The Porch Railing Project

We finally (FINALLY!) had 3 days of sun in a row. Enough time for me to bleach, scrub, sand and repaint the porch railing, the side door frame and oil the porch floor. I've been waiting months to do this. I swear all summer the only time we had a string of sunny days was when we were on vacation. There was always an overnight shower, a thunderstorm, more rain. I've been watching weather forecasts like a crazy person while watching huge chunks of paint flake off the railing and the door frame. Ugh.

I got out my bucket, a sponge, soap and bleach (for the mildew and moss), then the sandpaper and scraper for loose paint.

And as I got to work I discovered something awful. Soft spots. Big ones. Ones I poked through into giant rotted holes in the railing. More and more and more.

Then I pushed on it and the railing started bending a bit. It was more than just a little rotted from all this rain - it was dangerous. When we fixed the porch three years ago (the posts had rotted!) we replaced the rotted posts and stairs with composite. But to save a few hundred dollars we decided to keep the existing railing. The contract told us it would last another couple of years and since the porch repair project was so expensive, we went for it. But apparently the railing's time was up.

Just as bad? When I went to scrape the door frame to paint it, I discovered this.

Noooooooo. We replaced this door/door frame only a few years ago I was horrified. But between the AC unit in the window above dripping water (from the ridiculous humidity) and the rain, the door frame didn't stand a chance.

So my simple painting plan completely blew up into a full railing replacement and door frame repair job. Painful but necessary.

We had no desire to use wood since it requires constant repainting and maintenance, which left vinyl or composite. I really wanted to use composite, since the posts are and I felt it should all match. But then we learned we had to order it from the local lumberyard and it was expensive. REALLY expensive. So we ended up settling for vinyl - it's affordable, low maintenance and the kit makes it simple to install.

Of course we ran into some bumps in the road. The pieces were shorter than advertised (8 feet meant 92", not 96") and so we had to add additional vertical support posts to make it all fit, but in the end it came out nice. And I love that we won't have to paint it. Ever.

The finished product looks better than I thought it would. Less plasticy than I assumed. And the post in the middle works just fine (to make up the 4" missing from the 8 feet!). The best part is that I'll NEVER have to paint this railing. And any mildew buildup can be power-washed off. (Also if you've noticed the Halloween decorations here and there, a full Halloween update coming soon...)

It's definitely not how we wanted to spend the weekend, but I'm glad it's done. And I did squeeze in oiling the porch floor, so it's protected for another winter.