Grateful I ignored my brother's "shortcut" advice on my fence repair

My brother Jerry told me I could just use deck screws instead of proper 6 inch lag bolts for my fence posts. He said it would save me 3 hours and I was being too careful. I ignored him and bought the lags anyway at Ace Hardware for $15 more. The winds last Tuesday hit 50 mph in my backyard here in Phoenix and every post held solid. Has anyone else had family give them bad advice that would have cost them big time?

2 comments

2 Comments

river35122d ago

Deck screws will snap under real pressure, learned that lesson building a shed once.

andrew69322d ago

Deck screws are basically junk for anything structural. They're made of hardened steel that snaps instead of bending. Real pressure shears them clean off every time. Use them for trim or something light but never for framing. Lag bolts or structural screws are the only way to go for actual load bearing stuff. Sound like you learned that one the hard way too.