My company builds more than 40 decks per year, so we’ve become quite efficient at that type of work. Our experience is important to our success, but the specialized tools we use for deck-building play a part, too.
Demo Tools
Almost every project involves some kind of demolition. There’s nothing glamorous about this part of the job, so our goal is to get the existing deck out of the way as quickly as possible. We’ve found a couple of prying tools that work much better than crowbars. The Gutster provides excellent leverage for prying apart framing and removing the first couple of deck boards. It will fit over single or double joists and has two pointed “fangs” you can jam into cracks and joints to gain purchase. The tool is ergonomic but heavy enough to split a 5/4 x 6 cedar deck board in half if used in a downward stabbing motion. It also has nail-pulling slots — much like those on a roof shovel — that are useful for quickly denailing joists during resurfacing projects. Since the design of the tool requires that the user stand on the joists while prying up deck boards, we don’t like to use it for board removal — but we use it for everything else. Sometimes we even dig with it.
The Gutster has been through several design incarnations since its initial release. The original was extremely durable — we still have our first one and have demoed hundreds of decks with it, though it’s now beat-looking and bent. About three years back the manufacturer switched to a much weaker oval-tubed design; we had a couple of them, and the head weld would crack after one or two jobs. The manufacturer has since gone back to a round handle, which seems to have fixed the problem. We’ve used one of the current model tools to demolish 10 decks, and it’s still going strong (thegutster.com, $75).
We use the Duckbill Deck Wrecker to remove deck boards. That’s all it’s designed to do — and without a doubt, it’s the fastest way to get this job done. The long handle provides plenty of prying power and the head spans the joists and presses up from below in such a way that the user can stand on the deck while levering off boards with amazing speed. The tool works on boards that are nailed or screwed. Although I’ve never actually timed it, I would guess that a two-man crew can deboard a 250-square-foot nailed-down deck in about 15 minutes. The boards come off so quickly a helper can stay busy clearing and stacking deck boards as they’re removed.
We like that we can reverse the head by pulling a pin, because when we get close to the house where there’s not enough room for the handle to be levered, we can still get into tight spaces. The tool is worth every penny (duckbilldeckwrecker.com, $60).
Framing
When we need to flush-frame joists to girders, we use a Joist Jaw to support the pieces. The tool is just a refined version of the old carpenter trick of using a bent nail to hang the end of a joist from a girder or rim while you fasten the opposite end. The Joist Jaw clamps on with a quick turn of the handle and provides a large, flat contact area where the joist can bear on the girder, so that perfectly flush top alignment is guaranteed. This boosts productivity by making it easier for a carpenter to cut and set joists alone. It’s also very durable and will pay for itself in less than a day (grabberman.com, $50 per pair).
Our decks are full of metal framing connectors, so we regularly use single-blow hardware nailers, which are much faster than palm nailers. But for nailing in close spaces, we now use Milwaukee’s M12 Red Lithium 12V palm nailer. I was skeptical at first about using a battery-powered tool but ended up pleasantly surprised at how well it works. It’s as fast and powerful as a pneumatic palm nailer — especially with the six-cell XC battery. The tool can be used in extremely tight quarters, and it’s liberating to be able to duck over, around, and through joists without having to deal with a hose (milwaukeetool.com, $130).
Laying the Deck
Most of our projects use synthetic decking. Whatever the brand, we always use a hidden fastener system. Early systems required that you use a screw gun or impact driver to put a screw through a clip that fit into a slot in the deck board.
We like the Tiger Claw system because it installs quickly and holds well. When fastening the clips to wood framing, we use the Tiger Claw pneumatic installation gun, which is similar to a metal connector nailer. To avoid having to crawl back and forth across the framing, we put an installer at each end of the deck board, each with his own installation gun. The tool will pay for itself in a couple of jobs, and if you buy enough clips, your sales rep or lumberyard may give you the gun for free (deckfastener.com, $250).
Although we install the bulk of the deck with clips, we use the Camo Hidden Deck Fastening System for borders and inlays; it consists of an installation jig and proprietary self-drilling screws that toenail through the edge of the deck board.
We drive the screws with an impact driver. When you look into the gap between deck boards, you can see the 1/8-inch hole left by the fasteners — it’s slightly more visible with light decking and hardly noticeable with dark decking — but it’s far less intrusive than fastening through the face. A built-in spacer automatically gaps the boards. We ground down the spacer on our Camo Marksman Pro so that the gaps from it more closely match those left by the Tiger Claw clips. Given the low cost of this tool, it makes sense to have one, even if you do only a few decks with it per year (camofasteners.com, $60).
The Jig-A-Deck is designed to place face screws in line with the center of the joist and equidistant from the edges of either 4-inch or 6-inch deck boards. This produces a much neater, more consistent job than driving screws against the edge of an aluminum square, plus you don’t wear grooves in your square. The tool also gaps the boards. Again, we ground some material off the spacer so the gaps matched those from our metal deck clips. The simple plastic jig can be had for short money, so if you face-screw boards you might want to buy a few — that way, there’s always one around (fastcap.com, $20).
Board Straightening
If a deck board is bowed, you’ll have to bend it straight before fastening. Some carpenters drive a chisel, pry bar, or awl into the joist and then use it to lever against the board. This method works, but not as well as purpose-built tools.
The BoWrench allows you grasp the top of a joist and pry bowed deck boards into position. It can be a little tricky to set up the first time, and it requires precise positioning so that there’s enough throw to lock it off. We’ve had a BoWrench for about 10 years, and it’s worked on every board we’ve tried it on — even ipe, which is notoriously tough. The tool sees less use than it did when we installed wood decking, but it occasionally comes out when we have to wrangle a badly warped synthetic board (cepcotool.com, $50).
I recently began using the Deckmaster PowerHand, a device that grasps a joist or adjacent deck board to push or pull bowed boards into place. It’s similar to the BoWrench, but is designed so you can use it from a standing position (grabberman.com, $205).
Greg DiBernardo owns Fine Home Improvements of Waldwick in Waldwick, N.J. A longer version of this article first appeared in Tools of the Trade magazine.
