Deck screws in PTW wood

[clare]

Good meaning "hot dipped", not plated. Rough, nasty, scaly finish is the halmark of the hot dipped fastener. Sometimes they are bonded together by the zink when you buy them - -

[notbob]

That was my buddy's argument. Screws allow dis-assembly. I hope to never have to disassemble this deck before I take a much needed dirt nap. ;)

nb

[Diesel]

You aren't kidding. And, that's a polite way to put it.

[clare]

Wife is a nurse. (retired)

[Mayayana]

| > I'm in New England. Lots of weather extremes. | | You aren't kidding. And, that's a polite way to put it. |

It has its good points. I like the way that the cycles evoke reflection. September brings lust for life, a sense of loss, missed opportunity and sadness at the end of Summer. November brings sense of death with ugly, dead, brown landscape. Winter has cozy lunches of delcious soup. Spring is always amazing after the long Winter. Summer is more beautiful than just about anyplace else I know.... If I were in San Diego I guess I'd just get up every day to sunny room temperature. I expect that would get old.

Today it was 90F. By Monday they're predicting a high in the mid 60s. Over the weekend I've got to figure out what I did with my long pants. :)

But I do dislike what the salt does to car frames.

[gfretwell]

I am doing a test on this as we speak It has been going on for close to 2 years and I haven't seen anything unusual yet. This is sitting on the south side of my screen cage, out in the yard.

[gfretwell]

You can still get CCA wood from a marine contractors supply but the lumber is only going to be .6 or .8 CCA The poles are still 2.5 tho.

[Muggles]

We should all have a coffee mug that lists all the different careers we've had over the years.

[gfretwell]

I think my wife would be in the running.

She stated out in a grocery store as a night stocker then Pharmacy assistant Guard Unloaded hogs at Rudy's Sausage in Arkansas Loading dock manager in Tampa Lab tech at Fox Electronics in Ft Myers sold carpet Owned a florist shop (FTD master florist) Floral manager Publix Sold landscape Sold Safety supplies (Zee truck) Sold advertising at the local paper Sold Health Life and annuities Retail store asst manager (home goods 2 places) Sold HVAC systems (Trane top 10 performer 2 years in a row) Built over 100 houses and brought a community out of the ground Now site manager at a gated commmunity/country club and looking around for something else.

[Stormin Mormon]

Oddly enough, the lst few weeks I've been noticing a couple boards coming loose, on my deck. I'd got some 1 5/8 inch deck screws, they seemed to help. But not really long enough to anchor well. The boards are an inch or so, and that's not much thread into the beams. Later I find that I've got a box of 3 inch deck screws. My plan is later today to pilot hole through the deck boards, and put in a couple three inchers, between the shorter screws.

That should help hold the Pressure Treated Wood wood.

If not might need to visit an ATM machine, on the way to get my auotomobile VIN number.

[Stormin Mormon]

Some folks list it on paper, and call it a re'sume'.

[Mayayana]

| I am doing a test on this as we speak | It has been going on for close to 2 years and I haven't seen anything | unusual yet. | This is sitting on the south side of my screen cage, out in the yard. |

That looks interesting. Too bad you can't sell it to Consumer Reports. :)

One comment: Personally I have found that galvanized screws, equivalent to drywall screws, can rust away. I don't think the problem is so much the rust per se as the thinness of the screws. They can't afford *any* rust. I wouldn't use them at all for joist hangers because they have little shear strength.

Similarly, I like to use coarse drywall screws for light framing because they're easy to remove and a lot less work than hammering. But I wouldn't use them where strength is needed. They just don't have anywhere near the shear strength of a 16d nail.

The coated screws are heavier guage, though they haven't been around long enough to know how they hold up.

I don't have a nail gun. Sometimes I think I should buy one, but there seem to be 3 sizes to cover all nails. It's a lot of money and I'm always doing different things, so it's hard to justify. (I might frame for 1 day on a bath remodel and spend one day doing trim, with 6 weeks of other work.) But another hesitation for me with nail guns is that they compress the wood as they go through. Time and again I see where a nailgun was used to put in twice the typical number of nails, yet they're not holding well because they've essentially pre-drilled a nail-size hole on their way in. On the other hand, anyone used to using a nailgun would have a very hard time accepting that criticism because the time and effort they save is so substantial.

[Muggles]

She's going to need an extra large coffee mug!

[HerHusband]

I have always used galvanized nails that are made specifically for joist hangers. They're short (maybe 1.25 inches) but thick (like a 16D nail).

