46 VIDEO HIDDEN COUNTERBORED SCREW HOLES

In this video I want to explain a technique for invisibly anchoring deck boards

when you can't use invisible fasteners. That usually happens in two places

Right next to a house where that first board meets the house

Usually you can't get in there with hidden fasteners. And out at the far edge of the deck where the deck boards overhang the support structure

That's what you see here. This is a deck board, inch and a half thick

It's got the bullnose edge on it that I've discussed in other videos

And we need to anchor this edge down in a way that won't clash

You could just drive deck screws in here, but it's not going to look very good

Especially when the rest of the deck doesn't have any. That's where this counter board plugged screw approach comes in

So this hole here has been drilled maybe about one third of the way through the thickness of the deck board

And you can't see it, but at the bottom there's a deck screw head

And it's holding down the board and it's nice and secure. And this custom cut tapered plug is made from the same composite material that the board is

And this surface here is the top surface. It's got some of that embossed fake wood grain look

It doesn't fool anybody into believing it's real wood, but it's actually quite nice looking

It does make these boards look nicer. So you want to preserve that when you can

And with the plugs cut and the screw in place, you can apply some weatherproof glue to the inside of the hole

And then put the plug in top side up and tap it down in place and it's going to last a long time for you

So the cutting of the plugs is something that you need to do on your own

You won't be able to buy plugs like the one you just saw. You need to cut them and that's what this plug cutting bit is for

I only know of one place to get these and that's Lee Valley Tools

They make a great plug cutter and that's what you see here

A plug cutter like this needs to be used in a drill press

A hand-held drill won't work because the bit's just going to dance around all over the surface

So you need a drill press. If you don't have one, maybe you can get some time on one

You can go over to someone's house and use it. But this is the way it works. You start with a piece of the material you want to cut the plugs from

And then you turn the bit on and it's spinning and it plunges down

And it basically cuts out the wood around the area of the plug

Now you want to start with a piece of wood that is just a little bit thicker than the depth of the plug you want

So these plugs are still kind of held in place, in this case by a little bit of wood

A sixteenth of an inch or an eighth of an inch of wood at the bottom

Of course the plugs that you're going to want to cut for a synthetic deck material

it starts with synthetic deck material, but the idea is the same

And these plugs are a little bit tapered, which is exactly what you want

Because when you drive them into the hole, the counterbored hole, they're going to fill the space nicely

Now they're going to fill the space nicely as long as the hole is the right size

And that's what this image is all about. This half inch spade bit, I've ground down a little bit

Can you see the edge here? It's not quite straight anymore. That's because I've ground this section a little bit smaller so that it will accept the plugs in a nice tight way

So you want to drill some test holes, tap in the plugs, make sure the fit is good

Make sure the plug goes all the way down, but also is snug when it is down and flush with the rest of the wood

In fact, in this case, with this bit, I actually ground it in a slightly tapered way so it matches the taper of the plugs

It's not absolutely necessary, but it just helps the plug to be a little more secure

And you can see here the outline of a plug. You really can't see it

This is a very close image, of course. In everyday life, nobody would even notice that little circle

This piece of composite deck lumber has been exposed, eastern exposure, so fairly sunny, for more than 20 years

And it still looks great, as you can see, and the plug is quite secured by that weatherproof glue

It's a great system. It's a little bit slow, because you've got to get yourself the spade bit, you've got to cut the plugs

you've got to counter-bore the hole that the plug will fit into

So it's not the fastest thing in the world, but the results are great, and you don't have to do it very often

Like I said, it's only those boards where a hidden deck fastener system can't work that you'd want to use something like this