Caught my neighbor using drywall screws to hang deck boards last Saturday

He said they were cheaper than deck screws, so I showed him the rust spots on his old boards and asked how much he spent replacing those three years ago.

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_lewis1621d ago

Did you ever try explaining the cost of labor vs materials to them? I told my buddy the same thing with his fence project, showed him the math on replacing boards vs buying the right screws once. He finally gave in after seeing how fast the cheap ones rusted in our rainy spring.

oscarmurray21d ago

...and honestly I still gotta wonder if he's actually wrong though. Yeah the rust is ugly but if you're ripping decks apart every few years anyway because of rot or whatever then spending extra on screws is just throwing money away. Cheap screws and cheap boards, replace it all together in five years, probably comes out the same in the end. Plus most people don't even look at the underside of their deck so who cares about a little rust if the boards are still solid. Feels like the whole "buy once cry once" thing only holds up if you're planning on keeping the house forever.