18 VIDEO – HOW TO CHOOSE CORROSION RESISTANT SCREWS, NAILS & BOLTS*

In this video I want to explain to you how to choose fasteners for your deck

This matters more than ever before because the kind of pressure treated

lumber that's used today is actually highly corrosive to most kinds of metals

Until about 2003, pressure treated lumber, the active ingredient in it was arsenic

An arsenic based compound. Lumber manufacturers decided to phase that out and now they have pressure treating chemicals that are mostly copper based

This is supposed to be safer, supposed to be just as effective for stopping rot

in wood, but it is many times more corrosive to fasteners. So that's why

it's really important for you to choose the right kind because a durable deck

does involve how to stop your wood from rotting and how to keep railings strong

and all that stuff, but none of that really matters if your fasteners are

going to let go and and rust and start falling apart sooner than they should

So that's what this video is all about. So I can show you what's good and what's

kind of good and what's definitely bad and to be stayed away from when you

choose your deck fasteners. So the typical sort of deck screw is something

like this. You might want to look for this these letters ACQ. So this is ACQ

compatible. ACQ is one type, probably the most common type of pressure treatment

chemicals out there and this kind of fastener is supposed to be okay with

that and and it is okay with that. Although I would say it's only moderately okay. What I really recommend, if you really want to do the

best possible job, especially in areas where you won't be able to to get back

into drive screws later in subsequent years, if some of the fasteners do start

to fail, is to use stainless steel. Stainless steel screws. Stainless steel is not

completely corrosion resistant in all situations, but these won't do anything in any kind of deck lumber. So they look kind of like a regular like regular wood

screw in that they're silver in color, but they're stainless steel which is

the most inert metal you can choose for any kind of a deck screw or

screws that are supporting some of the structure of the deck too. Now this is

another kind of deck screw that you're going to see. So this ACQ rated is what

I would consider okay. Stainless steel, excellent. The very best you can choose

One thing I don't recommend are the sort of the ordinary gold colored

plated screws. This is a kind of a zinc coating, although it's not hot dipped

galvanized zinc, but I know from experience that that's not enough corrosion protection in a deck situation. This is longer than you might use to

hold down a deck board, but if you were holding down a deck board with a screw like this, what usually happens is that the corrosion is the most extreme where

the the deck board meets the underlying frame. So usually where you'll have

failure is right about here, so at the bottom of the deck board. This is

something to stay away from. I would not use these kind of screws to hold any

kind of a deck together. Now that's not to say that everything that's gold

colored is no good. I mean these are some high-end deck screws. GRK is the

brand name. They are completely approved for use with pressure treated lumber

They're actually an excellent screw. Besides looking kind of nice, I think

that the head looks nicer. The head is bigger first of all and it looks nicer. The head also has some serrations here, so it's kind of self countersinking in a

way. The tip has a little flute in here, so it acts like a kind of a drill bit

And if you look here, the first half or three quarters of an inch of threads are

wavy, so it kind of helps to chew its way through, especially hardwoods or knots

or things like that with minimal resistance. So not a good screw

Quite a good screw. These are available in all different lengths too, up to

about six inches or so, which is handy. Of course not for deck lumber, not for the

actual lumber you walk on, but for maybe other structural parts of the deck too

Now this is something to definitely stay away from. It might seem self-evident, but

it's surprising how many decks are put together with completely uncoated fasteners. So this is what they call a floor screw and they call it that

because it's for use indoors, holding down a subfloor perhaps, but it has no

coating on it at all. I guarantee you that even just in a matter of weeks this

is going to start to rust. And even if it didn't fail structurally, which of course

it certainly would, maybe even in a few years, it's going to cause staining of

the deck too. That's another reason you want to stay away from anything that corrodes, is because it's going to lead to staining. And no unplated screws, no

unplated nails. That's definitely something to keep in mind. Here's another kind of

screw. This brand is called GRK. This screw is made by a company called

SPAX. Another excellent screw. This is hot dipped galvanized, so quite corrosion resistant. I would put it just one notch down from from the stainless

steel one here. Once again, a little bit of a flute on the end and some

serrated, slightly serrated threads to help it chew through. These work really

well. I have taken these out of projects that I have built, you know, five, ten years

ago, and they're fine. There's no corrosion at all, even in pressure

treated lumber. So SPAX, excellent. Stainless steel, top of the line. GRX, also

quite good. If you're really on a budget and you really don't care too much, you

can just use the regular ACQ rated deck screws. Now all of these same things

apply to larger fasteners as well, which is what I want to show you now. Now most

of what I've been telling you so far applies to nails as well as screws. You

definitely do not want to use unplated nails. They're sometimes called bright

nails when you see them on the box. You know, three and a half inch Ardox bright

They'll say it and they are bright when they're in the box, but as soon as they get any water on them they start rusting like crazy. So no unplated nails at any

time on any kind of a deck. What you can use, you're not going to find stainless

steel nails too often. They do exist and for applications where you won't be able

to necessarily get at the nails again to replace them in the future, you might

want to use a stainless steel nail. I like to use them where joist hangers, if

your deck has some joist hangers, fastens to a ledger board. So you're basically

functioning on the sheer strength of the nails. I like to use stainless steel

there, so there's no issues at all. But for regular nailing, hot dipped galvanized

is excellent. And here's two lengths of nails. Both of these are hot dipped

galvanized and I'm showing them to you now because they have a different sort

of color. I mean this is duller darker gray and this is brighter lighter gray

almost silver. In both of these cases these are hot dipped galvanized. There is

a kind of nail called electroplated which is at least as shiny as this but

it's smooth and those electroplated nails are no good. You want either

stainless steel or hot dipped galvanized and you can tell that they're hot

dipped galvanized because they're fairly rough. I mean even this even if

this is silverish in color you can see the surfaces is kind of rough a little

bit bumpy like there's something on the nail because there is. It's zinc. This

one isn't quite as rough but if you look on the box hot dipped galvanized will be

mentioned there and that's what you want to use. Now this is an example of a

carriage bolt and this is electroplated. So kind of looks similar to this except

this is smoother and shinier and you do not want to use this. This is

electroplated with zinc but it's quite a thin layer and it won't be very

long before that zinc has disappeared and you're back to bare metal. You're not

really going to run into a structural issue. This is a half inch diameter bolt

it's going to take a long time for that to rust through but you will have staining quite quickly actually. Certainly within the first year you'll

have staining from something like this so you don't want to use that kind of bolt. This is a hot dipped galvanized equivalent and excellent it's going to

last a long time. It's not going to stain. You can count on this because don't

forget as you're building you're making decisions that might leave you vulnerable. You're relying on in this case fasteners and the ones you want to

use you don't want to have to worry about them again. You want to put them in no staining, no structural issues, no boards falling off in 10 years. There's

no excuse for that especially nowadays when we have such a wide variety of

really great corrosion resistant fasteners