deck clips continue to be one of the

most popular methods of fastening

brazilian hardwoods um i’ve talked a

little bit about camo in my about

fastening uh methods

video and i encourage everybody to watch

that but this video i’m gonna go into

detail about deck clips specifically

brazilian wood depot deck clips so stay

tuned we’re going to get into it

[Music]

okay like i said deck clips continue to

be one of the most popular methods of

fastening

ipe decking and brazilian hardwood

decking i’ve talked a little bit about

camo i’ll make a separate video going in

more detail about camo in this video i

want to talk to you about our deck clips

how they’re different um the pro plug

system which almost always not always

but almost always goes with the deck

clips and then at the very end of this

video stay tuned or skip forward i don’t

mind

and watch me put these few boards

together

i kind of show you the process and the

little quirks about using our deck clips

and deck clips in general so the first

thing is what makes our deck clips

different than other deck clips um

well our deck clips as you can see here

are t-shaped i’m going to put an image

on one of these two sides here so that

you can see it as i’m i’m talking about

it with you

they’re t-shaped uh deck clips

what you see here is the regular deck

clip on the bottom and then about 25 of

the extra wide deck clips i’ll tell you

what those are for and then a drill bit

actually a drive bit on the top some

deck clips have a screw going in at an

angle they want you to pre-drill the

bottom of the deck board here

right below right into the groove so the

screw goes into the deck clip at an

angle and then into the joist that’s not

how ours work ours don’t require

pre-drilling

my goodness

um you just go straight into the clip

into the joist so there’s no

pre-drilling involved uh that’s one

difference another difference is um some

all other deck clips on the market don’t

have very wide wingspans and what i mean

by the wingspan is the grab into the

kerf of the board the kerf or the groove

i’m going to refer to it as kerf a lot

in this video because that’s what we

call it

ours have

i think it’s just about a half inch of

grab on the board

and anything

less than that is really not sufficient

and i wouldn’t advise it i know there’s

a lot of different kind of clips on the

market and i don’t know about all of

them i just know that some of them have

a very short wingspan and that’s not

good the other clips um i won’t mention

them by name but you may know uh that go

into a for the screws go into them at a

45 degree angle

the problem is when you get the boards

together you lose access to that screw

head uh which in my opinion is not ideal

also you’re pre-drilling which

you know adds to uh the the overall

labor

um when you use our deck clips i’ll talk

about it when i go through it but you

must use uh construction adhesive on the

joists um it keeps the boards in place

what happens is if you don’t use

construction adhesive on the joists the

the boards expand and contract ever so

slightly from season to season so what

can happen is

some boards may go one direction other

boards may go another direction but you

can build up lateral pressure if boards

want to go inch in the same direction

and eventually something’s got to give

so then you have buckling i’ve never

ever heard of boards buckling when using

construction adhesive the brand name

that we throw around here is liquid

nails any all-weather construction

adhesive is appropriate this is not why

this is here so really tight bond is not

the right answer um liquid nails is fine

i’ll talk about tight bond when i get to

the pro plug system um

some people say well i’m using joist

tape so can i use the joist tape with

the instruction adhesive no don’t do

that that’s not ideal um it’s not going

to give as good a hold to the

deck tape as it does the wood so the

glue actually serves as a joist

protectant and if you ask some old-timer

contractors they’ll tell you glue works

very well to protect the tops of the

joists where it meets the board that’s

typically where you run into problems

okay so we talked about why we like our

deck clips over other deck clips and i

stand by that i really do

for the first and last boards i use the

pro plug system when i’m quoting my

customers you can also use a stainless

steel trim head screw but you have to go

into the face of the board for instance

if this is a deck this structure here

and i’m the house you can’t get a you

don’t can’t get a clip here and you

can’t cut a clip in half for over here

so you go through the face of the board

with some plugs that’s where the pro

plug system comes into play we like the

pro plug system because it comes with

this pro plug tool it’s actually sold

separately but we sell them together

so

the pro plug tool pre-drills your screw

hole and i use this on this

demonstration piece so i have mine open

i’m waiting for the banging to stop

it bores the whole

it bores the hole with this uh blade

here and then it pre-drills your screw

not only that but it has the stopper

it’s a there’s a rubber gasket on here

so it has this really nice stopper that

will stop at the exact right depth so

you grab you get your plug you uh dab

some glue around the edges and then you

can use a board to

tap it flush um you could sand it a

little bit i guess that’s that that’s

typically uh a good idea but i don’t

think you have to sand it every time

i’ve gotten them flush flush enough with

just using a scrap piece of board that

you don’t need to sand it at all so

that’s all i have to say i think about

these clips good wingspan on them um oh

the double wad clips you’re going to see

me use them here in a second the reason

we these are brand new we’re the only

ones that have a double wide clip and

the reason we have them are for butt

joints on butt joints before you have

you could use two clips or try to grab

the corner with one let me show you what

i mean right here

right where this line is

um so right where that line is on either

side of the board here and down here i

used a

double wide and you can use the double

wides on any place on the board it

doesn’t have to just be on butt joints

but you only get 25 of them in a pack so

use them where the butt joints are if

you don’t have any butt joints then use

them wherever you want

i think it’s a really cool feature and

hopefully i still have this image up so

you can see exactly what i’m talking

about they’re double the width of the

