Incoming project

Good Morning Bloggers!  

We love it when we have repeat customers! It is an honor for us when an old customer comes to us for a new project. In one of our last posts we shared a 1225 Church St. balcony job. It consisted of building pergolas, balconies and stairs to a luxury apartment complex in uptown Charlotte. Now we are starting to work again onto Phase 2 of this project. This customer is building a second luxury apartment complex, here in uptown charlotte and we are doing their: balconies, stairs and pergolas for that project too.

Check out this live view of the project in it's beginnings:

http://oxblue.com/pro/open/adolfsonpeterson/1225schurch

In these tough economy times we are happy to know that there still is a lot of progress in our country. Apartment complexes seem to be having a lot of progress and we love it! We also work with a builder in Pennsylvania that rebuilds and remodels buildings for living, and we see alot of economic growth in that area of construction too. 

We would love to hear about your project, and if there's any way we can help with your building/remodeling needs, please let us know. You can contact us at 1877-803-2282 or email us at deciron@bellsouth.net. Also, check out our website www.deciron.com we give special builder pricing for larger projects. 

Newly Designed Iron Balcony

Hi bloogers,
We had a  custom order, and were asked to help design a balcony. Our customers had something in mind, and we helped her complete it. We liked it so much, we desided to add it to our standard balconies. The new balcony name is "Secret Harbor" balcony. It's a variation of our Swan balcony. Tell us what you think. We can also create design onto iron railings. It's a bit different, but definitely creative.

You can find this balcony going to this link http://deciron.com/balconies.aspx  We are always welcoming new design ideas from our customers. Let us help you create an artpiece for your home or business.


deciron@deciron.com
1877-803-2282
www.deciron.com

We love our customers !

Here at www.deciron.com we LOVE it when a customer sends us an email with a picture

of their new balcony. I recently posted a new design that we came up with "Iron dove queen half moon" You can see it here. One of those was sold, and our awesome customer sent us a review. Check it out!

From: Our awesome customer

Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 4:46 PM

To: deciron1@bellsouth.net

Subject: Balcony in webster MA

 

Thank you for fabricating a beautiful railing for our balcony.

The quality is absolutely perfect.

The fed ex shipment went very smooth. You packed the railing very secure and it arrived with no damage .

We definitely  are going to do more projects with you.

Best

Awesome Customer

 

(names have been changed for security purposes)

She also sent us a picture.

We did this balcony with their custom measurements and it fit perfectly! 

Check out more designs at http://deciron.com/balconies.aspx

If your one of our past customers, we would really appreciate a picture. It would help us a lot. 

You can email us a picture, even if it is from your phone. Email it at: pri.san@att.net

Thanks!

New Iron Stair Case Project

We are currently working on a large iron stair case. It will be installed locally, here in Charlotte. Here are some pics of the project in it's early beginnings. This staircase is done with a clients custom measurements.

Later on we will keep you updated on this stair project. You can see some finished products on www.deciron.com/stairs

Introducing a NEW design! Plain Picket Half Moon

Introducing a NEw design for our production. Our Plain picket balcony and railing had been very popular with our customers. It's simple modern design and great price made the plain picket on of our best sellers. Now we have changed the design just a bit and made it curve.

The new Plain Picket Half moon balcony is all the way curved, available with and without platform. We can paint it in all the colors of RAL. This design will be added to our website soon, because it's gaining popularity. If you would like to order this now, give us a call or shoot us an email and we can get this started.

 

Another design that we have made into a Half Moon, is the iron dove queen. The iron dove queen has also been very popular with our customers. Taking this further step to make it completely curved, is an innovative step with these balconies. We are starting a Half moon line soon, and these two balconies are our first ones. I believe it gives it a more elegant modern look.

We would apresiate your feedback on this new look and design. It is just starting, and we would love to know what the reviews are. You can send us an email to deciron1@bellsouth.net, or you can go to our website at www.deciron.com and fill out a contact us. Also, you can just leave a message on this thread.

Thank you so much! and I hope you liked these new designs.

Deciron Family

Wrought Iron Products - Pergolas

One of our projects asked us to make Pergolas, for decor. They were placed mainly at the pool area, and in the court yard of the apartment buildings. I thought it was a neat idea that the Architects came up with.  These pergolas are decorative and innovative. Here are some pics.

