It s true that screws have a highly effective withdrawal resistance which makes them excellent fasteners for tasks such as avoiding squeaks in flooring assemblies resisting uplift forces that occur in roofs and holding deck ledgers tight to a building.
Roof decking nails or screws.
I mostly use screws only for temporarily holding things in place while i nail stuff up and for the decking surface.
Some say you can use screws but use an exterior 8 1 5 8 rounded domed head screw.
You ll need 1 1 2 inch hanger nails to attach the stringers to your deck using angle brackets.
Fasten panels with a minimum of 8d common 0 131 inch by 2 1 2 inch nails spaced a maximum of 6 inches on center at supported panel ends and edges.
Building stairs for your deck is a job for both screws and nails.
As with your joists stair stringers are supporting a load which is why you want to use nails instead of screws to attach them to your deck.
Deck screws have a smooth shank no threads fot the first 1 1 4 of the shank and then an aggresive thread.
At intermediate supports fasten panels 12 inches on center.
Screws are more expensive but hold better and won t corrode if you use the correct type.
We use atleast 2 1 4 to 2 1 2 screws to put down 1 2 inch plywood or osb but most of the time we use 2 3 8 coated coil nails also known as 8 s for hand nailing.
However on one deck i built last year i used a ton of structural screws.
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Nails are often preferred for structural joining including framing walls because they are more flexible under pressure whereas screws can snap.
Vinyl use 1 2 galvanized roofing nails depending on material thickness you re nailing into.
Nails building a deck if you are planning to build yourself a wood deck you have three options use only screws only nails or a mix of both.
While most often people opt for one of the first two especially for using only screws i recommend using both screws and nails each in different parts of the deck.