Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
designstl

Decorative railing on flat roof

designstl
10 years ago

I have a small 14' x 6' addition on the rear first level of my house where the roof is flat. We had all three condensers for all three ac units placed on the flat part of the roof when we bought the house and had central HVAC installed (3 floors/zones, one unit per floor). The reason we did this is because our yard is small and every foot of space was taken into consideration. This also meant we wouldn't have to worry about security cages for condensers on the ground. Anyway, it's worked out great thus far but my only complaint is that I hate looking at my house from its rear and seeing three huge condensers on this otherwise pretty historic building. I would like to build a railing of sorts to hide the outdoor units and make it appear as if that portion of the roof is actually a balcony/roof deck. There is a full height window that was once a door off one of the bedrooms, so even though we will never use it as such- I want it to look like a balcony off that room. My question is in terms of railing construction and specifically post placement, flashing, and securing to roof. Since this will never actually serve as a safety feature, but rather a decorative one is there an easier way to go about installing railing posts?