Didn't expect the deck boards to pop nails this fast

Started by Bill Hartman · · 3 replies
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#1
Been a dry stretch here in Ohio and I was out walking the wraparound deck barefoot like an idiot and about put my foot through where three nail heads had backed themselves clean out. Boards shrink up when it's this dry and work the nails loose, fifteen seasons and I still forget this happens every summer we get a stretch without rain. Went around with the drill and countersunk about a dozen of them, screws this time not nails, should've done that years ago honestly. Anybody else's deck do this or is mine just getting old and cranky like me.

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#2
Mine did the exact same thing the first dry summer after I built it, popped nail heads all along one side and I stepped on one like a idiot too. Switched to screws that same weekend, should be standard from day one honestly not a fifteen year later fix.
#3
Not deck related for me since mine's screened concrete, but this thread reminds me of when we had the enclosure guys out for a repair and they mentioned the same wood movement thing happens to the support posts on older screen frames in a dry stretch, fasteners work loose the same way. Bill, the countersinking is the right move, my neighbor did screws without countersinking on his and they still backed out eventually because the screw head just sat proud instead of biting in. Anecdotally the every-fifteen-years version of this fix always ends up being the every-year version once you actually check for it.
#4
Feet in the tub right now reading this, and Bill that barefoot-near-disaster is exactly why I walk my own deck boards in spring before the pool even goes in. Mine's not wood though, composite decking around the oval, so I don't get the nail pop thing you guys are dealing with, but I did have screws back themselves out around the ladder mount two summers running before I figured out it was the ladder flexing when people climbed out, not the boards moving.

Texas dry spells are brutal too so I'm surprised it took you fifteen years honestly, amigo. Ohio winters probably help some, freeze thaw might reset things different than our heat does down here.