No matter what don't space them more then 4 inches apart.  You will fail your inspection. Here I explain on to space the balusters. And how to install them.

Now for the most part I never seen a building inspector measure the spacing of the balusters. This of course doesn't mean he wont on yours. Very simple the code is that no more then a 4 inch round ball may pass through the opening of any balusters above ground level more them 18 inches high.

I install the first baluster using a small scrap piece of 2x4, which measures 3 1/2 wide. Installing the first one , I use the spacer I just found on the ground, nailing only the top of the balusters first. Then I go back over them to nail in the bottoms, but now I don't use the spacer. I use a level, leveling out each one as I nail it the rest of the way in.

This way I'm 100% that all my balusters wont exceed the 4 inch rule and they are as straight as could be.

If you are installing 2x2 balusters which measure 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 wide. Most of home owners will use nails. And this fine, you will want to use galvanised nails that are no longer then 3 inches long. I like using #8 mails. They are 2 3/4 long.  You would put two nails on the top and two on the bottom. If you have very dry wood you may experience splinting which I don't have to say can be very aggravating. In this case I have two answers for you. One wet your balusters with water, this will start to expand the wood and help in not splitting the wood. I have to explain the second one in detail so most will understand.. 

OK, now when you put a nail into wood, what the nail is doing with the sharp point is pushing and spreading and splitting the wood. What you want it to do is plow threw the wood, pushing the wood in front of the nail straight threw the wood not allowing the extra space in the wood (a nail) to push on the sides of the nail and making a splint. In order to make a nail plow and not push to the outsides is easy. Remove the point by just placing the head of the nail on your concrete wall way or what ever and hit the point with a hammer. Just once or twice is fine. Give it try you will be very amazed how this works.   

Related Items:

1. what's the difference
2. And the winner is
3. Are all Caulks the Same?
4. Ask any DIY question
5. Deck Flashing

1. Decks

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Add Comment