Installation was easy, quality was great and very durable

Practically unnoticeable when installed correctly. Very durable, high quality. Easy to install if you followed the directions. Kind of expensive but it's the best system I have seen. Once it's all installed it looks great.

I used these components (swaged version) for a custom, interior railing build with hardwood posts. The end result of the build was excellent and the flexibility of how these can be used was very helpful.The good:1. Using a combination of lag screw and through-post tensioners provided good flexibility of application.2. The finishing washers or sleeves, as they call them, come with very effective double-sided backers that adhere well to most surfaces. I applied them to oiled hardwood and they worked great.3. The overall look and quality of the stainless steel is quite good.The less good:The hex heads on the through-post tensioners are of inconsistent machining. Several were unusable, as there was not enough depth to the hex slot for a tool to get sufficient purchase. Make sure you order more than the minimum that you need.2. The tensioning tool is effective, but hard on the hands when working with it continously.3. The supplied hex keys are soft metal and also hard on the hands. I used my own ratchet and hex bit instead.All in all, good value for the price and if you have some skills and tools, the limitations can be overcome.

** one year update at the end**The CR73 kit is relatively easy to install, if you have decent, if not advanced, DIY skills.  You will need some extra tools, some relatively expensive like the crimping tool. While you could use other tools, the crimping tool they recommend just works well, and in the end, you are saving thousands over hiring out the job! Buy the crimping tool!  You will need a good drill, a 10mm drill bit. The kit DOES come with a larger drill bit, but the 10mm one recommended works great in PT pine. If you have harder wood, you might want to use the larger, included drill bit. I suspect if you use the larger bit on soft pine, the anchors might have more of a chance to pull out.Doing stairs is far more challenging than horizontal sections. You need to take your time, especially if you must go through center posts!  You need great accuracy. Look at the official Muzata youtube channel (they have my video) for more detailed tips and tricks!It is far more time consuming than I expected. I expected to do it in one or 2 weekends.  Took me 2 weekends to do half of my project!Buy extra crimps! As far as I know, Muzata does not sell extra crimp ferrules. They are available from other sellers on Amazon pretty inexpensive.  you WILL make mistakes!I have said many times in my videos, to tap the wood with one of the anchors using a drill. Just chuck it up in it, and use it to power tap the wood! This will make it a LOT easier to tune later!The pre-sales estimate/design was wonderful!  If you send them accurate sketches of your deck, they will provide a detailed parts list.  If you take your time, you will be very thrilled with the results!I want to emphasize to use a 10mm bit and pre-tap the holes in Pressure Treated Pine. A larger hole MAY allow pull out. You will put a lot of tension on the wire when you are done.  You can always make a hole bigger. it is hard to make it smaller!Be careful on the depth of holes on corner posts , or posts that have 2 anchors! you don't want them to hit each other!** update **So far the kit is holding up well, almost a year into it. Still looks great. One thing I noticed is the wire became loose over the time. I can think of a couple ways this happened. The wire expanded/contracted with our heat/cold weather, the wire stretched over time, or the posts (4x4 PT) bent slightly under the constant tension of the wires. I don't see any indication the screws came unscrewed. In any case, I need to tension all the screws again. I hope I have enough space to tension them. Also if you glued the finishing washers in, you will have to peel them off, tension the wire, and put the finishing washer back.New recommendation is to install as directed, and tape the washers on, let the wire stretch, tension 6 months or a year later, then commit to using the strong adhesive on the washers.Other than that, the finished result is outstanding. Not HARD to install, but time consuming. Stairs, as I mentioned are the hardest! Especially if you have a turn like I do. get the angle from the railing, not the stairs! For some reason, my stairs are a few degrees off from the railing.Some additional tipsuse 2 drills! One to drill the hole, and another to chuck an anchor into to tap the holes. They really should make a proper tap to do this, but an anchor works.Chuck one of the screws into your drill and use it as a tap to tap the hole beforehand screwing in. Makes life a lot easierStill, in PINE/PT, use a 10MM (25/64) drill bit! Harder wood you might need the 10.5 that is included. Using one of the anchors as a tap in your drill makes life a lot easier!

Very easy to install. Be sure to drill the holes deep enough to take out any slack. Measure the cable carefully.

Redid my sun deck. Great updates at an affordable price

I am a builder, cabinet maker and wood worker with 50 years experience. This is the best lag based system I have seen! I can’t understand all the problems people are having. The 10.5mm bit is the one to use, not 3/8 or 25/64. I have tried them they don’t work. The 7mm bit for the protective sleeves is not very good it tears up wood and pbly worse on a composite sleeve. I bought a 7 mm twist drill instead. I bought extra bits based on the bad reviews and now have about 6 of them. The aggressive thread design is sharp and excellent and cuts thru soft wood like PT just fine. The coarse thread and 10.5 mm combo pbly will not work on hardwood. The amount of tensioning distance that is capable is very user friendly. I did find that on a 30deg. stair I had to set the tensioners in deeper pbly based on the geometry of the grain. I have also used their invisible tensioner bolt thru design and find it also very good. I would like to suggest a slight modification in design so that it can also be used on sleeve posts. The adhesive washer is kind of cheesy and the hole accommodates 3/16 as well as 1/8. I have a slight modification of this if Muzata would like to reach out to me. Here are pictures of my project with tool hacks that are self explanatory. On cedar posts and redwood you may very well have to use the 25/64 drill bit as these woods are softer than PT (southern yellow pine).

I purchase from amazon a lot, but I've never written a review. I feel compelled to write one for this product to save others from a lot of headaches. The product is great and looks fantastic after installation. However, the tool that comes with it is horrible and breaks. After fighting with this for hours, I remembered my father would put soap on screws that were tight. I got a bar of soap, few scraps on the threads and they go in with no problem, no more broken tools, and very little resistance to into the swage. Anyone considering installing, you MUST lubricate the Lag Screw!!

Like1) I like the hidden fastener concept.Dislike1) The head strips pretty easy and once they do you can't tighten or remove.2) You have to buy their low quality wrench to install that is overpriced at $25.99.3) Finishing grommets are very expensive $1.08 each and are basically a stainless steel washer with 3M double sided tape that you need to manually attach.4) Doesn't seem like much bite on the threads for soft wood. I'm not going to try and test for 200 lb tension/hold strength especially on the 4"x 4" corner post where you can't sink them as deep for fear of hitting the other anchor.5) I wouldn't mind $3.15 each if other components needed were reasonably priced and I had more confidence in the hold strength.

The tool that you have to use with this system is soft metal and breaks within 5 minutes. Tried using slightly larger bit and still did not work. Only thing that kinda worked was to find a lag bolt with similar thread to put in first (to work as a tap into wood)). Would be OK if you had a few but I had around 500 to install and just switched to their turnbuckle system. It was cheaper as well.