I believe Simpson makes screws specifically for joist hangers (Strong Screws). They're harder and are designed for high sheer strength. I've used the larger versions of the Strong Screws for seismic tie downs and they are very strong. I've used them many times as a quick substitute for lag bolts.

I don't believe codes allow anything else for hangers, certainly not drywall screws or deck screws. Not only are they weak and brittle, but they can have galvanic reactions with different metal hangers that will cause them to corrode prematurely.

Drywall screws are incredibly weak and brittle. Heck, they break quite often just installing drywall. Very thin shafts and no rust resistance.

I do use the gold screws (essentially a pretty drywall screw) for quick little projects though, like jigs or to temporarily hold something together.

I've been using coated "deck" screws for at least 15+ years. Some brands are good, others don't seem much better than drywall screws. The newer 10 gauge screws with torx heads seem quite sturdy. I wouldn't use them for building a house (too slow to drive all those screws), but use them frequently for decks and other small framing projects.

I have a framing nailer that I use for both 16D nails for framing, and 8D nails for siding. One gun basically covers all of my framing needs.

Of course, when I move indoors to trim work I need another gun to drive

16 gauge finish nails.

For woodworking, I use a third gun for smaller 18 gauge brad nails.

I've thought about getting a pin nailer too, but just haven't had the need. The three guns I have seem to work fine for everything I've wanted to do.

I can see where a palm nailer would be handy too... :)

I find the nail gun is far less likely to split thin boards than if I try to drive a finish nail by hand. Speed is a bonus too, as is being able to hold a board with one hand and nail it with the other. Strength is rarely an issue for trim work, and can actually be a benefit when you need to remove the trim for repairs or other tasks.

For framing work, you can get much better holding strength by using ring shank nails. They probably don't have the same pull resistance as a rough galvanized nail, but either nail is relatively easy to pull straight out. It's best not to rely on the withdrawal strength and more on the sheer strength. Framing nails hold things together, but nailing sheathing and subflooring to the faces of the framing is what really keeps them from pulling apart.

Anthony Watson

[HerHusband]

I just dismantled our back stairs I built about 6-7 years ago. I had a few screws that snapped, but stripped heads were the more common problem. The vast majority unscrewed just fine. Certainly easier and far less damage than trying to pull nails (I try to repurpose old lumber whenever possible).

For cedar and redwood I always use stainless steel screws. These prevent the ugly black stains around the screws. Unfortunately, stainless is fairly soft so it's easy to strip the heads, even when installing them. The newest ones I used had torx heads and I didn't strip a single screw this time around.

I prefer screws for decks. They don't work their way out the way nails can. I've seen several decks that were nailed where the heads were sticking up

1/8 to 1/4 inch. Dangerous for bare feet.

Anthony Watson

[gfretwell]

I disagree about the nail gun. They slam the nail in with one big push and they are a lot harder to pull out than a hammer driven nail. People tend to use more nails because it is so easy to do. I ended up with the 3 you allude to but one is a roof nailer. My big framing nailer shoots up to 3.25" nails and the smaller one shoots up to 2.5". The roof nailer shoots roofing nails. I also have an 18ga brad nailer tho. I probably use that one the most.

I just put a deck down with 2,5" ring shank SS nails. We will see how that works.

[notbob]

I watch an acquaintance install joist hangers on a new deck. Not understanding what he was doing, I asked. He said he was using a palm nailer. I'd never heard/seen one before, so asked him to elaborate. It's a air driven device that hammers, in small rapid air driven strokes, nails into wood. He was driving what looked like < 1-1/2" to

2" galvanized nails. Blew me away! 8|

nb

[notbob]

My deck is about 12-13 yrs old. PTW, but never any sealer applied. It was installed with 3-1/2 gold (anodized?) phillips head deck screws. The wood is now dried out and splitting, lotta screws stick up about 1/4" and are so rusty, they either break off when trying to unscrew or I can pull them out with a pair of pliers, the threads having completely rusted off. I doubt the screws have twisted out, it's more a case of the wood shrinking (I'm guessing).

nb

[gfretwell]

Florida is the land of Simpson clips. Just about every vertical joint in a stick built house has a clip and most have a bunch of nails. (sole plate to stud, stud to top plate and a strap over the truss) If you do that kind of work you get the "direct placement" adapter for your small gun. It will put a nail in the hole every time.

[Diesel]

For some, the print would have to be so small as to be nearly unreadable in order to fit everything on the mug. [g]