Aluminum railing and posts not vertical

I had an aluminum railing installed on my deck by a company who started out of plumb with the first post by 1/4". I know that doesn't sound like much, but now all the posts across are not vertical or plumb either.

The posts and railing just look very crooked when the spacing of the deck boards are so straight.

What can be done to fix this? Is there any way to make it look straight or am I stuck with this bad appearance?

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Jun 16, 2021
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need more info NEW
by: Anonymous

All decks should have at least 2% slope away from the house which is about 1/4" per foot, can you provide more details about this its hard to give a recommendation in your railing

Aug 24, 2015
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Railing on slope
by: Anonymous

If you are dealing with a 2% slope on a 12' deck that is a 2" drop from house to outer edge of deck. Adjusting post will not correct that problem. I have this problem and plan to use stair post and attach wall brackets as needed.

Jun 16, 2013
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How to adjust a railing to plumb
by: Editor - Rich Bergman

Sounds like your deck has a slope and they did not account for this. All decks should have at least 2% slope away from the house which is about 1/4" per foot.

Each post should have been shimmed under the low side of the post base with something as small as a stainless steel flat washer. That would have been enough to almost make it perfect or at least not noticeable to the eye.

The challenge with an aluminum deck railing system is that it is very stiff and rigid and even if you unscrewed the two screws on the front or lower sloped side of each post base, the rail to post connections and the balusters themselves are usually all connected together so strongly that there is very little give to the railing sections as a whole.

It's hard to say exactly from what you have described but you may have to dismantle the railing and reconnect the sections to each post after the posts be been properly plumbed. Not a huge problem but some work involved.

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