# Top Cap on Deck Railing



## cibula11 (Jul 14, 2007)

HOw often do I need to put screws in my top cap for my deck railing?"  I want to make sure it looks nice, so I don't want to put in too many.


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## Daryl in Nanoose (Jul 15, 2007)

What is and what size is your cap and can you screw from underneath??


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## cibula11 (Jul 16, 2007)

My cap is a 2x4 layed flat.  It sits on the top rail which is also a 2x4.  If I chose to screw from underneath I would have to toenail each screw.  Not sure if that is the best way or not.  I read some other sites that said every
12" , but that seems like an awful lot of screws to have to look at.


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## Daryl in Nanoose (Jul 16, 2007)

I would stick with 12" but no more than 16 forsure and no, no toenails.


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## cibula11 (Jul 17, 2007)

So if you say no to the toenails, is there another way to attach the cap rail from the bottom?

To give you a better picture, the cap rail is centered over the top rail.


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## Kerrylib (Jul 17, 2007)

Drill a countersink hole through ~2/3 of the 2x4

Put a washer sized to your countersink hole under the screw head and run them up from underneath.

I'm sure you already have the railing in place, so you'll get to lie on your back and enjoy staring up at the sky while you do the drilling.  If not, just flip it over and pre-drill and countersink every ~12"


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## Daryl in Nanoose (Jul 18, 2007)

Kerrylib said:


> Drill a countersink hole through ~2/3 of the 2x4
> 
> Put a washer sized to your countersink hole under the screw head and run them up from underneath.
> 
> I'm sure you already have the railing in place, so you'll get to lie on your back and enjoy staring up at the sky while you do the drilling.  If not, just flip it over and pre-drill and countersink every ~12"


 Good idea Kerrylib, This is all I could think of to exept for screwing down from the top and pluging the holes afterwards.


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## cibula11 (Jul 19, 2007)

May I ask what is bad with toenailing from the top rail to the cap rail from underneath?


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## Kerrylib (Jul 19, 2007)

I don't know of any specific arguments that toenailing is bad, but just thinking about it:

1. Pain in the butt factor
2. Personnaly think it looks bad.
3. Limited strength if you don't do it well.
4. Running the screws in at angle is going to want to pull the top cap sideways and probably twist it from sitting flat.  Solution would be to clamp it down tightly when installing screws and attach screws from both sides.  This would help negate #3 above.


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## Daryl in Nanoose (Jul 19, 2007)

Kerrylib said:


> I don't know of any specific arguments that toenailing is bad, but just thinking about it:
> 
> 1. Pain in the butt factor
> 2. Personnaly think it looks bad.
> ...


 *My thoughts to exactly*


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