Recently, a deck collapsed near where I live, and people were seriously injured. The report blamed the failure on the use of nails that had corroded and couldn’t hold the weight. Could this be right?

Q.The carpenter that built my deck used joist hangers to hold up the joists along the house and at the end of the deck. Are these steel joist hangers approved, and will they stand the test of time?

The best things to use to attach the joist hangers to the beam are structural screws or bolts. Never use roofing nails. (Tim Carter/TNS) Perspective by Tim Carter Q: Tim, I’ve never worked with metal ...

Q. Tim, I need your help. I contracted with a large home center to have a deck built. I came home from work and saw the carpenters had toenailed an outer joist to the side of my home. Many of the ...

Simpson Strong-Tie is further expanding its Outdoor Accents Essentials collection of black powder-coated hardware ...

Chris Neurath sent this long note that is important enough to run in the Handyman's column: "You may have given bad advice that leads to safety issues when you said not to worry about deck joist ...

Many years ago I wrote a blog post detailing one of the most common deck defects that I find: improper joist hanger nails. The issue detailed in that blog post was the use of 1-½" nails in places ...