Later on they will put some covers to the pergolas, to ad a bit of color and shade. I personally think it looks great just like that. I liked that style of wrought iron.

If you are an architect and have neat ideas, such as this one for wrought iron, don't hesitate to do them. I'm sure they can be brought to life, just like these pergolas. Decorative Iron specializes in creating new looks and new products every day. Give us a call, and we can help you create something like this for your next project. Check us out at www.deciron.com

One of our Favorite balcony project

Hi bloggers!

This is a blog to show you one of my favorite jobs Decorative Iron has done in Charlotte NC. The subdibision is called "South Church St. Apt" right in the heart of Uptown Charlotte. These luxury apartments are a new construction, that we were hired to place all the balconies, railings, panels, and other wrought iron works. It took about 3 months for us to complete that. These are some pictures. The bulding is shaped as a U, in the middle they have a court yard. Enjoy!

Close up view of the balcony

Balcony view.

We also manufactored custom made pergolas for the decorators.

Gate entering the court yard

Balcony without platform for the smaller apts.

The balcony designs that are shown are called "Casey Balcony" you can find those at our website at http://deciron.com/balconies.aspx it is a modern type balcony. The pictures here show the balconies with platform and without platform.

We worked with the builder to design and install these balconies. To all builders out there, let us know if you would like our pricing, specs, or just information about bundle prices. We would love to work with you guys to make the next project a success! Keep in mind we do ship in bulk too. Nationwide!

Check more balconies out at http://deciron.com/balconies.aspx

Till next time!

WROUGHT IRON DESINGS NATIONALITY

Many of the components utilized nowadays in ornamental iron work are common on every country. However, certain characteristics of the ornamentations are claimed to have originated from Spain, Italy and France as the major contributors to the ornamental iron art, but also and not least to Britain and the United States. Spain Italy and France are the most romantic and traditionally artistic cultures, and its landscape and climate has prompted its architecture to make use of open decks, balconies, front stairs and porches.

In consequence its architecture has included a lot of wrought iron elements, and has made possible that architects and artisans, at unison, create beautiful iron designs, that are enjoyed in every country of the world. Many claims of country of authorship of certain designs, however, are only mere suppositions and appreciations of travelers and historians that have identified a certain characteristic of the iron designs used in a country, and for the most part should not be considered historical facts.

Of course there are schools of iron in most every country in the world. Particularly in the United States one can identify French and British architectural iron in cities like New Orleans, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Miami has also a strong iron culture that came with many immigrants from the Caribbean and South America. Central and South American Iron designs are Spanish for the most part. One can see in  Miami and other Florida cities, a lot of iron fencing with spears and scrolls, as well as decorative window bars and “portones” or entrance gates, not to speak gorgeous railings in upscale residences. California is another state with a long wrought iron tradition, and has been influenced by Mexican artistry. Mexican blacksmiths and fabricators pretty much dominate the wrought iron ornamental industry in California.

In the city of New York, of course there is a strong Italian influence and as in California one finds a strong Spanish motive, perhaps more than in any other part of the world. However it is worth mentioning the “cast iron” and “cast bronze” culture of the city, which brings old memories of the NY Company, J.L. Mott Iron Works and the magnificent centennial of Philadelphia.

Yes, it is worth mentioning the iron work one finds in the city of Philadelphia, especially in the South walk area where one can admire beautiful iron-works of Merricks, Morris & Tasker, Savery and others, which is a strong representation of the British - French schools with heavy duty iron and majestic scrollwork.

You can find wrought iron railings and balconies with an European or American characteristics at www.deciron.com. If you go on a trip, lets say to Venice, and you see a building with a special wrought iron railing design or characteristic you can order it custom made and shipped to your home at Decorative Iron - www.deciron.com.

How to Install your Wrought Iron Railings

Hello Bloggers,

Here at Deciron we ship to other states, the customer installs their own railings. We ship them ready made, no welding necessary products so they can just install them themselves or get a handyman to do it. In this blog I've put our detailed instructions to install the railings. If you have ordered from us, or thinking about it, this article can help. We will also post it as PDF later on as a link to our site, for better use. 

HOW TO INSTALL YOUR RAILINGS

Thank you for buying your railings from us. We made sure they were welded properly and powdered properly, so that they would last you for life, now we want to make sure you know how to mount them. We are in a life saving business, but we are not saving anyone if your railings are not safely installed. Once you have received your railings from us it is important to follow the right installation procedures, to ensure that your railing is safe.

