I'm getting ready to replace the columns & railings on my front porch. The originals are wood, 16 years old, and beginning to come apart at the finger joints, etc. For a maintenance-free solution I like the vinyl-over-pipe columns such as the HB&G PermaPost units, but they have a bit of a sterile look to them (for lack of a better word) and, I don't see any good way to attach a flag pole bracket. I could drill through into the pipe, but it seems there would be some risk of goobering up the column trying to drill blind into a round pipe without being able to center punch it first.
So, I'm wondering about low- or no-maintenance solutions that are of some other sort of composite material, resin-wood combination, or the like, but am not having much luck searching the Net. Any advice or experience here would be greatly appreciated!