Showerthought: I was wrong about how many screws a deck really needs

Always went with one per board foot, but after counting 3,200 fasteners on a 400 square foot job without a single squeak after a year, I'm convinced. What's your go-to spacing for pressure-treated pine?

4 comments

4 Comments

avery2601mo ago

Learned the hard way on my own deck. Used two screws per joist on 16 inch centers with 5/4 decking. That's about 450 screws for a 12x16 deck. Zero movement, zero squeaks after three Michigan winters. The extra ten minutes of work per board saved me a ton of headache later.

hayes.wade1mo ago

450 screws is the real cost of not having to listen to your deck complain every time you walk on it. My neighbor used one screw per joist and now his deck sounds like a haunted house floor.

sandragrant7d ago

My uncle built his deck with just one screw per joist and after one winter half the boards had popped up. Now he's got to pull everything and start over. 450 screws sounds like a lot but it's cheap compared to redoing the whole thing. That haunted house comparison is spot on. You pay for it upfront or you pay for it later with every step you take. Better to just do it right the first time.

shah.xena1mo ago

My contractor buddy swears by using a dab of construction adhesive on the joist before screwing the board down. He says it locks out moisture that can cause rust and freeze-thaw movement, which is a big deal with our weather. It adds maybe five seconds per screw point but basically glues the whole structure together.