Learn how to Prevent Problems and Future Decking Maintenance

The best way to prevent decking problems is to ensure that your deck was installed correctly in the first place.

Here are five crucial steps that will prolong the life of your deck:

1) Buy decking that is premium grade. When shopping for exotic hardwoods like ipe, it’s important to know the difference between premium/clear grade and common grade.

• Common/Select Grade – Contains sap wood and visible knots & worm holes. Common grade also can be poorly milled (called hit and miss planing). Common grade also has a huge color variance from very light blond to almost black wood.
• Premium/Clear – Best grade, period. All heart and no sapwood. Zero knots, or worm holes. Carefully milled material which highlights the well-blended colors with some boards showing their natural accents. more…

What are the best screws to use on ipe decking? Torx screws work great when installing ipe decking. Remember, with hardwoods as dense as ipe, we highly recommend pre-drilling. Trust us, it will save you loads of time and aggravation and will prolong the life of your deck.

We recommend torx drive screws for many practical reasons:

• Excellent durability
• Extreme holding power
• Long-lasting corrosion resistance
• Easily resists cam out & stripping

Another great reason to buy torx screws? You less of them and end up saving more in the long run.

Check out our selection of premium stainless steel deck screws.

Do you need to convert square feet to linear feet?

Check out our handy Wood Decking Calculator. It works perfectly for both standard & pre-grooved decking. You’re also covered covered when it comes to converting square footage of tongue and groove decking into linear footage.

When completing your deck design, having decking calculators and square footage converters at your disposal will save you time, and money.

At Advantage Trim & Lumber our goal is to always make your buying experience smooth and easy. This is why we provide the tools you need to build your deck successfully. If you can think of any deck tools that you’d like to see us create, contact us and let us know!