Decking on the Diagonal
Dress up your next deck by setting the boards at an angle.
Synopsis: This article gives seven tips for installing a deck in a diagonal pattern.
The decking is the finished surface of a deck, so we put a lot of effort into its visual details and installation. Because these particular clients liked the look of natural wood but wanted to minimize maintenance, we opted for the stability of 2×5 vertical grain pressure-treated yellow pine that was kiln-dried after treatment (KDAT). We often use a diagonal decking pattern as well—not just because it looks good, but because it allows us to run single boards out to the perimeter, avoiding butt joints in the field. Although hidden fasteners are always an option, on this project we attached the decking with coated deck screws, drilling pilot holes for all the screws to reduce splits. And for the sake of accuracy, we used impact drivers one screw at a time rather than collated screw guns…
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