Fasteners for a lasting, firm hold

 

 

A fast glance at outdoor fasteners

Salt spray and splitless

Salt-spray specialists: If you live in a coastal environment, make sure your fasteners can withstand salt corrosiveness. Key West lumber dealers recommend hot-dipped galvanized and stainless-steel screws.

Splitless features: Predrilling and counterboring are still your best bets to prevent splitting your material, particularly along the ends and edges of stock. However, these methods take time. Trimhead screws help greatly in this area, but other features also have been developed. In addition to the aggressive countersink cutters mentioned earlier, Titan's screws have a vertical knurl above the threads (shown right) that helps hog out a hole to make room for the shank. If you choose nails instead, consider the ring-shank type. The blunt tip on the ring-shank nail reduces splitting.