spent most of my day removing every screw and deck board from my back porch

sanding down the boards , staining everything and putting it all back together before it rains tonight/tomorrow

these were the better of the screws that actually came out most just snapped off and I had to dig them out of the board



the framing underneath all looked good , ran the sander on it all and stained/sealed it .

sanded all the deck boards and stained/sealed the underside I was going to stain/seal the tops also before putting it all back together but it's going to rain tonight and tomorrow so I put it back together and when it dries I can stain/seal all the tops sides in place

the few not totally rotten screws look like they were coated

this back porch/small deck was built buy a general contractor 14-15 years ago so I have no idea what screws were used but based on the greenish color of the ones that have any coating left , that they are square drive and I think he used menards for materials

these are my guess
https://www.menards.com/main/hardwa....htm?tid=-4783029403624315931&ipos=7

Looks like you got good service life out of them. Nothing lasts forever.

In that situation a Sawzall works well to cut them off under each board.

It has been shown that regular screws will not hold up in Pressure Treated wood, the chemicals eat steel right up. Approved hardware has a yellowish plastic coating.

It's the copper, sets up galvanic corrosion when two dissimilar metals are in close proximity.

Looks like what I would expect after 15yrs in Wisconsin outdoor environment

And like was mentioned already, treated lumber has chemicals that work metal over

Wonder how stainless screws would hold up? May cost a bit more though.

Exactly....the easiest way

I would use the tan coated deck screws from Menards to fasten the boards back down. I get the combo drive that takes Philips or Robertson (square) drive.

only needed that on 2 boards

the underside of the boards look almost new the tops sides being fairly weathered after sanding them down I stained/sealed the weathered side and put that down

I had 1 board that had bad spot with soft wood and one that had an ugly spot
one 14 foot board replaced both

I replaced all the screws with Deckmate yellow coated screws rated for all wood applications t-25 drive

the hot dipped galvanized nails holding all the framing together were all fine as were the hot dipped stringer brackets

I think these were just questionable screws

A lot of people have built ladder stands with those; a lot of people get hurt in old stands every year.

Been awhile since I had to look this up, but the original CCA treated wood did not have the metal eating problems of the 2nd generation treatment, which may have been ACQ, which if that deck is 15 years old, is about when that came out. It was eating steel fasteners, aluminum and steel flashing that it was in contact with. If memory serves, latest treatment is MCA which may not have the metal eating problems.

So safe plan is to assume ACQ and make sure whatever screws are used are rated for that.

our front porch has boards that have a groove on each side, this groove is used to hold the boards down, they use a plastic clip that is screwed into the joists.
The wood will outlast the fasteners I'm sure.
We used IPE for the deck boards and didn't treat them, left them raw, they are 7 years old now and just grey from weathering so far.

If they were properly installed the first time with the crown of the board up, I sure wouldn't flip them over. You're just asking for cupping and bowing, imo.

No, no, no, star or torx drive is the only way to go. Whoever invented philips drive ought to be slapped.

I agree with both of ADC's posts.

X2 on adc's opinions..

Use fatter screws.

you know that was my first thought when I noticed how nice the bottoms looked , shoot I can't flip them or they will cup

then I started looking at the grain and they were laid the direction they came off the pile about half of them would have already been upside down and should have cupped.

so I figured of they didn't cup badly while they were getting bone dry over the last 15 years probably won't hurt them now that they weigh less than half what a new board does and are getting sealed on all sides
worst case I will have a few to pull up and replace if it does become an issue



I can remember back when we did decks with nails that was a lot more of an issue , I suspect if you can hold a wet green treat down tight enough while it dries with screws that is isn't as much of an issue as it was with nails.

time will tell if I have to replace any more boards but at todays lumber prices I was trying to not spend too much on this and get some more years out of it.

admittedly if I was taking this on as a contract project for someone else I would have cut every board up with the sawzall quickly ground the screws that were left down , laid the sealing tape on the stringers and put new wood on and it would have been a half day project if that.

instead I took it all apart stained and sealed the framing let it dry while I worked on the decking boards , stained the undersides of them and got it back together far enough to walk on beating the rain that started about 10:30pm by 35 minutes

yes in addition to coated screws intended for pressure treated decking I went up a size and all new pre drilled holes