My Decking Screws Experience
I’m very new to the do it yourself world so when I made a decision to build my very own deck, I had to complete some extensive research into what decking screws were perfect for what types of environments. I’d like very much to share what I found with you.
It sounded like a fairly easy task to construct myself a little deck overlooking the swimming pool and, at first it absolutely was. The drawing up of the plans went with no hitch and I got a bit of really good advice on what wood to make use of and how it should be treated. What I didn’t get told was how many different types of decking screws there are.
The first thing you should know is the fact that for outdoor usage, stainless steel decking screws are the best, especially if you live near the coast where water content in the air is high. Stainless-steel decking screws are available in various grades. Marine grade (316) is best because it is quite high in nickel and won’t rust easily. Using stainless-steel decking screws is even more important if you use a hardwood for the deck. Many other metals will react with the wood and could either rust quickly or produce satins on your lovely wood.
The following thing will be: do not skimp on the expense. There is a major difference between cheap “marine grade” decking screws and more expensive marine decking screws. Among the risks of utilizing cheap decking screws is they strip more easily. This is particularly relevant when you are using a hardwood for you deck. The denseness of the wood is such that a lot of force is required to have the screws to tap into the wood, a substandard screw won’t stand up to that sort of stress on its head and will inevitably strip, they might even snap off if the neck is of sufficiently substandard quality which means you’ll have an ugly hole in your lovely wood with a low quality bit of screw sticking out of it. If you do get the low quality screw into the wood, the force required to get it in will have made it brittle and much more prone to break under the slightest stress.
If you’re able to locate them, torx screws are better still. They have a 6 pointed star head that is a lot more protected from stripping than even the most top quality stainless steel decking screws.
Also, make sure you have sufficient screws. It’s a good idea to purchase at least one third more screws than you imagine you will need to allow for the unavoidable stripping and breaking of screws, particularly if you are planning on utilizing a cheaper assortment of screw.
So, in general, it’s not a good idea to be a cheap skate when it comes to buying decking screws for your hardwood deck. They strip easily and break under pressure. Also, they are made of low quality metals that will stain your wood and rust away much more quickly than a good quality screw.
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This entry was posted on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at 4:50 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.