When Your Balusters Are Loose

I seem to be having a spate of luck where, inspection after inspection, I a running into high decks. We are not talking three feet high. I mean decks that are 18 or 20 feet high and they are situated over valleys below. When such a deck is inspected it is very important that it be solid to the house. Another thing we inspectors want is proper spacing of the balusters. The standard safety guideline today is that balusters should be close enough together that a four inch sphere will not pass through. At many decks I find spacing much wider than that -- like a foot or more.

The other day I found a deck that had spacing just under four inches. I was very pleased, until I pressed on them. Oooops. Those balusters need to not only have the right spacing but they also have to stay in one place if a child, or the wind, is fiddling with them

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith