After you have your first decking board in place, you won't need to use the long guide any more for screw alignment -- simply use the carpenter's square (photo) to line up your screws. The screws should run at an angle perpendicular to the lengths of the decking boards.
As you proceed into the interior of the deck, you'll have to decide whether you wish to space the decking boards or not. There are two schools of thought on this:
- One school uses spacers, which establish "gaps" of a predetermined distance between the decking boards right from the get-go.
- The other school wants as tight a fit as possible when attaching the decking boards, anticipating future shrinkage.
You can use anything as a "spacer," as long as you're consistent about it.
If you side with school of thought #1, remember to figure in the width of the gaps when you're calculating dimensions for your floating deck!
The pro who built this floating deck subscribes to school of thought #2. But one of the challenges of achieving a tight fit between decking boards is created by warping. In Step 9, I'll show you how to deal with this challenge....
