'shelf' in others for your husband to rest his drink?

I have a friend with steel cable decking like the pic below. It was a DYI project for her DH:

Thank you for all the posts and photos. Lovely views!

We spent so much time planning this. Used the Lowes deck planner and made sure chairs, etc would fit. We over discussed the privacy screen on one side. Viewed what seems like hundreds of decks on houzz.com. Talked repeatedly about the railing, spindles, placement of steps, how each pergola board would cast different shadows, etc. Spend more time on this than most people but this one element was lost. It never occurred to either of us to check the view from a seated position. I was very concerned about the view from the kitchen which the deck is off of. I was there with every trip to Lowes to purchase materials. We just missed this.

DH said again he is going to finish it as planned and get it inspected. He is going to move the bird feeders (3) to new positions and will make sure they are viewable from a seated position. The bird bath is viewable where it is now. We will then reevalute. DH also rechecked the code and it is two inches higher then he told me so even if he adjusts the current railing it will not make that much difference.

OK can you believe this???.... as I'm typing, looking out at the deck, my 20 year old just climbed up and is standing on the railing....He is talking to me thru the window. I told him to get down.

He is down.

Forgetting for a moment what just happened....I am more calm about this than before thanks to all your posts. The advice about the furniture is good to know and I will keep it in mind when shopping.

LOL about your son standing on the railing. My mom is still yelling at my brothers for things they do on her railing and the youngest will be 40 this year. In their defense though she put it up so they would be forced to go around her flowerbed to get into the house so they have always seen it as a challenge rather than a deterent. I am pretty sure she is going to stangle them one of these days. My rail is high like yours and I have noticed when ever we have company it gets used like a bar with people standing at it ,setting thier drinks on it ect. In that aspect the hieght has been a big plus.

I like the idea of replacing just a section with glass. It could even be nice looking, as you would have the remaining wood structure as a sort of frame with perhaps a center area in glass. As long as it's all balanced looking and the posts holding the glass are consistent with the other posts, it would be okay. There would still be plenty of spots to put a drink on top of, and the glass would deter anyone from trying to stand on top of it.

Did you look at the Periscope bar height director chairs mentioned above? They look very comfortable and would look nice along a counter like the one in your picture. I think fewer would be more comfortable than all the stools in the pic. Did you patio get built?

debrak - A lot of people no longer go onto old threads. You might want to start a new thread with a link to this one and you may get more responses.

The granite would be a cool idea as long as the deck railing can support the weight of it. You would have to really research the support requirements for it.

Make sure that you get the view you want while sitting at the counter as you will be a short distance from the railing. If you want to view most of the yard and lawn you may have to use a thicker cushion to get high enough. I agree try for a really comfortable seat but make sure it's conducive to active viewing. You don't want to recline so much that you lose any advantage added height gives you. Granite sounds lovely. :)

If you do start a new thread please link this one. It's a good one.

Thanks for the suggestion to repost!

Beautiful yard! I completely understand your issue; in fact, that's the reason I found this post! I'm only 5'2" and when I try to sit and enjoy our incredible golf course view, the railing hits directly across my eyes. It seems like a non-issue; but for me, it's a real nuisance.

Thanks for your post! All of the great input has given me some ideas.

We have the identical problem. We bought Adirondack chairs for our deck and when you sit in them, the railing is exactly eye level, and wipes out our view of the water. The only thing that works for now is a pair of low to ground outdoor wicker lounge chairs...then our line of vision is below the railing. However, this deck isn't huge and the lounge chairs take up too much room, so we haven't found a permanent solution that will provide a comfortable chair that enables us to keep our line of vision above the rail line!

Our solution was to buy a bar height table and 2 chairs that is at the railing. From there you can view the yard. Two other lower chairs have a view of the humming bird feeder but not much else. It works. In the future if we ever design a porch or deck will definately do it differently.