[Anonymous]

We install Ecodek composite decking and always use their colour coded, stainless steel deck screws. Nice idea but has there ever been a screw so difficult to use ?

We pre-drill everything, (a pain in itself), the screw heads burr at the drop of a hat, (then you can’t drive the screw in or get it out!) and the counter threaded nature of them just seems to make pulling boards in right a pain.

I’ve struggled with them all last year and we were decking again  yesterday and enough is enough.

Question, (at last!), can you recommend a better screw fixing for composite decking ?

[Waratah Garden Design & Constrcution]

http://www.grkfasteners.com/index.php/en/products/rt-composite/pheinox-rt

We use these with a T10 driver. The heads are really small and disappear 

Tim

[Karl Harrison Landscapes Ltd]

You could try the GRK as Tim mentions, these are brilliant screws, these are best purchased via Silva Timber with the nearest place to you being in Uxbridge.

The alternatives would be,

No7 Finishing screw 63 x 4.8mm by Carpenters Mate, 316 stainless steel square drive trim head £197.20 plus vat for 2000 screws

Durafix screw 4.5 x 70mm by Millboard, 304 stainless steel Torqs 20 trim head £35.00 plus vat and delivery for 350 screws

You could ask Simpson Strong-Tie, I have no experience with these, ask for Swaneze trim head or Woodpecker Trim Head.

Let me know how you get on Gary

cheers

Karl

[Anonymous]

Thanks Tim & Karl, this really is the place to come for expert decking advice.

Whilst we’re on the subject of fixings; does anyone use nail gun fixings for their composite decks? I’m sure it wouldn’t work with Ecodek but with the Lastane surface on the Millboard product, I wondered if it might be viable.

Come to that, does anyone use nail guns for softwood, (if you ever use it any more ! ). Got to say softwood deck sales fell off a cliff a year or two ago for us, (probably for the best).

[west midlands landscapes]

i wouldn’t recommend nailing milboard down..although saying that,as its so stable it would prob respond to being nailed down better than pine..but if you ever need to get a board up your f####d!

As for screws I use Spax decking screws for pine as there are readily available locally and I’ve never had a problem with them and Durafix or carpenters mate for millboard

[Shepherds Carpentry]

Spax for us over here for 90% of our work, the other 10% are usually another screw called UFO which has the advantage of coming in different colours and its alleged ‘flexibility’

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies – very useful.

Whilst we’re on the subject of screws, Joe rightly says that if you need to get a nailed down board back up it’s quite difficult, (or words to that effect 🙂  ). Don’t you find it’s almost as difficult to take up a screwed down board ? We used to use the green decking screws and once they’re in for a few days, (let alone months or years), they’re almost impossible to extract without the head burring or the screw snapping. The Ecodek screws are equally difficult. I said we were installing some Ecodek recently, well we had to take up some boards on a step a few days later and we only managed to get two screws out ! The rest burred no matter how careful you were.

I must have put in tens of thousands of deck screws, if I’m the only one to find this, please tell me.

p.s. Maybe the screws you’ve all recommended will avert this particular problem.

[Paul Newman Landscapes]

We always use t star/ torx screws on our decks as they give maximum driving power with no slippage or cam out and just drive right in first time. If you need to remove the screws for whatever reason they are easy to extract due to the maximum amount of contact between the screw head & driver bit.

We have tried various head styles over the years but always opt for t star.

[Vannplastic LTD]

We have noticed that a slightly worn driver bit can cause more caming out and that with t star this problem is avoided. Our screws our being upgraded to t-star later this year.

We put together this video for advice on how to fix our ecodek boards with our current square headed stainless steel screws http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PWo7uu0zIE 

Tim @ ecodek

[Anonymous]

I’m glad to report we’ve been using the Durafix screws from Millboard with great success. They’re far more easier to drive in and extract and the price is reasonable too.

Thanks for all the excellent advice.

Gary

[Karl Harrison Landscapes Ltd]

Gary

Its great to read praise where praise is due, we use these screws a lot and found there is not a lot else on the market to compare them with for quality and cost.

cheers

Karl

Gary Cobb said:

I’m glad to report we’ve been using the Durafix screws from Millboard with great success. They’re far more easier to drive in and extract and the price is reasonable too.

Thanks for all the excellent advice.

Gary

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