DECKing

material selection & installation tips

STEP 1: choose your DECKING material

Material

This is where you can come to review pretty much every one of the major building materials available. You'll also learn about waterproofing and coating solutions and alternative structural building materials that you may not have heard of.

SOFT WOOD

HARD WOOD

COMPOSITE

SYNTHETIC PLASTIC

VINYL

ALTERNATIVES - ALUMINUM

STONE

PRESSURE TREATED

BAMBOO

SEE ALL

Deck board span table

To avoid a bouncy, soft deck, the decking span you choose will affect the feel and potentially the safety of your deck.

Decking Span Table
Recommended Maximum Decking Span
Wood Species	12"O.C.	16"O.C.	24"O.C.
Cedar	5/4x6
Clear Cedar	5/4x4	5/4x6	2x6
Redwood	5/4x6		2x6
Clear Redwood	5/4x4	5/4x6	2x6
Hemlock	10'4"	5/4x6	5/4x6
Pine	17'4" 5	5/4x4	5/4x6

Data taken from the Amercian Wood Council.

LOOKING FOR MORE CALCULATORS? Visit here

STEP 2: CHoose your FASTENERS & hardware

There a wealth of different fasteners, connectors and other hardware for securing decking as well as other structural members for your deck.

HIDDEN DECK FASTENERS

The number of hidden deck fasteners will make your head spin.

UNDER Deck Fasteners

Here is a simple but effective way of concealing deck screws from view.

SCREWs

Pick the type of screws to secure decking or framing for your deck.

STRUCTURAL CONNECTORS

Be sure to include the right structural connectors on your materials list.

Post BASES

Every deck rests on post anchors that are connected to a foundation.

Ground Anchors

There are alternatives to digging and pouring cement for deck footings.

Rail to Post Connectors

One of the most important connectors for any wood deck. And there are several to choose from.

BowJak board straightener

With the Bowjak Board Straightener, they wrapped it all up into one simple tool that takes away all the headaches.

deck devil board straightener

The Deck Devil does everything the other tools do - and much MORE! You're not limited to one task.

hardwood wrench board straightener

This is a beautiful finely made tool for a very specific task of straightening the toughest of wood boards found on the planet.

board bender board straightener

This is another simple, elegantly designed and well made tool.

PICTURE FRAME DECKING TIPS

Picture framing decking is very popular among home owners and deck builders because of its clean elegant look.

It sets even the most basic backyard deck apart from the rest and has a minimal to zero material cost increase with only a little more labor required.

There are two common styles - a 45 degree miter frame corner or a butt joint frame.

Each style has some unique characteristics that should consider before you decide which to use.

MITER JOINT FRAME

BUTT JOINT FRAME

6 TIPS TO MINIMIZE DECK BOARD CUPPING AND MAKE YOUR DECK LAST LONGER

The problem of deck boards cupping is common but it does not have to be. Here is how to stop it from happening to you.

METHODS OF MILLING LUMBER FROM LOGS

The way a log is milled yields very different types of boards which in turn have different characteristics and are preferred for different parts of framed structures.

A fascia board that is installed properly will not cup or pull away from the band board (rim joist) and the miter cuts at the corners will not pull apart.

And if you do just one simple thing you can also make sure water from the decking never drips down and stains the fascia board over its lifetime.

Find out this and more with these deck fascia board tips.