Screwed

The back deck project is finished for all intensive purposes. I have to try one thing and if it works out, there may be about an hour of staining left to do.

Saturday morning we got an early start to beat the heat. Donna and friend Joan went for a walk and I went out to put the top trim boards on the railing around the deck. I didn’t buy any screws because I had a bunch of 1-5/8″ deck screws left over from a long ago project. The first thing I did was to drill pilot holes in the already cut to length and shape boards. I used the old boards as a guide to get the right amount of holes but made sure I was slightly off so as to not try and use an old hole for the new screw.

I grabbed my old screws and instantly thought they are too light in color compared to the dark brown (Brazilian Walnut) decking boards I had purchased at Home Depot. But I opted to try a couple to see if they would be that noticeable after they were sunk in the piece of decking. Two screws were all it took to realize that they didn’t get hidden enough and really stood out.

So I drove the 1 mile over to Home Depot to buy some darker screws. They had on the shelves screws in gray, forest green, silver, tan and my best option choice – brown. I took my 1lb. box of brown composite deck screws home and tried a few. I started the first two in the holes of the previously tried tan leftover screws. Not bad, but they will have to do considering what my options were. The third screw I tried, in a virgin hole, went down and stopped with he head above the board before spinning uselessly stripped. I tried one more with the same results. I backed out the 1-5/8″ screws, tossed them back in the box they came out of and drove back to Home Depot to return them.

This time I bought 2-1/2″ screws. The color selection was the same, so I took them home in the same brown color. Wouldn’t you think that a store that sold two kinds of composite deck boards, both in a dark brown shade, would carry dark brown composite deck screws? The 2-1/2″ screw heads sunk in just fine while holding down the top boards, but they were about a 1/4″ too long for outside trim boards and they stuck out a bit from the bottom. Once I finally got going, I finished the job in about an hour. The one pound box turned out to hold just the right amount for my job as there were only three screws left over.

When I opened the second 1lb. plastic box, right there on top, was a brochure showing all the variations of the Grip Rite Prime Guard Plus composite deck screws. The second color illustrated was dark brown and it would have been a perfect match. To add insult to injury, they also offer it in a #8 x 2″ long version that would have been the perfect size. So I guess in 20 years when the composite boards need replacing I’ll pre-order my screws.