Deck Railing in Hebron, KY

Hebron is unincorporated, so it goes to the Boone County building department in Burlington and not to a city office. On a run this long the drawing carries the post centers as a dimension across the whole width, because that spacing is both what the guard load is checked against and the thing the crew is building to.

Commonly around six feet, and the exact figure comes from dividing the run so that every bay matches instead of from a default. Closing the spacing up slightly to make the arithmetic come out costs very little and it is what stops a narrow odd bay at one end.

Over a post, every time. A joint in the middle of a bay has nothing under it. Over a post it is supported from beneath and it stays shut, and on a run you read end to end that is the joint nobody notices.

It matters to how the guard is seen. With nothing behind it you take in the whole run at once and from a long way off, side on as well as square on, so the line gets looked at from more angles than a guard tucked between two houses ever gets.

Aluminum holds a straight line over distance better than anything else we fit, because the rail is extruded and it does not take a set. Timber is the easiest to match to a timber deck and it is the most affordable to buy, and on shorter bays it holds its line perfectly well. On thirty unbroken feet the straightness is the thing worth weighing.

It can, and on a wide deck it often looks better. A heavier post at the third points, or a change of infill across one section, gives the eye something to measure against and the length stops being the first thing you see. That is a drawing decision and it costs nothing to make.