Materials
What we put in the weather.
Shop language, not a mill catalog. Spec what survives this climate.
Steel
We work primarily in mild steel — A36 and the structural grades the drawings call for. Tube, plate, bar, and wide flange. Stainless cable and stainless hardware where the spec and the climate want it. If a job needs something we do not keep, we buy it and we still fabricate it here.
Connections are designed for the load, not for the photo. Exterior railings get base details that drain. We will not hide a connection that needs to be inspected.
Finishes
Raw / oil
Mill scale or a hand-rubbed oil. Interior, or exterior only where rust is the point and the client says so in writing.
Powder coat
The default for railings and ornamental that has to hold color. We mix to the house, not to a guess.
Hot-dip galvanize
Zinc for structures and anything that will live in snow and ice without a paint schedule.
Blackened / patina
Controlled color on plate. For hearths, gates, and interior work that wants the material to show.
What we will not spec
Untreated mild steel on an exterior mountain railing, unless the rust is the design and everyone has said so. Interior-only powder on a south-facing deck. Cable that cannot be retensioned. A finish the client saw on a phone and cannot be matched.
If it will fail in three winters, we will say so before we cut.
See it installed →