Hooooookay, putting up balusters on a deck railing using the Trex website. Now, this is a good app but like most carpentry you better have your wits about you. Joe McBurbanite hopes he didn't sleep thru that class in 5th grade.

First mistake, when they tell you a 2x2 is their nominal and it actually measures 1 1/2 x 1 1/2, that doesn't mean your treated wood baluster does, and it measures 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 in real life.

Plug it in as the custom dimension, they were being nice to allow it.

Now heres the Code: no more than 4" between balusters so little Johnnie the ferel 4 year old sneaking over to your pool at olight:30 AM climbing over the fence doesn't stick his head between them and hangs his little self at your expense. And no, these days you don't get to spank him, prevention is your only cure.

This is where I mention that I misused the calculator, selected their nominial product size, and wound up with 4 1/2 spacing between the balusters. And I was halfway done. Off they come. I need to add another in the spacing to get it right.

I'm sparing you the math but letting you in on the complication - a none code railing is more than just a potential death trap, if you deliberately do it then negligence comes into play at the court trial. And the #1 method of dying by toddlers up to 5 years of age? Falling in the pool and drowning. At that age and body build, they are like cats, if they can get their head thru they can wiggle the rest of it, too.

Don't be me and figure it wrong, then forget to check until your halfway done.

Helpful link to decks calaculator: https://www.decks.com/calculat...r-spacing-calculator

We’ll that stinks. But at least you noticed before you were completely finished. If you didn’t, make yourself a jig for spacing the balusters. Really speeds up the process. I built a deck on our old house. Lot of work but I really enjoyed it.

I had a similar issue when replacing the wood spindles with metal one in my second floor foyer.

I spent hours trying to figure out the spacing so each spindle would be 4" apart. Its most likely never going to work.

I finally figured out to just start dead center in the middle and work my way to the ends. You will have an orphan spindle on each side. They can always be less than 4" but never more.