You're usually not choosing between two pieces of steel. You're choosing between two ways of building. One path follows the older habit: grab a lag bolt, drill a pilot, crank it in, and trust the mass of the fastener. The other uses an engineered structural screw that goes in faster and often comes with listed […]
When you’re standing in the hardware aisle, it can be tempting to think any old nail will do for a joist hanger. But grabbing the wrong one is a massive, and all-too-common, safety mistake. Joist hangers aren’t just pieces of metal; they’re part of an engineered system that requires specific structural nails designed to handle […]