regular clips okay that’s all let me

show you how i put this thing together

and then i’ll come back one more time to

sign off before we get started i want to

let you know that i’m not a deck builder

or a deck installer i have virtually no

experience in that area and also i’m not

particularly handy the joists that i’m

using in this demonstration are not

perfectly in line which makes things

even more challenging again this is for

demonstration purposes only thank you

okay so remember when you’re getting

started we’re going to use you want to

use glue on the joists

you really need to use glue on the

joists because when they expand and

contract boards can walk and build up

pressure in certain areas i’m not going

to use liquid nails

on these joists just for

demonstration purposes

but you must use glue on the joists when

you’re using these

when you’re using these clips

so on the first edge on the first board

the glue is really not as important

although you might as well

it’s not as important because we’re

actually going to be putting a screw

through this first board so first we’re

gonna go in with the pro plug tool

and uh the pro plug

kit here so i’ll set it right here i’m

gonna do this the plugs later

we’ll get this we have the screws and

the drive

bit here

so again we love this system we sell the

system a lot with both our clips and the

camo system again it bores out the right

size hole so you can save your save your

forstner bit um and it goes the right

depth which i think is the most

important thing the main thing is go in

and out a couple times make sure you’ve

boarded out completely giving yourself

enough clearance

all right we’ll come back

and fill the

plug the holes later at the end

everything looks nice here

all right

now we talked about the wider clip

so i’m going to do the next board my

butt joint board

and what you’ll notice here is that i’ve

already sanded these edges it’s a really

good practice to stay in the edges of

the butt joints

because it makes it look so much nicer

than just having two square ends

together for instance like this

that

these boards are already a little tooty

chewed up but square edges just they

don’t they just don’t look as good you

could take an eighth inch roundover bit

but i did three passes on the top one

two three

um

three or four 60 or 80 grit i think mine

was uh

80 grit but you can use 60 grit too it’s

just as effective

so what i’m showing you here is the wide

clip versus the smaller clip and i’m

using the wider clip on the butt joint

one thing that made this demonstration a

little harder is because the center

joist was about 3 16 lower than the two

side joists which is not typical um

i was just you know throwing this

together for this demonstration which

which is fine um you know subfloor

adhesive

um

construction adhesive like liquid nails

like we’ve been talking about using on

the joists is really good for filling up

the kind of gaps that might be between

the heights the differences of height

between the joists it fills that up

nicely so

you know there’s there wouldn’t really

be any problem either way but the glue

does

you know even those kind of things out

but in this case it kind of just made it

harder for me

now look at me i left a little gap you

do not need to leave this gap here you

can have them straight flushed together

like this i like it because i think it

looks nice it’s got a similar edge to

these on the side i just think it looks

nice you don’t have to do it that way

you don’t need that gap

the main thing is when putting these

clips down is when you’re screwing them

in before you get the next board in

don’t over tighten you over tighten them

you won’t be able to slide it on no big

deal just back out the screw and then

slide the board and then tighten the

screw the drill drive bits are really

skinny and they’re made that way so they

fit between these boards without nicking

them

but you notice how i started here got

the plugs flush brought in the next set

of clips brought those down don’t over

tighten come back and tighten these

get these close screws

started

not too tight don’t over tighten come

back and tighten these next board in

now tighten i can tighten the screws

because this last edge even though it’s

lifting a little bit it’s going to be

pulled down with the pro plug system so

back to the pro plug just for a second

and a little pro tip about the pro plug

system the pro plug kits come with the

plugs two and a half inch stainless

steel screws and a glue nozzle

uh the proplug tool is sold separately

but um the ipe

uh ipe pro plugs are also sold

individually and you could use your own

cheaper steel screws if you have them

time to go back with the the pro plugs

themselves

and what you’ll see is that these plugs

fit perfectly in

to these holes

i usually use a little block

piece of scrap block

now first you have to dab in

the glue it comes with this glue nozzle

um i like to use tight bond

i typically will get a screw

put the type on in a container get the

screw in there and then wipe it around

the holes

just like that

get it in there

not going to do that right now because

it’s kind of messy

tap it with a hammer go over it quickly

with a sander later

again glue around the sides

i’ll finish this up

but but there you have it that’s the

general process

i’m going to go dry down and finish

making the rest of this video

and i’ll sign out after i dry the sweat

off my face

all right folks thanks for watching my

little tutorial here about our deck

clips

i still really like them i also like the

camo system uh but i think every not

everybody a majority of customers um

still don’t know about the camo so they

always ask about the clips and

you know sometimes we don’t have time to

explain the camera system but i

generally tell people to watch the about

fastening methods video i’ll put a link

to that

here right now but here is my project

not quite finished because i didn’t have

the time i have the plugs in here i need

to tap them down a little further

i didn’t include the plugs in here uh

just because i wanted to get this video

finished and i think everybody gets the

idea remember glue on the joists round

over the edges for the butt joints use

the wide clips on those butt joint areas

and use the wide if you have extra wide

clips just use them wherever you want

because there’s no harm in using them

even if there’s not a butt joint thanks

for watching i’ll be back soon

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[Applause]

[Music]

you