Fastening deck top and bottom rails to posts.....

[chrisexv6]

Looking for a good way to fasten the top and bottom rails of railings on a deck to the posts. Ive seen "connector" plates like those at Deckorators.com, but Id rather have a hidden fastener setup if I can (note that on their site most of the decks they show have railings that just seem to "hang" from the posts with no visible fasteners).

I will be using composite 2x4 for the upper and lower rails. Could I route out a channel in each post and slide the 2x4s into them? Might take a little finagling to get both ends in at once, but it would look nice. The only thing I worry about is the amount of material removed from a 4x4 post to do something like that (6x6 posts wouldnt look that great, its only a 4'x8' deck)..

Thanks in advance!

-Chris

[Joe]

If you have a router, then it should be easy to use the mortise and tenon technique. You may want to reduce the 2 x 4 size somewhat to leave more meat on tne post. Consider preparing rails and balusters into a panel befor installing into the posts. Gorilla glue or epoxy would be suitable for final assembly. HTH

Joe