Every strength figure on this page is our own engineering calculation. We hold no ICC-ES evaluation report, no Intertek CCRR and no third-party test. Where our own numbers say we do not pass, this page says so. Your building official has the final say.
The route for a guard system is ICC-ES AC273 — the acceptance criteria an evaluation report is written against. Intertek's CCRR route tests to the same building-code loads. Three tests run on one specimen: two posts at maximum spacing, with every component including the base connection. Each load is held for one minute.
| Test | Load | Applied where | Pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-fill | 125 lbf 2.5 × the 50 lb code load | Over 1 ft² of the infill | No failure, no disengagement, no visible cracks |
| Uniform | 125 lbf/ft | Vertically and outward at 45° | As above. Skipped for residential-only recognition |
| Concentrated | 500 lbf 2.5 × the 200 lb code load | Twice: midspan of the top rail, and the top of a single post | As above. Deflection recorded at 200 lbf: post h/12, rail h/24 + l/96 |
It is a physical test, not a calculation, and it does not forbid the steel yielding. It forbids failure. That distinction decides everything below: a material with a wide gap between bending and breaking is forgiving, and one without is not. Q235 steel has 57% of reserve past yield. 6061-T6 aluminium has 8%.
Ratios are our calculated capacity against the 500 lbf demand at the post top. Above 1.00 means the post carries it.
| Line | Post | 36″ | 42″ | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ProGuard | 50 × 50 × 2.7 mm Q235 | 1.05 | 0.90 | Passes at 36″. At 42″ it forms a plastic hinge below the proof load |
| CoastLine | 50 × 50 × 3.81 mm 6061-T6 | 1.07 | 0.92 | Knife-edge at 36″, and the welded base is the real limit — see below |
| EdgeLine | 40 × 40 × 1.35 mm | 0.35 | — | Decorative, 36″ ground level only. We do not rate it for fall protection and we do not sell it for a balcony |
On an aluminium post the base plate is welded, and the greatest bending is exactly at that weld. Welding 6061-T6 costs roughly half its strength in the zone beside the weld. On that basis CoastLine's base is its governing limit, not its wall. Makers who pass this test solve it three ways: a thicker wall (Viewrail, 3.81 mm), mechanical screws backing the weld (Westbury), or a heavy plate with a continuous fillet (Trex). Our published specification is changing to match, and until it does we do not claim a pass.
Certification is not a marketing word — a report has a number, a scope and an expiry.
| Maker | Report | What it actually covers |
|---|---|---|
| Fortress | CCRR-0248 | Cable, commercial use groups, 93.5″ at 42″ — on a 2″ steel post with a 2.5 mm wall |
| Feeney | CCRR-0570 | 36″ at 6 ft residential; 42″ at 5 ft commercial. Heavy-duty post required for horizontal cable end posts |
| Westbury | CCRR-0530 | Commercial and Florida high-velocity hurricane zone. Stainless shim plates mandatory under every base |
| Viewrail | ESR-4798 | Residential only. 48″ post spacing for cable. Must be labelled one- and two-family dwellings only |
| Trex | CCRR-0202 | 96″ at 42″ residential; commercial only where the supporting structure is separately engineered |
| VEVOR · Muzata · Gyykzz · CKE | None | No report, and in several cases the listing contradicts itself on grade or wall |
| CR Fence & Rail | None yet | Calculated only. This page is the honest version of that |
Note what nobody holds: not one certificate in this field covers a commercial cable span at 42″ beyond 5 ft, and the most-cited residential report is explicitly limited to houses. A seller claiming "code compliant" without a number is claiming nothing.
| Post | Wall | Base plate | Report | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CR ProGuard | 2″ square | 2.7 mm | 13 mm | none yet |
| Fortress cable post | 2″ square | 2.5 mm | 6 mm | CCRR-0248 — and that 2.5 mm is a minimum, not a nominal: CCRR-0192 §5.2 requires “the minimum wall thickness indicated in Figure 11”, and Figure 11 reads “2 Inch X 2.5mm Tube” |
| Viewrail certified post | 2″ square | 3.81 mm | — | ESR-4798 |
| Zylorix Marine (316) | 2″ square | 1.35 mm | 6 mm | none |
| Gyykzz | 2″ square | 1.0 mm | — | none |
A guard rail fails in one of two places: the post bends, or the base tears off the deck. Everything else is trim. So there are only two numbers worth comparing, and most listings publish neither.
A post is a hollow tube. What resists a person falling against it is the thickness of that tube wall — not how wide the post looks. A 2-inch post with a thin wall is a 2-inch post that bends.
Watch for “nominal”. Steel tube is normally sold at a nominal wall and mills are allowed to deliver up to 10% under it, so a post ordered at 2.5 mm can legally arrive at 2.25 mm. Every wall we publish is the ACTUAL delivered thickness, not the number on the order.
The post is welded to a flat steel or aluminium plate, and that plate bolts to your deck. Under load the plate tries to peel up off the surface. A thin plate bends before the post ever does, and no amount of post makes up for it.
| Post | Wall | Base plate | What backs the claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our ProGuard (steel) | 2.7 mm actual | 13 mm | Built to clear the certified numbers below |
| Our CoastLine (aluminium) | 3.81 mm | 13 mm | Same wall as the certified aluminium post below |
| Fortress (steel) | 2.5 mm minimum | 6 mm | Intertek CCRR-0248 — commercial |
| Viewrail (aluminium) | 3.81 mm | 9.65 mm | ICC-ES ESR-4798 — residential |
| Trex (aluminium) | 3.18 mm | 12.7 mm | Intertek CCRR-0202 |
| Budget listings (VEVOR, Muzata, CKE and similar) | often not published — where it is, commonly 1.0–1.5 mm | not published | No report. No test. No published wall. |
That last row is the real comparison. A cheap rail is not cheap because someone found a clever saving — it is cheap because the wall is thinner, the plate is thinner, and nobody has tested it. When a listing does not tell you the wall thickness, that is the answer.
ICC-ES and Intertek reports are not paperwork. The maker hands a finished section to an independent lab, which pushes 500 lb into the top rail and again into the post and holds it, then checks for cracks or anything pulling loose. Passing means a physical assembly survived, not that a calculation said it would.
We are candid about where we stand: we do not yet hold one of these reports. What we do instead is build to more metal than the posts that passed — our steel post carries more section than the commercially certified one, our aluminium post matches the certified one wall for wall, and both sit on a thicker base plate than any product in the table above.
Our wall is twice the thinnest post sold on the same shelf and our base plate is the heaviest in that group. It is still less than the one post in the field that has passed the test.
We would rather tell you what we have not done than imply we have done it.