How many decking screws do i need?

Building a deck?

How many screws do I need?

The first process is explained here in “How much decking do I need?” blog entry.

Once you know the lineal meterage of decking required it is quite easy to approximate how many screws you will need.

Say you need 500lm of decking, divide that by .450 which is your standard joist spacing. Then times it by 2 because each decking board need 2 screw to fix it to each joist.

I would then times it by 1.1 to add 10% to the total to take into account joins in your deck where 4 screws will be needed to fix to each joist.

So you will need 2500 screws to fix 500lm of decking. It’s better to have a little more than not enough. Running out of screws can put a halt to your build and cost you time.

What screws should I use?

You are spoilt for choice when it comes to decking fixings these days. Here is a rundown of what is available at Everist Timber.

Koala deckfast screws:

Available in 10g and 12g, 50mm or 65mm and with a trim head or bugle head. In 304 stainless steel or e-coat. 50mm screws come in a pack of 500 screws and the 65mm in a pack of 400. Deckfast screws require no pre-drilling or counter sinking, which is a huge time saver. They can be driven straight into the decking boards using an impact driver and a star driver bit.

Anchormark deck screws:

Anchormark A2 304 stainless steel screws are 5.5 x 60mm and come in a tub of 1000 screws. They also require no pre-drilling or countersinking and have a nice dome head with a star driver bit need to fix with an impact driver.

Fischer decking screws:

Fischer have discontinued their 60mm deck screws and now only supply 5.0 x 50mm TX20 304 s/s screws. No pre-drilling or countersinking required. Just an impact driver and a star driver bit. Available in 250, 500 and 1000 tubs/packs.

Macsim s/s decking screws:

The Macsim screws do require predrilling and countersinking. You will need the macsim smart bit all in one pre-drilling countersinking tool. 304 or 316 stainless steel with a square drive head. Available in 8g and 10g, 50mm and 65mm in tubs of 1000.

Even more available in store. Come in and check out the full range.