I’m building a 50′ long 14′ wide deck. Its about 8′ off the ground
With heavy rain the past week the 2 by 10 treated joists are quite swollen and are not the same dimensions from board to board.
How do you folks go about attaching the joist hangers to the ledger when the dimensions are off from board to board?
I was told to wrap the end in felt, eventhough I’m using Z-Max hangers and hot dipped ticos and 16d’s.
I’m done now, but wondering if there was a quicker way and whether or not I wasted my time wrapping the ends in felt.
Thanks for any input
Replies
I always put the hangers on after the joists for that very reason. Around here a PT 2x10 can come in anywhere from 9 1/8" to 9 5/8" and sometimes everything in between. We flush the top of the joists out with the ledger, toe nail, and add hangers after. I don't think I've framed a deck in a two years where we didn't have to plane the top of some of the joists down to get the decking to look decent... especially if the beam is underneath.
So we plane them in and get the decking to look pretty. Problem is that sooner or later they will probably all dry out and look like heck again.
I'm not a big fan of PT even though I have to use it all the time.
So when the 9 5/8 shrinks, it will no longer be flush with the ledger?
I'm embarrassed to say I didn't even think to toe nail first. I was sitting there holding the joist with one hand bending the hanger with the other while holding a pencil in the same trying to scribe a line on top of one side of the joist hanger so that I could nail off one side of the hanger.
I knew there was an easier way. Oh well. This is my first deck. Thanks for the input.
Curious, but my pro carpenter mentor taught me to nail the hanger on to the end of the joist first, then flush up the top edge of the joist and nail off the hanger. Works OK, and takes care of the width discrepency.
Anyone else ever done it this way?
No even though it works.
When Im running PT joices Ive got a 16 nailer in my hands and I want to let it back down , but not on the ground . If I had a palm nailer your method would work fine . Otherwise hand nailing those things while trying to hang them is a pos. So I do it diesels wasy which is still the fastest way in my mind then I dont mind the hand nailing .
Tim
That would probably work well enought too Johnny. Only problem I see is that all the Z-Max hangers I get are always the double shear nailing types. So the only holes for nailing the hanger to the joist are the toe-nail slots. If I'm not mistaken anyway. Wouldn't be the first time.
Anyone have an opinion on the felt? Is it a waste of time or necessary when using the proper hangers and nails. I wonder what Simpson has to say? Thanks
Ice and water would probaly be better than felt.