LOAD REQUIREMENTS

The International building code requires that a guardrail withstands a minimum of 200 lb, applied tangentially to the top rail. This means that a person or a few persons leaning against the rail could eventually apply a tangential force equal to 200 lb and the railing should be able to resist. There are several factors involved on this. However, the only factor that virtually does not count is the type of railing, because, for the most parts railings are build following common practices, and they are usually just ok. The main factor for code compliance is the quality of the installation. If one does not attach the railing properly, even if the railing is made of thick solid steel, it will not pass the 200 lb test. It does not make sense to build an iron railing that will probably need a force equal to 1000 lb  just to slightly bend it and then leave it lose against the wall! But this is what happens most of the cases when a railing has failed.

TYPE OF WALLS AND THE PROPER ANCHORS FOR EACH OF THEM

There are several type of “walls” where railings are usually attached to.

EXTERIOR BRICK WALL

Normally this type of wall has regular wood framing behind, and the brick is just attached against it. If you want to be over cautious, you may drill through the brick with a masonry bit, up until  you reach the wood behind, and then predrilled the wood to drive a long  enough 3/8 inch lag bolt into it. However by experience it is possible to use expansion bolts, 3/8 by 1 7/8 and install them into the brick and still have a strong enough grip. If the brick is lose or cracked, you may have problems. Also if you open the hole too much, the expansion might be lose or loosen up with time. Another possibility is to use concrete tap cons, which is a blue screw that is very strong. I would prefer the expansion sleeve anchors over tap cons. However, properly installed, tap cons are just fine on brick. Just be careful not to overdo while driving in the tap con, just go easy. If the brick is not dense enough, tap cons might not work. So just make sure you have a healthy solid brick to work with. If not you will en up going back to plan A. Do not use any type of anchors that would require impact, for it might break the brick, causing a greater problem.

WOOD FRAMING

Outside wood framing always has a 1/2 inch OSB plywood behind the siding. However you do not want to attach your railings to the plywood only, but to the real wood framing behind. You might get away installing the rails to the plywood only, but for sure, if the railings are high traffic, they will fail. If the building inspector catches that, you will fail inspection.

But not all the time, sometimes you could leave, in good conscience, the rail with a weak joint (not lose) on the top, if you there is a post near to the wall and its four floor anchors are well attached. Actually a good post attachment would waive the necessity of an upper anchor, your railing could be left free standing, and still pass the load test.

As an installer you have the right to request that the proper wood backing is installed on the walls. Inside framing, on the other hand, is covered with drywall.  A drywall anchor will not take the load, even less than the OSB. So, don’t install your railings on drywall.

However there is two exceptions to this rule: the first is the one we already mentioned, and the second is that if the railing is a wall mounted railing only, and let say you have 4 brackets, and one is on drywall, it is going to be probably ok if the bracket is not at one of the ends.

Concrete walls and floors

The recommended anchor for this cases is always a sleeve anchor, 3/8 x 1 7/8. Some times it may require a 3/8 x 1 ½, or even more it is a long standalone railing. Tap cons are also ok in short runs. When there is greater danger and appearance is secondary, the best way to go is to core drill the concrete and then embed the legs with hydraulic cement. Of course if you could have the railings ready before you cast the concrete and cast them along, that would be the ideal situation.

Railings joinery

Sometimes the railings need to be split and then joined at installation. The best joint is the welded one. You bring your welder, grind the spot, welded up and then touch up paint. However, if you paid for an expensive powder coating finish, you don’t really want to weld on it, unless it is completely necessary. Bolting is a second option, which requires a nut on the other side. It is good but too conspicuous. Specially if one does not grind off the excess tread and leaves the bolts un painted. If this is your case make sure the nut is tight enough and then seal it around with clear silicone to avoid moisture penetration. Self tapping screws with a neoprene washer is the best option. Screws are not so visible and provide a very strong joint, which is also waterproof. Way to go! 

When installing the self tapping screws go slow with the drill, making sure it is NOT in hammer mode. If you go too fast it might kick you back and cause an injury. So be careful. Remember that at slow speed the drill has more torque, so you are not doing much more by speeding up too much. One thing to remember is that it is better if you clamp the two pieces together before drilling, and that this is the last step. Make sure everything is lined up and attached, and then install the joint screws.

