Customer Service: (253) 677-0290
Customer Service: (253) 677-0290
By Daniel Rotaru, Owner and CEO at Decks Restore. WA Contractor License # CC DECKSRL797P2. Tacoma, WA.
Almost nobody asks me about railing until the deck is framed. Then it becomes the only thing they want to talk about, because it is the part of the deck you look through every morning and put your hand on every time you carry something down the stairs.
The quotes people get compare install price. Cable is more than picket, glass is more than cable, done. That comparison is worthless by itself, because the railing you install in Tacoma is not the railing you own in year eight. Rain is the variable, and it does different things to each of these systems.
I have been putting railing on decks in Pierce County for over a decade, and because a lot of our work comes from repeat customers and their neighbors, I end up back on the same decks years later. This post is what I have seen on those return visits.
Since 2015 we have installed roughly 180 railing runs across Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Federal Way, Puyallup, and the rest of the South Sound. Cable is a little over half of that now. Picket in wood, composite, or aluminum makes up most of the rest. Glass is the smallest group, maybe twenty jobs, which matters when you read the glass section below, because my sample there is thinner.
I do not have a lab. What I have is service calls, warranty visits, and the decks I get invited back to when someone wants a new section built. When I say cable needs retensioning at a certain point, that is because I was standing there with the tool.
Cable is the system I install most, and it is the one I would put on my own house. It does not block the view, it does not hold water on a horizontal surface, and it dries fast because there is almost nothing to dry.
The maintenance is real, though, and salespeople undersell it.
Cable stretches. Every run I have installed needed retensioning somewhere between six and fourteen months after install, no exceptions. That first pull is the cable seating itself and the posts settling. After that, plan on checking tension every two to three years. It is a twenty minute job with an allen key if you do it yourself, and most homeowners can.
The second thing is staining. If you run stainless cable through wood posts in a wet climate, water tracks along the cable, sits at the penetration, and leaves a rust-colored weep line down the post. This is not the cable rusting. It is tannin and iron oxide from the fittings reacting with wet cedar. The fix is choosing your hardware grade before install, not after. Within about a mile of Commencement Bay or the Narrows I will only install 316 stainless. Further inland, 304 is fine and saves money. I wrote about why marine air changes hardware decisions in Building a Deck in Tacoma’s Salt Air, and railing is where that call shows up first because the hardware is exposed on all sides.
Cleaning is a spring job. Wipe the cables with a rag and a little dish soap, check the tension, done in an hour on a normal deck.
One warning about DIY cable kits. The 2021 Washington State Residential Code requires that a 4 inch sphere cannot pass through the guard. On a horizontal cable run that means roughly 3 inch spacing at install, tighter than most kits suggest, because cable deflects when a kid climbs on it. I have failed inspections over this on decks other people built.
Glass is where I have to be honest with people, and it costs me jobs sometimes.
Glass railing looks incredible on the day it is installed. It looks incredible for about nine days. Then it rains, and every drop that lands on it leaves a mineral spot when it dries, and the panel goes cloudy from the outside in.
Tacoma water is not especially hard, which helps, but the volume of rain we get means the panels are wet, drying, and wet again constantly from October through May. Spotting is cumulative. Homeowners who wash the glass monthly keep it looking like glass. Homeowners who wash it twice a year end up looking through a haze and calling me to ask if the panels are defective. They are not defective. They need washing.
The other problem is the bottom channel, if you use a channel system rather than spigots. Water sits in the channel. Pine needles and fir debris get in there, hold moisture, and grow algae, and in a shaded North End yard I have seen a channel go green in one winter. Spigot-mounted panels drain better and I now recommend spigots on almost every Tacoma job for that reason.
Where glass genuinely earns its cost is wind exposure with a view worth protecting. On a bluff lot in Ruston or a waterfront deck across the Narrows, glass turns a deck that is unusable in a 20 mph wind into one you can sit on. If you have that situation, glass is the right answer and the cleaning is the price. If you have a flat backyard deck surrounded by fence, you are buying a maintenance obligation for very little return.
Sample size caveat: twenty jobs is not a lot. Take my glass numbers as directional.
Picket covers three very different products, and lumping them together is why homeowners get confused.
Wood picket, meaning cedar or pressure treated, is the cheapest install and the most expensive thing you will ever own. Every surface holds water. The top rail holds the most, which is why the top rail is always the first thing to rot. Plan on cleaning and resealing every two years here, and plan on replacing the top rail somewhere around year ten to twelve. On decks I have torn out, the guard was in worse shape than the decking about seventy percent of the time.
Composite picket solves the rot problem and creates a green one. Composite does not rot, but it holds moss and algae on the shaded north face just as well as wood does, and you cannot pressure wash it aggressively without damaging the cap. Annual wash with a deck cleaner and a soft brush.
Aluminum picket with a good powder coat is the quietest system I install. No sealing, no rot, no retensioning. Wash it when you wash the deck. In ten years of service calls I can count on one hand the aluminum railings I have gone back to fix, and those were impact damage rather than weather. It is not as pretty as cable or glass and it blocks more view than either. If someone tells me they want to never think about their railing again, this is what I put in.
These are Tacoma numbers for a 40 linear foot railing on a standard single level deck, current as of 2026. Install costs include posts, hardware, permit-compliant assembly, and labor.
| System | Install cost | Yearly upkeep | Owner hours per year | Ten year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood picket (cedar) | $2,000 to $3,200 | $150 to $250 in stain and sealer, plus a top rail replacement around year ten | 6 to 8 | $4,200 to $6,500 |
| Composite picket | $3,400 to $4,800 | $40 in cleaner | 2 to 3 | $3,800 to $5,200 |
| Aluminum picket | $3,600 to $5,000 | Close to nothing | Under 1 | $3,700 to $5,100 |
| Cable with wood or metal posts | $5,200 to $8,500 | $0 to $60, mostly your own time | 1 to 2 | $5,300 to $8,700 |
| Glass, spigot mounted | $9,000 to $16,000 | $60 in glass cleaner, or $400 to $800 a year if you hire it out | 10 to 14 if you do it yourself | $9,600 to $24,000 |
The number that surprises people is that cable is cheaper to own over ten years than cedar picket once you count sealer and the top rail rebuild, even though cable costs roughly twice as much to install. Wood only wins if you genuinely never maintain it, and then it wins by falling apart.
Glass has the widest range in that table because the outcome depends entirely on whether you clean it yourself.
Washington is currently on the 2021 International Residential Code with state amendments. Adoption of the 2024 codes was pushed back and they are not scheduled to take effect until 2027, so anything built in Tacoma today is inspected against the 2021 edition. You can confirm what is in force at the Washington State Building Code Council.
For residential deck guards the requirements that matter are a minimum 36 inch guard height measured from the deck surface, the 4 inch sphere rule for openings, a 4 3/8 inch limit at the triangular opening formed by the stair tread and riser, and a 200 pound concentrated load resistance at the top rail in any direction.
That last one is where DIY railing fails. The rail itself is rarely the problem. The post attachment is. A 4×4 notched around the rim joist and through-bolted with two carriage bolts will pass. A 4×4 lag screwed to the outside face of the rim will not, and I see it constantly. If your guard is more than 30 inches above grade, the City of Tacoma requires a permit and an inspection, and we pull that permit for you on every job.
If you are not sure whether your existing railing would pass, our 7-point deck safety checklist covers the guard test you can do yourself in about two minutes.
If your deck has a view of the water or the mountain, cable. It gives you 90 percent of what glass gives you at half the price, and the maintenance is an hour a year.
If your deck is exposed to real wind and the view is the entire point, glass on spigots, and be honest with yourself about whether you will wash it.
If you want to stop thinking about the deck entirely, aluminum picket.
If you have kids under six, cable with tight spacing or picket, and skip glass, because you will be cleaning handprints off it for a decade.
Cedar picket I only build now when someone wants an all-wood deck for aesthetic reasons and understands the resealing cycle. It is a legitimate choice. It is just not the cheap one people think it is.
Railing choice also interacts with your decking material, especially if you are going composite. I compared how the major composite lines have actually aged on our Puget Sound decks in Trex vs. TimberTech vs. Fiberon, and the same logic applies to railing: the cheap version costs more by year eight.
Quality stainless cable does not rust in normal Tacoma conditions. Within a mile of Puget Sound, 304 stainless fittings can develop surface tea staining within two to four years, which is cosmetic but visible. We install 316 stainless near the water for that reason.
Every cable run we have installed needed one retension between six and fourteen months after install. After that, check every two to three years. It takes about twenty minutes with an allen key.
It is worth it when wind is making the deck uncomfortable and the view justifies the cost. It is not worth it on a sheltered backyard deck. Plan on washing panels monthly through the wet season or they will stay hazy.
36 inches from the walking surface for residential decks under the 2021 Washington State Residential Code, with a maximum 4 inch opening anywhere in the guard.
If the deck surface is more than 30 inches above grade, yes. Replacing a guard on a permitted deck usually falls under a repair permit rather than a full deck permit. We handle the application and the inspection.
Powder coated aluminum picket, by a wide margin, followed by stainless cable. Cedar picket has the shortest service life here, with the top rail typically needing replacement around year ten.
Often yes, but the posts usually need to be replaced or reinforced. Cable puts constant lateral tension on end posts, which most older Tacoma decks were not built to handle. We assess this during the estimate.
Daniel Rotaru is the owner of Decks Restore in Tacoma, Washington, and holds Washington State Contractor License CC DECKSRL797P2. He has built and repaired decks across Tacoma, Pierce County, and the South Sound for more than a decade, quotes every project himself, and walks active job sites daily. You can see completed railing work in our project gallery.
Decks Restore 748 Market St #173, Tacoma, WA 98402 (253) 677-0290 Monday to Friday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Saturday 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM WA LIC # CC DECKSRL797P2
We install cable, glass, aluminum, composite, and wood railing across Tacoma, and we also serve Gig Harbor, Federal Way, Puyallup, Auburn, Kent, and Renton. If you want a written, itemized quote with the hardware grade specified, contact us or call and ask for Daniel.
Building a new deck rather than replacing a railing? Start with our Tacoma deck builder page for materials, cost ranges, and the permit process. If your concern is the metal underneath rather than the boards on top, Why Mercer Island Decks Rot From the Hardware Up covers fastener selection in wet conditions, and Slip-Resistant Decking for Rainy Tacoma covers the walking surface.