Cut my deck board gaps with a stack of 3 pennies instead of buying a spacer kit

Spencer Thomas · 2026-10-02T04:35:04.393975+00:00

When I rebuilt the deck on the back of my house in Knoxville last spring, I kept fighting uneven gaps between the boards. I tried those little plastic spacers you get at the big box store but they kept popping out and I'd end up with some gaps tight and some wide enough to drop a hot dog through. My dad stopped by one Saturday and watched me fuss with it for about 20 minutes, then he reached in his pocket and pulled out three pennies. He taped them together and said just drop this in the gap and pull it along as you screw down each board. I felt like a dummy because it worked on the very first row. Three pennies stacked up is right about a quarter inch, which is what you want for pressure treated pine so it can swell. I finished the rest of the deck in two afternoons with almost no rework and I still have that taped up stack of pennies in my toolbox. Anybody else got a dumb simple trick like that for spacing deck boards or fencing pickets? I'm about to start a cedar fence and I'd rather not buy another gadget.

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