Smithbuilt Cable Railing Project
Community walkway receives an upgrade
Greg Smith, P.E., owner of Smithbuilt LLC in Beaufort, South Carolina, recently finished a bridge railing along a public corridor in a master development. A private 1,400-acre barrier island, Harbor Island is a gated community home to vacation rentals and outdoor recreation.
The walkway railing along the community bridge was in dire need of replacement and upgrades to meet building codes. The old railings, built entirely of wood, were traditional 4 x 6 posts with 2 x 4 mid-rails and a 2 x 6 top rail, a pretty standard design. The project included tearing down the old railings and replacing with cable railing.
“The Homeowners Association gave me the latitude to choose the product, and I chose stainless steel cable,” said Greg. “What I like about Ultra-tec is that it has a more structurally sound connection to the timber by going through the entire post.”
Although the area is home to residential and short-term rentals, the project is part of the public domain and considered commercial. “We had to provide full structural drawings to the municipality for review,” said Greg.
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“I had not used Ultra-tec before, and the primary reason why I looked at them was because they offered the stud system and the ability to drill through the post and use it for support,” said Greg. “I’m not a big fan of the lag bolt or screw in receiver, and Ultra- tec provides a through-the-post-mounted fitting called Invisiware® receiver.”
Ultra-tec was also able to provide cut sheets for all the fittings and fixtures, which helped Greg’s efforts in the permitting process. “Their customer support, structural drawings, and documentation was incredibly helpful to meet the permitting requirements,” he added.
“Because the project required an extended length of cable, I wanted to make sure I was using a system that could stand up to every day commercial use,” said Greg.
As a Professional Engineer specializing in marine construction, Greg served as a Navy Civil Engineer Corps Officer and has worked on a number of commercial construction projects throughout his career. He’s used other cabling systems, some with large stretches of cable and he trusts Ultra-tec. “I’m about to install Ultra-tec on a 400-foot marine dock.”
Since the 1900’s The Smith Family has been constructing roads, dams, runways, and buildings. In 2018, after serving his country for more than eight years, he formed Smithbuilt specializing in general and marine construction.
