How to Calculate Equal Spindle Spacings - For any type of Railing

hey everyone I'm Cody with up to code today we're building the pergola and it's perfect chance to teach you the perfect spindle spacing now this is in this scenario I need I want my spacings to be perfect for this scenario and it's the exact same math that you would use if you're doing like an interior railing for your house a deck railing and I'll show you how to do it so you can basically doesn't matter the size of the spindle you can figure out how to do it on your own okay so too much talking already let's do it so what I'm going to draw you is a section view so you can probably see this fence it's the same idea normally what you would have I'll draw it big so you guys can see it you have a post here and a post here right and this is your deck or the floor doesn't matter so what you need to know is this dimension we're gonna make one up we're gonna say it is ninety seven and a half okay then let's talk spindles deck doesn't matter interior so let's say we're gonna do here's our spindles so what you have to keep in mind is that we're gonna count units so one unit is a space and your spindle so space and a spindle is one unit space and another spindle is a second unit so as you go along we have three four five six seven so this would be our seventh now this is the most important part here we have a space but no spindle so what you're going to want to do is we're gonna add the width of a spindle into our calculation and I'll show you two ways to figure this out so let's first off let's say we're using half-inch spindles let's say we're doing an interior railing we want half-inch spindles and we can't be we got to be four inches or less for our space to meet code so whatever your local code is got to keep that in mind all right so our unit space our unit we're gonna shoot for four and a half inches so then the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna add half an inch to my dimension so we're gonna go 98 divided by 4.5 equals and this is just to give us an idea of how many units there's gonna be in this space so 98 divided by four point five is twenty one point seven seven units so you can't have a partial unit you wouldn't go 21 because that's going to space it out more and give you more than a four inch gap what you can't do so then we're gonna go 98 inches divided by 22 units equals 98 divided by 22 equals four point four five four five inches so what that'll tell you is if you just minus 0.5 this space here I'll just use a different color because you know you're spindles are half an inch you know that this dimension is three point nine five four five so from here to here three point nine five four five so you're less than four you're within code and then with this dimension you know exactly if you're doing fill it's you know your fill its eyes and that's how it's done so let's do one more scenario and then we'll back check the math to make sure that we're good to go let's say our spindles now in this scenario are we're using one by force just while these are one by six is on this fence you could use the same math for a fence let's say there's three and a half inches we're using one by force we need our spacing to be four inches or less this number can be anything if you're doing a fence it could be half inch 1 inch whatever you want your spacing to be what I'm showing you today is how to figure out on your own so now our unit size is seven and a half so unit size is seven point five inches then we go so remember we we're gonna have eight spaces so now I gotta take I gotta add my spindle width here so I'm gonna go maybe I'll do it block I'm just gonna go over here 97.5 plus 3.5 equals this is why I don't play cards by the way cuz I can't do I'm great at math I just can't do it in my head too good 101 inches we got to go 101 inches divided by our unit size we need to know how many spacings 101 divided by seven point five is thirteen point four six units but we can have a partial unit so we round that up to 14 so it's a hundred and one inches divided by 14 units equals seven point two one four inches per unit so now remember a unit is a space in your spindle so I'm gonna minus 3.5 so now my gap in between is three point seven one four okay so it's nice about that again you can have your fill its eyes I'll show you a trick too when you're adding it up on the calculating device when you're doing your layout so this is our unit size so if you're pulling your tape you can just pull it from your post to the end of your unit and then it's just the same mark every time so your X would be left left left it goes if you want to be super accurate accurate which you'd want to be on especially on interior work seven point two one four plus seven point two one four equals so my next dimension is 14 point four to eight and what I do because imperialist sucks for this because you have to convert every one later as I just write every spacing sighs so once I have that I just go equals twenty one point six four twenty eight point eight five thirty six point zero seven and I just write them all down and then I got to convert them later so metric definitely has the upper hand on this scenario but I think that gives you guys all the tools you need that way you can just whatever your scenario is if it's a fence and you want a one-inch space of the six inch board you know how to figure it out so that all the spacings are the exact same and it's perfect and one way to double check your math let's do this we're gonna do it in Reverse we are gonna go we're gonna take our unit size times our units so seven point two one four times 14 equals 101 hundred point nine nine six inches so that's our remember our units includes the last spindle so we want a minus 3.5 is ninety seven point four nine six which is ninety seven and a half so if you figure it out in reverse then you know that your bang-on no errors you can do your layout once you lay it out you can double check your last space make sure you're good to go and then you're off to the races guys thanks for tuning in so this top row is the exact decimal placing and then down below I'm just doing my conversions I know it's slow but then I can just have the guys yell this out as I'm doing my layout so here I just want to know okay is 0.56 is that close to 9/16 what's 9/16 0.56 right and I'm just gonna round up to 1/16 here there what's point 3/4 that's about three eight three eight so even if you want to make a chart you go three eighths equals 375 seven sixteenths equals four 375 and you could do a chart right so we're gonna go 5/16 equals three one two five so we're going to go 47 and 5/16 one two five I think is an 863 and an eighth what's 0.9 let's go 15 16 15 16 equals 9 3 7 7 8 8 7 5 so this one whatever doesn't matter 78 and fifteen sixteenths what's a six eight see thirteen sixteenths oh yeah five-eighths c58 equals 6 2 5 11 16 so it's just 11/16 see it's hard one day if you do this 4 million years you'll remember all the decimal places 94 and 11 seven sixteenths 110 and then Aloha last ones 1:26 and a quarter so bang we're dead on

Channel: Kody Horvey

Views: 46,985

Rating: 4.5061727 out of 5

Keywords: how to figure out spindle spacing, spindle spacing on deck, spindle spacing on stairs, up to kode, kody horvey, spindle spacing calculator, fence board spacing, handrail spindles, baluster spacing, deck railing

Id: nVfZCAPvq38

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 17 2019