The Best Deck Screws for Pressure-Treated Wood

There is quite a col­lec­tion of deck screws for treat­ed wood out on the mar­ket, so how do you know which deck screws for pres­sure-treat­ed wood are the best? We’ve put togeth­er a list of some of the best deck screws for pres­sure-treat­ed wood in one spot for easy brows­ing, learn­ing and instal­la­tion tips to use dur­ing your next project. 

From self-tap­ping trail­er deck screws for treat­ed wood to hid­den deck screws for pres­sure-treat­ed wood, we’ve got dif­fer­ent options for you to ensure your project gets the screws it needs. We will go over each option, along with their ben­e­fits and when you should use each type.

GuardDog® Exterior Wood Screws

Guard­Dog® is an incred­i­bly ver­sa­tile exte­ri­or wood screw that can be used in a vari­ety of appli­ca­tions: pres­sure-treat­ed deck­ing, stair stringers, rail­ings, deck frame block­ing, dimen­sion head­ers, per­go­las and more. 

Paired with a TORX® ttap® Dri­ve Sys­tem, you get a stick-fit, wob­ble-free instal­la­tion. It’s cre­at­ed with ver­sa­tile head styles, so it can also be used with the Pozisquare Dri­ve (a free PoziSquare dri­ver bit is includ­ed), #2 square dri­ve and Phillips drive.

A lot of screws in the mar­ket are labeled as being appro­pri­ate for all exte­ri­or appli­ca­tions, but unfor­tu­nate­ly, only a few hold up to the ele­ments and that promise. Guard­Dog® screws are guar­an­teed cor­ro­sion-resis­tant for the entire life of your project. It has anti-cor­ro­sion tech­nolo­gies that are matched for alka­line cop­per quat (ACQ).

The col­or of the screws helps the fas­ten­er blend in with nat­ur­al and pres­sure-treat­ed wood tones, mean­ing your screws will aes­thet­i­cal­ly blend with your mate­r­i­al, whether you choose to use pres­sure-treat­ed wood, chem­i­cal­ly-treat­ed lum­ber, cedar or red­wood. These screws have a Sharp Type 17 Point for quick instal­la­tion, and nibs under the head help deliv­er a clean, fin­ished look.

The sharp threads of the screw quick­ly pen­e­trate lum­ber, speed­ing up the instal­la­tion process. After instal­la­tion is com­plete, Guard­Dog® screws are UV resis­tant to fad­ing or chalk­ing, so you get peace of mind and a long-last­ing, beau­ti­ful project completed.

PAMFast Copperhead® Screws

PAM­Fast Cop­per­head® screws are a great solu­tion for pres­sure-treat­ed wood for a vari­ety of appli­ca­tions: deck­ings, rail­ings, stair stringers, deck frame block­ing, dimen­sion­al head­ers and more. 

The X‑Point design and Cop­per­head® coat­ing elim­i­nate any split­ting or cor­ro­sion. The PAM­Drive recess elim­i­nates bit grind­ing and cam-outs. Depend­ing on the scale of your project, the screws are avail­able in mul­ti­ple sizes: 1 ¾”, 2”, 2 ½” and 3”. 

PAM­Fast makes your most com­mon appli­ca­tions a smooth, fast and easy process, and the sys­tem comes ful­ly assem­bled for use. With a quick adjust­ment, it becomes a hand­held tool. With an easy set­ting of the nose piece for screw length and a turn of the coun­ter­sink con­trol for depth, you’re ready to go.

LOK Screws

The LOK Prod­uct line for screws is com­pre­hen­sive to fit a large vari­ety of project needs. The four most pop­u­lar deck screws from the LOK prod­uct line are the Tim­ber­LOK, Ledger­LOK, Flat­LOK and Head­LOK screws.

TimberLOK

Tim­ber­LOK Struc­tur­al Wood screws deliv­er strong, code-com­pli­ant truss and rafter con­nec­tions in sec­tions. It’s a heavy-duty wood screw for appli­ca­tions such as attach­ing rafters or truss­es to the top plate, land­scape tim­bers, fences, head­ers, stair stringers, decks and more. It can often replace ⅜” lag screws and is approved for use in ACQ pres­sure-treat­ed lumber. 

Its unique­ly tapered head coun­ter­sinks eas­i­ly into the wood for a flush appear­ance. It comes in a vari­ety of lengths for mul­ti­ple appli­ca­tions, and you get a free bit in every package.

LedgerLOK

Ledger­LOK is a code-com­pli­ant struc­tur­al wood screw that’s engi­neered to fas­ten a deck ledger board to the rim joist of a house with no predrilling required. It can replace lag screws and through-bolts. Coat­ed with a pro­pri­etary three-step coat­ing process, it pro­tects against cor­ro­sion, even in pres­sure-treat­ed wood.

It has a built-in wash­er head, elim­i­nat­ing the need for an addi­tion­al wash­er, sav­ing you time and mon­ey on your next project. The large hex-head allows for greater bit engage­ment and reduces cam-out. 

The Ledger­LOK flat head struc­tur­al wood screw is installed with the TORX® ttap®drive sys­tem. This instal­la­tion tech­nique installs flush to the ledger instal­la­tion, sav­ing you even more time and mon­ey while giv­ing a clean, fin­ished look.

FlatLOK

The Flat­LOK struc­tur­al wood screw deliv­ers a strong, code-com­pli­ant con­nec­tion for mul­ti-ply LVL, gird­er truss­es and mul­ti-ply lum­ber beams. It’s a mul­ti­pur­pose struc­tur­al wood screw that’s approved for sin­gle-sided instal­la­tion, mak­ing it eas­i­er to com­plete projects at ground lev­el or in ele­vat­ed applications. 

Its flat head allows for easy fin­ish­ing, has mul­ti­ple sizes depend­ing on your project needs, max­i­mizes fit to reduce the poten­tial for strip­ping and includes a sta­bil­i­ty but­ton for max­i­mum pen­e­tra­tion into the fas­ten­er for a wob­ble-free dri­ve. Plus, a free TORX® ttap ®bit is includ­ed in every box.

HeadLOK

The Head­LOK flat head fas­ten­er is a heavy-duty struc­tur­al wood screw that requires no predrilling and offers high­er design shear ⅜” lag screws. The Head­LOK screw zips right into the fin­ished project and cre­ates a great fin­ished look. On top of deck and stair fram­ing, it can also be used in attach­ing rigid foam (SIPs), fences, kitchen cab­i­nets and more.

Choose FastenMaster for Your Next Project

No mat­ter which of these elite deck screws you choose for your pres­sure-treat­ed wood project, you can find all of these solu­tions on the Fas­ten­Mas­ter web­site.

With plen­ty of instal­la­tion walk­throughs and infor­ma­tion­al videos, we’re here to help you in any way we can on your next project. Still not sure which deck screw is the right one for you? Fas­ten­Mas­ter can help you iden­ti­fy the right screw for your project through our cus­tomized solutions. 

For con­trac­tors look­ing to con­nect with oth­er indus­try pro­fes­sion­als, become a PROstar mem­ber — a pro­gram open for help­ing pro­fes­sion­al con­trac­tors grow in their careers. 

Have a ques­tion we haven’t answered yet? Ask the Fas­ten­Mas­ter — we are always here to assist you with upcom­ing projects.