INSTALLING ON CERAMIC TILE OR SLATE

Here the problem is that ceramic tile or slate break easily, especially if there is a hollow spot. First of all, make sure you tell the owner of the house or your wife that this might happen, it will keep you out of trouble. Then, always try with a thin ¼ inch bit and then go with the 3/8 or ½ inch one, and make sure you use long enough screws to reach the wood or the concrete underneath.

GLUEING DOWN YOUR RAILING

Sometimes there are worries about damaging the waterproofing of the deck, if that is the case and face mounting is not possible, for short spans, when there is a solid attachment of the top railing, it is possible to glue down the intermediate legs and even the posts. Use 1099 glue by 3M, which is much better than regular contact cement.

FACE MOUNTING YOUR RAILINGS

If for any reason you decide to face mount your railings, just remember that there is a lot of momentum on this type of mount, therefore the minimum spacing between bolts vertically should be 3 inches. Both screws need to be strongly attached, with a minimum of 2 ½ inches of real wood penetration, therefore there should be 2 boards on the mounting face. Therefore use 3/8 by 3 wood lags. If you don’t have 2 boards, you need to have 4 screws per leg. The best way and safer way, would be pass through bolts with washers, if you have access to the back of the face. Use 3/8 of an inch bolts.

If you are face mounting on concrete you need a 3 bolts with a separation of 3 inches in between, and you need to use 3/8 x 3 sleeve anchors. If the slab is not thick enough, then don’t face mount, unless you are allowed to have kickers every 6 ft minimum. I think I have covered all the possible scenarios; so, the only thing left is to say: Happy railings installation!

Pedro L Sanchez - (owner)
Decorative Iron of NC INc.
www.deciron.com
www.decironstore.com

Example of a light Iron dove installed on Brick

Cubist Balcony installed at our warehouse.

 
 

Maintaining your Decorative Iron Wrought Iron Railings

MAINTAINING YOUR RAILINGS

Decorative iron, www.deciron.com, fabricates railings and ships them all over the USA. We also install locally here in Charlotte NC. Most customers buy their railings in a powder coated, and only in certain cases they prefer prime and paint.
Either way standard black color is the best choice from a maintenance perspective, for it is easy to fix if there are scratches or even some rusting.
Just get a spray can of Professional Rust Oleum Enamel and spray it on. Commercially used powders are polyester and any good enamel sticks to it.
Although our railings are double powder coated, due to wear and tear or scratches at installation, with time you might find some rust spots. It also happens in certain areas that yellow clay accumulates at the bottom welds. If you do not clean them, with time it will crack the paint and real rust will start to appear.
So, wash your railings periodically to avoid problems, don't let them get dusty for long time, like your car.
If anyways some rust appears, don;t panic! Just rinse them with water, let the railings dry and then apply the professional  Rust Oleum on every problem spot. You will need to sand the rust down, only if you have neglected it and the problem is major.
This recommended enamel has chemicals that will react with the rust and still protect the metal, even you you did not remove the rust.
There are other brands that provide similar products as well.

Early remediation is the key to enjoy rust free railings for a long, long time. Once you have remediated them,  you will enjoy years of maintenance free wrought iron railings.
No matter what they tell you, the truth is that any iron rails made by any company will present this problem about 5% of the time, ours are not an exception.
Moreover, eventually you are going to have to repaint them because of time and mother nature not because the product was not carefully protects, but because the paint or powder coating gets dull due to sun exposure.
If you see the iron bridges in the US hiways, you will notice the difference between a brand new on and an old one right? Now, the US government is very strict when it comes to rust protection , for they don't want to spend money in remediation down the road. But they have to spend it anyways.
What about aluminum?
People think aluminum rails will last longer than iron railings, not true. Iron (mild steel) is a more durable material. Aluminum has the tendency to bend, get dented; and the powder coating or paint applied to them also gets affected by the UV rays of the solar light and you are going to have to repaint them anyway.
And remember, we fabricate aluminum railings as well. Is just that it is what it is.

The truth is that even though we double powder coat our railings, and we even galvanize them upon request, nothing can beat nature for too long.

However, if you follow these guidelines, your iron railings will endure for a lifetime, and more.

