The fasteners holding your frame together bear the load of your deck. The framing of your deck is what holds it up. Who hasn’t had the experience of breaking off a screw head while driving a screw into a board? Nails, on the other hand, may bend, but they won’t break. Screws do have more tensile strength, but they are also much more brittle than nails. While screws have many great advantages, you shouldn’t skip the nail part of the hardware aisle when shopping for deck fasteners. If a piece of decking is damaged or begins to rot, for example, it’s much easier to remove the screws with a power driver and replace the board than it is to pry the damaged board loose. Screws can also be removed much more easily, which is significant as you consider future repairs to your deck. This is because screws are generally thicker than nails. The driving process associated with screws causes the two materials to be pulled tightly together when the screw is driven in with a power driver, resulting in a stronger connection.Īlthough screws are more brittle than nails (we’ll get back to that in a second), they do have more tensile strength than nails. Screws also have a few more advantages over nails. Screws will hold tight in these conditions while nails will begin to loosen and pull out. Keep in mind that your deck is outdoors and thus will be subject to intense weather conditions that will cause the wood to swell and contract continually over its lifetime. The threads on a screw, however, will prevent a screw from “backing out” of the wood, resulting in a structure that will remain sturdier over time. Since a nail lacks threads, it may eventually slide back out of the wood, creating a structure that becomes less stable over time. The shaft of your standard nail, meanwhile, is smooth, which of course allows it to be pounded into the wood with a hammer or propelled in with a nailer. Screws are threaded, which means they bite into the wood as they are being driven in. ScrewsĪt first glance, screws seem to be the overwhelming choice when answering the question of nails or screws. Additionally, you need to know when it’s time to use screws and when it’s time to use nails. To build a deck that is sturdy and will last many years, you’re going to need both nails and screws. Rather than considering what will get the deck built faster and cheaper, consider what will build the strongest and safest deck. However, as we all know, speed and cost can often come at the expense of quality, and that’s the case here. ![]() That cost difference can be significant when you figure you might need upwards of 20 pounds of screws for a 400 square-foot deck. A one-pound box of 10D three-inch galvanized nails will run you about $6 while a one-pound box of three-inch deck screws will cost you about $10. Screws are generally more expensive than nails. ![]() Enter pneumatic nailers, which are faster than power drivers, and now nails again offer the speediest option for deck assembly.Īside from speed, there’s also cost to consider. With a power driver, screws could be driven into the wood quickly and with less effort, making them the fastener of choice for decking. With the invention of the power driver, that quickly changed. Nails hence were a much faster means of assembling a deck. Before the invention of power drivers, nails could be pounded in quickly with a hammer, while screws required pilot holes and hard-to-use manual drivers. While nails have always been a necessity for at least part of the construction of a deck, there was a time when screws were just too laborious to consider.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |