Hardwood Decking on Steel Frame

Hi everyone,

Have been a regular "guest" visitor and reader on this site over the last 6 months as we planned and built 60m of fencing and now planning and building a deck. Some fantastic advice on here.

My question is in regards to fixing hardwood decking timber to a steel frame.

I have installed a ProDek steel frame for an 11m x 4m deck. The system uses 200mm x 50mm steel beams.

We are looking at using mixed australian hardwood as the decking (any thoughts on using this type of timber? good or bad?).

Speaking to a bloke at a local fastener store he advised to use a nail gun and nail using a stainless cup head nail designed to go into steel (he showed me a specific type designed for this but cannot remember the brand/name).

Reading on this forum there is a lot of negative comments about using a nail gun due to the risk of splitting and many recommend pre-drilling and nailing or screwing. My question though is what are my options for fixing to a steel frame? Are there alternatives to using a nail gun with the nails recommended to me?

thanks in advance
Dave


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