I got the balusters from Home Depot. I was checking decksdirect.com and Lowes. The balusters in a 5 pack at the stores are about $30, so you are a little over $6 with tax and gas/hauling...etc. I just happened to look on HD's website and they were running a sale on the 14 pack. I believe it was $80 per pack before their sale price. I ended up saving a couple hundreds bucks on the website and got free shipping. They screwed up on my order and ended up refunding me 3 sets so that was another 200 off. So I made out nicely.
ONLY complaint is to look over EACH baluster... naturally some will be bent a little bit more/less than another, or one might be really out of whack. I'd say order at least a box or two more so you have "spares". Just like when I did our wood flooring, I ordered 4 boxes extra of wood just so I could go through the wood and pick up and discard the bad pieces. Those bad pieces were then returned in a box. I'm doing the same thing with the rails. Some were chipped or just not usable as far as one was almost an inch taller than the rest.
Actually 2nd complaint, is the f'ing plastic washers you need to use if you are screwing it into PT wood. I luckily found a review and the person said super glue the washers on the balusters because if not you are going to go through hell trying to fit the washer in between the wood, then trying to screw it on. That takes time. Bank on an hour at least, to super gluing 4 washers per baluster if you have 100+ to go through.
They have two basic designs, one is a curved bow, and then the one I got which has a double curve to it. I like both honestly, and only picked this one because it was on sale, had the others been on sale I probably would have gotten those. I choose bronze for the color as black was too much of a dark/ mix matched contrast. The biggest thing I like is when you are on the deck it appears more "airy" if that makes sense. I didn't realize how much the wood slats blocked until you look to the side of the deck and can see all the way through, where as before you just saw wood.
I replaced the lower rail braces since they were all warped and I SHOULD have done the top rail braces as well, but since the guys already screwed the boards on the brace support I wasn't going to un do it. The screws they used when you unscrew it from the composite board it takes a chunk of it out with it, so because of that and the new boards, and just the fact that the deck is 10 years old there is natural "not plum/levelness" to things, so unless someone is REALLY looking, one wouldn't notice that the balusters are not perfectly even on the top/bottom. I did try and line the "curve" up to each baluster so when looking at them the curves don't dip or rise up/down, but if looking at the very top or very bottom of the baluster one would notice about a 1/2" up or down compared to where it's screwed into the board brace.
I have the stairs to do tomorrow and Friday so that will be fun, but overall this was a positive experience and at least updated the look somewhat. I noticed that the stiffness also improved greatly. The old balusters were simply nailed in at the top and bottom, half the boards were cracked or coming loose. These new balusters are attached using 4 screws per slat. Once I finished the entire section nothing moved, not even the braces, where as before they did.
-Nigel
