Picture Framed Deck with Camo Fasteners

[Mike Goetzke]

I’m building a porch for my wife. It’s about 20’ long x 5’ wide. I want to use hidden fasteners so purchased a Camo jig.

This will work fine for the middle decking but what do you do to hide the fasteners for the picture framing?

Also, I have seen the framed deck board with the bull-nose overhang the deck frame. I have seen the overhang anywhere between 1/4” to 1”. What is most common overhang?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[peter halle]

What decking product are you using?  With composite materials I use screw systems with plugs for areas where the product requires a face screw.

With overhang I generally let the site conditions rule.  If the base structure wasn't built square and parallel to the building I will tend to go 1" or slightly more to hide the discrepancies from outside the deck.

Just my 2 cents and I hope others will pipe in also!

Peter

 

[Rob Z]

Mike, ditto what Peter said.  For the composite decks we built, we used the plugs and once a deck  was finished no one really noticed the plugs.  As long as they are laid out with consistent spacing (from the edge, for example), IMO they look fine.  Especially once the deck gets a little wear and tear on the surface.

I think we often spaced the overhang using a scrap of decking as the spacer. 

 

[TSO_Products]

Mike,  you are a very ambitious soul  - tackling all sorts of projects.

"DECKS" strikes a nerve with me because of all the horror stories I have become aware of. Decks seems to be a great opportunity to be blindsided by issues that go beyond cutting the parts and connecting them.

With that in mind I would share a couple of my resources:
      JLC - Journal of Light Construction as well as
      Fine Homebuilding

Between giving rise to water intrusion and rot and outright structural failure for reasons of something like snow loads, or code violations, etc there is plenty to be overlooked by a first time non-professional.

I have found that a high-caliber professional home inspection service can be a great resource. They know "where all the bodies are" in a particular locale. They may also know who the real pro's are on a particular aspect of construction.

Hope it helps someone at some point.

Hans

 

[Koamolly]

If you’re using composite/PVC and plugs aren’t available you can make your own.  I use a tapered plug cutter and drill from backside to capture decking texture.