I used black metal balusters on a deck I did for a client. They are now sold at Lowes, but at the time I found them at www.rockler.com. They sell a variety of styles. The simple round ones were about $20.00 for a box of 10. Ron

We live in the Santa Ynez Valley of California and have redwood decks on the East, West and South sides of our home. After extensive research I decided to try Sikkens CETOl SRD on the new decks on the East and South sides of the house. That was in 2004. I used the 078 Natural color on the East and South facing decks. I used the 054 Redwood color on the West facing deck (in my backyard). After two years I noticed significant degradation of the stain on the South side which gets lots of direct Sun. I sanded and reapplied the 078 stain and it brought it back to near new. The following year (third year) I sanded and reapplied 078 stain to the East facing deck with equivalent results. I noted that the West facing deck with the darker stain was holding up better but the color was ageing a little too dark. In 2008 I completed an addition to that deck and after sanding everything I applied a 50/50 mix of 078 and 054 stains. It looked fantastic although I can see that the old 100% 054 part of the deck is a bit darker than the new part with the 50/50 mix. Never the less, I have received many compliments on the color of this deck. It has held up well and will need a reapplication of stain next year. Note: The West side deck does get shade protection from the house until later in the afternoon so my guess is a fully exposed West deck would perform equivalent to an fully exposed East facing deck in this climate. I have used other products in the past in this climate (ThompsonâÂÂs, Behr, Olympic) and Sikkens is the best so far. While I have read good things about Defy I have not used it because I could not get it locally back when I started this project in 2004. My conclusion is that in this environment it is clear that no stain can hold up against the Sun for more than 2 or 3 years without significant degradation. Summary Sikkens is a good product. It is not perfect and does require maintenance. In this climate on South facing wood surfaces in direct Sun plan on lightly sanding and reapplying one coat every other to every third year. On East and West facing wood surfaces in direct Sun plan on lightly sanding and reapplying one coat every third or fourth year. If you let it get away from you (as I did on the South facing side over the past 3 years) the product will start to flake and peel in places. To restore you will need to scrape and sand to get a good surface then re-stain and it will look fine. The 50/50 078 & 054 color mix looks better than 100% 054 Redwood in my opinion and gives better performance than 100% 078 Natural. A stained exterior wood surface will always require maintenance much sooner than a painted surface. I like the look of stained wood and accept the need for periodic maintenance. If this is too much work then don't stain and just paint with a good quality exterior paint.

I am just finalizing a contract to have a Lock-Dry deck built. I got samples of it and the Arridek and felt that the Lock-Dry seemed to be a better product (and certainly has more color choices). The Lock-Dry units are thicker aluminum, more secure fit, and are powder coated to a more stringent standard (and it shows!). Both far exceed weight requirements for decking, but the test reports are a bit different so it is not a direct comparison. This will be about a 600SF deck over a walkout basement, so about 11 feet high with steps. The builder has a lot of deck experience and has worked with Arridek. We are doing Trex transcend railing, a Trex faschia, and wooden framing. Would love to have done the aluminum framing but $$$$$$. The framing definitenly different since the boards are at right angles to the house**. One of our beams will be gluelam to carry more weight with fewer beams. Will upload pictures when it is done. We went with the saddle brown. I like the Dakota woodgrain but felt the cost was not worth the difference in price for me. **you can run them parallel to the house but the wall of our house is 57 feet and the deck width will range from 6 to 14 feet.

Sounds like a great project. You have alot of good ideas. Can you post some pictures? The PorchGuy Here is a link that might be useful: My Album