As was said, for ease of maintenance we always recommend to use standard black, or any standard color, for the matching spray paint is readily available in any hardware store like Home Depot, Lowe's or any paint company like Sherwin Williams, Porter, etc.
If you decide you want a matching color we will give you a small sample you can use later on to get the matching paint prepared.

For your touch ups, you need to look for a High Gloss enamel, which matches what dupont and cardinal call a semi gloss powder. In the powder coating world high gloss looks like a mirror. Semi gloss is what you would call semi gloss.

However, some people are brave. They don't care about the little extra effort to maintain their railings, because they just want a different look, other than black. Take for example these wrought iron railings a customer here in Charlotte NC made. They are an "Olive" color, green/brown maybe. They match perfectly with the stones they put and the furniture they had in mind for their porch/back yard.

Back door entrance

Porch railings

This leads to the back yard

They looked at the RAL dupont colors we offer for powder coating (there over 100 colors) and decided to go with this one. We fabricated this ring band railing railing, in the color of their choice. The process took about 3 weeks, and they loved it!

Now, its a kind of embarrassing to say this; but this one of the few jobs that we had to go back and fix it, for my powder coated had a party or something of the sort, and the quality of the finish was not to our regular standards. then we had to struggle trying to get the matching paint to get our customer back to full satisfaction and happiness.

That is the reason we always recommend standard colors!

We also had a customer order a balcony in Blue, we will definitely update you guys on that one. We haven't heard from him, so I believe this was one of the 99% of the cases that our finish product is just maintenance free! (until of course the killer sun kicks in)

Check out our new website guys! You will find great products and great prices.
We even have special discounts for builders and contractors.

There are some guys that make a living installing our rails in different cities of the US, we give the dealer treatment and referrals!

Decorative Iron of NC Inc: Wrought Iron Fashion

Decorative Iron of NC Inc: Wrought Iron Fashiond
http://deciron.com/default.aspx

Wrought Iron Fashion

Hi Bloggers,

We just did a cute local project here in charlotte and wanted to share. The place is called "Fresh Boutique". Usually my boss/dad takes me to construction jobs such as half made homes and businesses, so this was awesomly different. This show sells cute clothes! the neighborhood had some brake in scares, so they hired us to make a wrough iron custom made rail that goes behind the bay window they have.


Here are some pics.
 

 

Outside view first. It's super cute! The railings are actually in the inside. 

Tada! 

 They are cute pannels that form like a door, with very nice decorative patterns to make wrought iron very instyle! hehe.

Heres a closer view  of the detail --->

 As you can see, the panels open and close. For a secute chiq look. We also made matching door rails to complete the style. And below you see both of the railings together.

 You cant really see the railing from outside unless you look closer in the bay window. None the less, this has been one of my favorite jobs we've had. And i also got to look at some cute clothes after I took the pics.

Decorative Iron also sells these wrought iron pieces all through the USA. Since we do a lot of custom work, we can take your ideas and make them reality. Check us out: http://deciron.com/default.aspx

Spiral Stair Cases

Recently at Deciron we have started to design and make many more Spiral Stair Cases. In this post I will put some examples, and also you can see them at http://deciron.com/stair.aspx We put much pride into these designs. They are sturdy and beautiful at the same time, which is the perfect combination when getting your own spiral stair case. These wrought Iron spiral stair cases come in custom design as well as standard ones.

We do not sell spiral stair cases kits, because they are so flimsy and unreliable. To make your home have a greater unique look, either inside or out, our spiral stair cases are the best.

Here is an example:

This image is also in http://www.deciron.com/ and there are more examples of spiral stair cases in that website. The Spiral Stairs gave such elegance to the back yard of this home. It was installed in less that two hours.  At the top of the stairs it had a Small railing door that make the spiral stair case secure from small kids trying to go down the stairs to fast, or without help.

This is another example found in our website http://www.deciron.com/. It is a slight different design, and also a different color. We have custom color available, white is a very common custom color. It gives the railing a more pure look, for people with decorative ideas for their back yard. We can spice up your spiral stair cases
and give your house a new look.

To get a quote on getting one of these beautiful spiral stair cases, you can just contact us by email or phone.

email: deciron1@bellsouth.net
phone: toll free 1-877-803-2282

Main Line: 704-921-0018
Sales Line: 704-921-7575

A link to our contact us is http://deciron.com/contactus.aspx