Second chance to get a detail right

I try to think of everything when I do construction drawings, but sometimes I miss something. When I did the construction drawings for our two story deck (see previous articles) I did careful drawings of the handrails. I forgot, however, to show how the top of the rails met at the corners.  In the absence of a detail,our contractor Jack Murphy did the corners the way everyone does them. He mitered them together (first photo).

I had wanted the corners to overlap, the way all the other pieces of the deck do. I always felt a little disappointed that I had missed this.

In the years since the deck was built, the sun and rain haven’t been kind to the handrails. We recently decided to replace them, this time using non-rotting trex. I finally got to fix the corners!

It’s a detail no one else notices I’m sure, but I feel better knowing its there.

Photos:

Top: Mitered old corner in wood

Second from Top: New overlapping corner in trex.

Third from Top: Inside corner-notched, not mitered

Bottom:  View from below, with your head tilted way back, looking straight up. Overlapping corners seen in the context of the other overlapping connections.