All wood members both absorb and release moisture under conditions of wetness and dryness. When both ends of the wood members are rigidly secured, these members impart expansion and contraction forces on the wood member sufficient to cause wallowing damage to the securement means and cause securement failures to occur. While this problem may exist within interior structures, the problem is more significant with exterior exposed structures such as wood deck railings.

The slip bracket connector SBC-B shown above, is a baluster bracket that secures the wood member in two directions (around the wood member) while allowing the length of the wood member to expand and contract (or slip) within the bracket. The allowance of free movement in the length dimension mitigates the high expansion and contraction forces that lead to both fastener failures and other related connection problems. A typical 2”x2”baluster deck application is shown in Fig 2.

The vertical wood balusters shown in Fig 2 are thereby allowed vertical slip within the slip bracket while held securely by the top screw fasteners. The lower slip bracket secures the baluster against a kick out force from the top deck.

The SBC-B is made to accommodate existing decking where access to the lower deck rail makes screw attachment more difficult to access. The slip bracket tab can be simply screwed to the top face of the lower rail.

For new deck construction you may also use Slip Bracket Connector “A”.