and the design was ugly and blocked the view
I wanted a railing with glass panels so that we could see the view. There are prefab aluminum ones but I like the look of wood. I needed a source of the 6mm tempered glass panels - custom sized ones were prohibitively expensive and then I hit on the idea of using glass shelves. These I got from Ikea.
The railing must be 42" above ground by code so I cut the posts to 42", with the top bard that brings it up to 43"
I notched the posts to take the 2 x 4 top rails. I made a jig for the router
The bottom rails are fastened with brackets. I cut grooves 25mm deep and 10mm wide in the rails to hold the glass. At this stage I also drilled holes through the bottom rails to let any water that gets past the caulking to drain out
The glass rests in the bottom rail and the top one holds it in place
The space between sheets and posts must be less than 4" by code, so I had to add some vertical posts on the 6' sections
The glass is held in place with caulking top and bottom and I also filled the bottom groove with caulking.
The top rail is covered by a 1.5" x 6" board and then I sanded and coated the wood with boiled linseed oil
The finished job:
I like linseed oil for weatherproofing cedar. That table is over 6 years old and with a fresh coat of linseed oil each summer it is as good as new
