My 6 y.o. deck is attached to the house via ledger, as is commonly the case. But my contractor, who is repairing an enormous amount of rot around the house (another story...it's less than 14 years old) had to pull the cedar 2x4 that was vertically attached to the corner board that the railing connected to.
He wants to put a post there and keep it and the railing from touching the house at all. He says that he never allows that when he builds a deck.
Is this normally needed? The corner boards are being replaced (as needed) with Azek, and figured that some combination of that and some other similar heavy piece of composite or PVC or vinyl on the house would allow the railing to remain attached.
I'm not happy with the rigidity of the railing and am afraid it won't "feel" strong enough.