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
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
okay like i said deck clips continue to
be one of the most popular methods of
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
and watch me put these few boards
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
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
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
i think it’s just about a half inch of
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
um so right where that line is on either
side of the board here and down here i
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
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
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
but you must use glue on the joists when
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
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
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
all right we’ll come back
plug the holes later at the end
everything looks nice here
now we talked about the wider clip
so i’m going to do the next board my
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
because it makes it look so much nicer
than just having two square ends
together for instance like this
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
three or four 60 or 80 grit i think mine
80 grit but you can use 60 grit too it’s
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
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
you know there’s there wouldn’t really
be any problem either way but the glue
you know even those kind of things out
but in this case it kind of just made it
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
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
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
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
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
and what you’ll see is that these plugs
i usually use a little 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
not going to do that right now because
tap it with a hammer go over it quickly
again glue around the sides
but but there you have it that’s the
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
all right folks thanks for watching my
little tutorial here about our deck
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
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
https://www.bwdepot.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/ChatGPT-Image-Aug-11-2026-11_43_49-AM.png 1145 1373 BWDepot Sales https://www.bwdepot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/brazilian-wood-depot-logo-300x52.webp BWDepot Sales2026-07-29 16:09:142026-08-18 13:04:48Hardwood Deck Framing Guide: Joist Spacing, Airflow & Best Practices
