fill nail punched exterior decking and sanding?

Hi I'd appreciate some advice on the questions below.

I'm building a deck approx 11m by 4m on the back of the house. It is attached to two walls of the house (at that level the walls are brick). The bearers and joists are hardwood and the posts are treated pine of the relevant grade.

There are enough little splinters in the deck surface that I will sand it (it is recycled 19mm tallowood decking that has been remilled). Looking at the rest of the forums it will save my knees and may give me a better finish to hire a floor sander, although I'll have to punch all the 65mm nails before hiring it.

My question is, should I fill the nail holes and sand the lot and if so what filler? Would the fill have much of an effect (the nails are galvanised). There are a few other holes and imperfections in the deck that result from it being recycled but I did not think it worth filling them as they'll look fine but if I'm going to fill the rest it might be worth it (the largest is about a 20c coin worth). Also, is the fact that I've put a decking stain (one coat so far ) on the decking going to clog the sander?

Also, when nailing I found that some nails were underspec or at least too thin to hammer in (they collapsed with about 1/3 to go and would not drive in) I had to hammer them down as there was no way that some of these were coming out. I stopped using them when I realised it was most of the box and used a different nail (3.15 *65 instead of 2.18 * 65). Another question is am I going to have to get these damaged nails out (they are flush with the surface) before sanding and what the hell do I do it with, the claw on the hammer is nowhere near able to get purchase.

A final question, are there any recommendations for sander rentals in Canberra.

Thanks in advance

FWIW, I've never seen a deck with filled nail holes.

Usually they are just punched below the surface (by the chippies nail gun :) ).

As far as getting the bent nails out, have you tried using pincers?

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Originally Posted by craigb

FWIW, I've never seen a deck with filled nail holes.

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Ah, but would you see them if they were filled? ;)

Thanks, that was damn quick.

I decided against a nail gun when I worked out how long I'd have to hire it for (I've got to squeeze in doing the deck while helping out with 2 kids under 3).

I'll have to have a go with pincers. Any recommendations for sander hire?

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Originally Posted by tallow

Any recommendations for sander hire?

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Kennards?

I thought deck nails were supposed to be flush or slightly proud of the surface to prevent water sitting in the holes and causing rotting. I have seen special deck nails have a rounded head that sits up a little bit. Obviously you cannot sand them though....

Get yourself a good quality set of end cutters for removing the bent nails. Lift the heads first with an old blunt chisel and then lever out with the end cutters (using a paint scraper etc under the jaws to prevent further marring). Ifyou apply too much pressure you will cut the nail off, but this is not a problem because it can then be punched. Those pincers with a tiny claw on the handle aren't worth a pinch IMO. goodluck!
Cheers
Michael

The guy that re-did my deck ( I chickened out of doing the job when I realised I was going to have to prop up the roof of the house to do it ) put all the nails in with a nail gun below the surface.

I got a good match of colour of exterior wood filler ( you might need to blend 2 colours ) and went round on my hands and knees filling all the holes. Looks really crap at first cos you get filler everywhere. Then I went over it with a damp cloth ( which got rid of the excess ). Then I stained it. Looks fine and that was over a year ago now and we've had a lot of rain blow in under the roof-line in that time and the deck faces west. You really don't notice the nail holes at all ( though maybe I wouldn't have noticed them anyway after a while if I hadn't filled them in ).

Generaly if you are only wanting to clean the deck up not give it a glass like finsh, we use a floor polisher or know in industry as poly vac, this is the same machine used by clearners to buff viny.

The machinehas a foam pad that fits to a disk that screen backs attach to. these come in a range of grits.

U can hire a floor polisher from kennards they do take a bit of work to get the right action to it. A tip get a heap of screen backs as if the get stuck on a really rough edge they split in to a million pecies.

Or be very very very silly and use a 150mm ROS it should not take long....

Thanks for all the advice.

I've used decking nails which have a rounded head to stop rot. I'm not really looking for a glass-like finish, I'm just looking to make sure that the splinters are taken out. The kids have very thin skin (the youngest is still crawling).

Would cleaning up the deck (dont need a mirror finish) with a polisher (poly vac) take out the splinters? And would the polisher require that I punch the nails or cause issues with the machine.

I've seen kennards and it looks ok, i was just wondering if there was anyone else in the canberra area just to compare.

Thanks

tallow

I built a deck out of recycled timber (spotted gum) and it didn't have too many problems with splinters. But then I don't have kids crawling on it...

I've used Kennards before - they are pretty good on average. I've not hired a floor sander though. Bunnings also rent equipment.

I can see that punching the nails could be a real pain - is there any other option? I can't think of one off the top of my head.

Trav

As the polisher has a pad on it this is able to abosrb the nails and not wreck the machine. the heads do need to be at least flush so that there is no sharp edges sticking up.

All sanders will only take of the top of the surface so if there is splinters on the edge you have not a chance.

i had a large deck built with dome head nails but now have the problem that it cannot be sanded. the reason it needs sanding is the product i put on the NEW deck is washing off. how long should hard wood be left to "bleed" , plus if i was tld to coat the deck ASAP by the builder and that is wrong who's fault is that ???

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Originally Posted by tallow

Thanks, that was damn quick.

I decided against a nail gun when I worked out how long I'd have to hire it for (I've got to squeeze in doing the deck while helping out with 2 kids under 3).

I'll have to have a go with pincers. Any recommendations for sander hire?

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If you like hard work! Try a pry bar (burglars favourite). About 2 foot or so, the sort with the sharpened nail remover one or both ends. Use a levering block of scrap to protect the deck. Bash the pry bar in with a hammer, then lever away. Easy!

Posts #11, 12, & 13 on this thread address easier nail removal:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=43184

But it would likely be simpler to just punch them below the surface in this case.

Joe