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In this video I want to talk to you about larger than deck screw sized fasteners for decks
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And I think the one you're most likely to use is a carriage bolt. So this is hot dipped galvanized
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It's corrosion resistant. And this is the kind of thing that you'd use to fasten say
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you know a ledger board or maybe a beam to some posts
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I personally wouldn't rely on this sort of connection exclusively. I would work it into some kind of a notch that would also hold the horizontal piece of wood you're dealing with
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But basically this just goes, in this case it's a half an inch diameter, so it goes into a half inch hole
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The carriage bolt has this square top to the the shank of the bolt
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So it kind of goes into the hole and grips it sufficiently so that in most cases you don't need to grab the head
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You can just tighten the nut and it pulls it in tight and it looks nice and is streamlined and strong
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And this is kind of your your basic standard heavy duty type fastener. So carriage bolt
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This is similar. This is called a lag bolt or a lag screw. So it's like a great big wood screw
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It doesn't have machine threads for a nut like this. It's wood screw type threads
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And something like this would be driven into a hole that is somewhat smaller than the outer diameter of the threaded portion
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Since decks are almost always made out of softwood, you would pre-drill a hole that would be somewhat narrower
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somewhat smaller in diameter than the distance from the bottom of one side of the threads to the other
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Because softwood is, you can kind of compress it a little bit
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If you were working with hardwood, which hardly ever happens, you'd want to drill that hole so it's the same size as the bottom of the threads
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Leaving just the threads to cut into the wood. But something like this is fairly strong
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It would be used with a flat washer. Sort of like this washer here
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I prefer a bolt like this because I think you can get more tension on it
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But you can't always get to the back of your fastener every time
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Which is what's required to tighten up a nut like this. So that's where a lag screw would come in
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When you need to hold something heavy, but you can only want to get at it from one side
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So once again, hot dip galvanized. That's a very good corrosion resistance kind of thing
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Now over the last, I don't know, 10 years or so, a class of fastener has entered the market
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It fills the space between the heavy duty bolt type things like this and jack screws
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And that family of new fasteners is called structural screws. And they're made by different companies
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Camel is one brand name. Headlock. Headlock is the particular kind made by the Fastenmaster company
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This is the first kind I've ever used. Structural screws, they have a fairly large thread
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So more gripping power than your average deck screw. And more importantly they have a bigger head
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than a deck screw. So if you've ever driven deck screws, you know it's easy to just keep on
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driving them. The head just disappears in the wood because the heads aren't that big and the heads are
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angled as well. So this is a flat style. Really holds things together well
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And these are corrosion resistant in any outdoor application you might find
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Here's another one. This is made by the Simpson Strongtie people. They make some great stuff
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Look at that. The head's even bigger on that one. So as I said, this fills the space
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in situations where a deck screw is too small and one of these bigger bolts is too large
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The structural screws come in all kinds of lengths too. I mean here's a big whopper. Same size
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same style of threads, same style of head. And this particular one is for use with structural
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insulated panels, which is a whole other topic. But I just wanted to show you that they come in
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all kinds of lengths and they're very useful. I keep lots on stock because you never know
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when you're going to need something like that. There is something I would consider it just
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slightly beefier than a regular deck screw. So maybe where you don't want a head showing as
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prominently as something like this. So this is GRK. Makes a bunch of fasteners like this
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This one happens to be fairly long, just over six inches long. Not quite the same thread size as a structural screw, but bigger than a deck screw. And a nice
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looking head which countersinks itself in and really looks quite attractive when it's used in
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an actual situation. So keep these things in mind because I can assure you that building any deck
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always presents opportunities where the deck screw isn't big enough and a leg screw and a
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regular carriage bolt is too big. That's where these structural type screws come in
