The Cost of Cable Railings

The Cost of Cable Railings

It has long been assumed that modern style cable railings cost more than traditional wooden and metal railings.

When you looks up the cost of cable railings on the internet, you will get the following information:

Cable railing cost $80 ~ $100

Aluminum railing cost $50 ~ $70

Wooden railing cost $40 ~ $50

These costs are without the labor cost.

In fact this is an incorrect result, and with the current popularity of cable railing, its cost has dropped significantly.

So to clarify this matter, let’s take the example of building a 36 inch high, 20 foot long railing. This is a common railing on one side of a 400 square foot deck.

Cost of 20 feet aluminum railing

Materials needed:

  • 36 inch aluminum posts x 4

Homedepot‘s price for 36″ aluminum posts is $72.57, 4 posts is $290.28

  • 6 feet of pre-installed railing x 3

Again, let’s take this best seller 6ft pre-installed panel from homedepot as an example. The price is $167.31. The price for 3 is $501.93

So, total price is $792.21, which is $39.61 per linear foot

Cost of 20 feet wood railing

Materials needed:

  • Wooden posts $36.99 x 4

Using homedepot’s price as an example, the price of wooden posts is $36.99, so the price of 4 posts is $147.96

  • 6ft pre-installed railing x 3

Again, let’s take homedepot’s pre-installed 6ft wood railing as an example. It costs $127.62, and the price for 3 posts is $382.96

Then, the total price is $530.92, which is $26.55 per linear foot

Cost of 20 feet of cable railing

Materials needed:

  • Post x 4

Post price is $62, 4 posts for $248.

  • Cable stabilizer x 3

Because the spacing of the posts is set to 6 feet, and more than 4 feet spacing will require an additional cable stabilizer between the posts to ensure that the cable spacing does not exceed 4 inches.

Therefore, a total of 3 cable stabilizers are required. The price of each cable stabilizer is $78, and the price of 3 is $234.

  • Handrails  x 3

The price of 6 feet of wooden handrails is $76, and the price of 3 handrails is $228

Fayevorite 20 Pairs cable railing kit is priced at $34.99 and is the best cable railing kit.

It includes 20 threaded terminal tensioner studs and 20 stemball swages.

In this 20 feet cable railing, only 10 pairs are needed, so the price is $17.50

  • 1/8″ stainless steel wire rope

This 20 feet cable railing requires 10 pairs of 20 foot cable, so at least 200 feet of cable is required. Which costs $40.

So the total price is $767.50, which is $38.4 per linear foot

Cable, Wood, Metal Railing Comparison

In the example above, we chose a mid-range wood railing and a low-range aluminum railing.

The total cost and cost per foot for building a 20 feet railing for these three types of railing is as follows.

Cable Railing Cost Wood Railing Cost Aluminum Railing Cost
$767.50
$530.92
$792.21
$38.4/lnft
$26.55/lnft
$39.61/lnft

Conclusion

From the above comparison, we can know that the cost of cable railing is higher than that of wooden railing stem, but slightly lower than that of metal railing.

And since the maximum cable length that a cable railing kit can support is 40 feet.

So the railing on both sides of the deck adjacent to each other can be supplied with one set of cable railing kit, so the cost can be further reduced.

Labor costs are not included in the above cost calculations. It also does not include the cost of tools, material loss, etc. that would be added during the construction process.

Fayevorite offers you high quality cable railing kits.

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