Blow Out Cracks Before the Open Surface
Clearing paver joints and cracks with a leaf blower before the open surface, so cleared debris has nowhere left to blow back into.
Deck & Patio
Building and maintaining decks and patios.
21 techniques
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Techniques
Deck Board Pry Stick
Peeling old deck boards up while you work standing, with a long lever hooked over the far edge of the board — site-built or bought.
Fascia Under the Picture Frame
Tucking deck fascia beneath the picture-frame board's overhang so no upward seam collects the debris that pries boards off.
Deck Railing With Receiver Balusters
Sandwiching stock balusters between top and bottom rails on screwed-down receivers, sized to the code height.
Mount Deck Rail Posts
Notching posts over the band board, staging the carriage bolts so plumb survives tightening, and blocking so the rail takes a real lateral load.
Hidden-Fastener Guns for Composite Decking
A pneumatic tool that sets grooved-deck clips and drives their fasteners in one pull.
Flush-Trimming Deck Board Ends
Laying decking long and routing every end to one straightedge line in a single pass.
Run Joists Wild
Laying joists long over a drop beam, then snapping one line and cutting every end dead flush.
Scribing
Transferring an irregular surface onto a workpiece so it fits tight against it — baseboard to a wavy floor, a slab to a boulder, a board to rough stone — plus the rules that apply whatever you're fitting.
Straighten Bowed Deck Boards
Using a speed square trapped in the gap between fastened boards as the anchor for a clamp.
Stair Stringer Layout
The math and framing-square method for cutting stair stringers.
Coffee Smoke for Mosquitoes
Smoldering grounds in a foil bowl as a porch-scale repellent.
Pergola Roofing
Clear corrugated PVC for weather with loose bamboo underneath for looks and light.
Concealed Joist Tie Install
Kerf, rout, and dowel sequence that buries an engineered joist connection completely inside the timber.
Deck Board Gaskets
Spined gaskets compressed between grooved deck boards that turn an upper deck surface into a waterproof roof for the space below.
Crown and Plane Deck Joists
Clamping adjacent joists together and planing their top edges level before installing them.
Deck Lateral Bracing
Keeping an elevated deck from swaying with diagonal strapping run across the joists and back to the house.
Flush-Top Deck Joists
Setting each deck joist flush to the beam tops before the hangers go on, so the walking surface comes out flat.
Plug Structural Screws
Counterboring and plugging structural screw heads so the hardware disappears into the wood.
No-Stain Layout Lines
Snapping temporary layout lines that vanish instead of staining the finished surface.
Framing Joints
Stronger ways to join framing lumber where two boards meet.
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