Removing rusted/rotted/old screws from deck

[Justin Foley]

Ya'll helped me back in April with your comments re: replacing deck boards. The project has been a hell of an undertaking, as I'm seeing many things that need to be repaired or strengthened. Makes me wonder why I even started in the first place!

Anyway, many of the screws are rotted out and are not coming out. Either the bit slips off the screw head or the screw head just breaks. When I remove the board, the screw often stays in the joist. What's the best (and fastest) way to remove these screws? I've used a hammer to break them off (slow and annoying) and a recip saw (faster, but only to a point). The blades on the recip saw seem to wear out really, really quickly. I can only go through a handful of screws before I have to change the blade. I'm using Milwaukee demo blades (anywhere from 8 - 18tpi) and I'm not having much luck. Am I using the wrong kind of blades? What other methods can be used to cut through the screws?

Thanks!

[Jim Becker]

A crew extractor might be your friend...particularly for those that break off. For cutting them off, try an angle grinder.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I used one of these (angle grinder) with one of these (metal cutoff disk) in it.

Don't worry about it being one of those "one time only" tools. Once you have one, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.
Just keep a spritzer bottle handy and douse the red hot nails. If you use a pair of pliers to bend/break the screws after just "kissing" them with the angle grinder, instead of cutting them all the way through, you can just drop them into a can and not have to bend over to pick them up.

[Mike Cutler]

If you tear up the head and don't break it off, drill the head off using a drill bit about the size of the head.
For the screws that are still stuck in the joists, if you want to try and remove them a pair of vise grips might do the trick. Me, I'd do what Jim recommended and use an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel.

[Justin Foley]

I brought it up to someone at work and he also suggested the angle grinder. So, looks like I'm getting an angle grinder! YAY MORE POWER TOOLS!

[John K Jordan]

Depending on the state of the joist you may be able to simply pull them out with a claw hammer or good nail puller/crowbar. But I've used the angle grinder method with a thin abrasive wheel on stubborn screws.

[Alan Rutherford]

Sometimes you can chuck the screw head in a drill and reverse it out. If you have a short broken stump of a screw sticking up you can drive it in or bend it over enough to bury it with a hammer and punch.

[David Helm]

When I replaced the deck boards on some of my decks I used the sawzall, but used strictly metal cutting blades. It went quite fast. The demo blades are combination metal and wood and do not have the staying power of strictly metal cutting blades.

[lowell holmes]

I use vise grips to back out stubborn screws. Try it.

I have also drilled them out, plugging the hole.

[John K Jordan]

When I replaced the deck boards on some of my decks I used the sawzall, but used strictly metal cutting blades. It went quite fast. The demo blades are combination metal and wood and do not have the staying power of strictly metal cutting blades.

Plus, to cut steel the size of a screw you should use more teeth-per-inch than the typical demolition wood/nail blades. For metal cutting I like the Milwaukee "The Torch" blades.
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Produc...des/48-00-5782
https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-48-.../dp/B00004U0UM

JKJ

[Norman Pirollo]

I recently rebuilt my deck and had to remove between 1500-2000 square drive screws. What I found was that accumulated dirt in the square screwdriver slot would cause the bit to not engage and slip instead. So my wife picked the embedded dirt out of the tough ones with a small nail and this did the trick. It was pretty quick afterwards although 1500-2000 screws takes time regardless. There is also a 4th bag of screws we had forgotten to put in the pic.IMG_2005-1200.jpg. Surprisingly, only a handful of screws snapped from rot.

Blogged about the deck reno at https://woodskills.com/blogs/news/deck-renovation

Norman

[Clint Baxter]

Freud makes carbide tipped recip blades for cutting metal. Life on those is way higher than regular demo blades.

Clint

[Stephen Tashiro]

Sometimes you can chuck the screw head in a drill and reverse it out..

I wonder if someone makes a reverse threaded chuck that would self-tighten when spun counterclockwise. That would make an impact driver a good prospect.

An oscillating multi-tool would be easier to flush-cut with than a typical demolition saw although some demo saws have a way to mount the blade for flush cutting.

If you buy a multi-tool, get one that has the "tool-less" blade change feature.

In considering whether to remove or cut-off a screw, you obviously should consider whether a new screw is likely to hit the remains of the old one.

Tommy uses something like a core drill at 1:30 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz1SatVZ-zE Getting the core out of the bit might be tedious. Perhaps lubrication makes it easier - or some special technique ?

[Robert Engel]

I just break 'em off with a hammer. Why is that slow and annoying? Most of the time one well place hit and they snap right off. Make sure to hit the screw X grain not with the grain.

If they won't snap that way, sometimes you can hit the screw with the grain and simple bend it over.

I've also simply forcible extracted with a crow bar if the wood is a little rotted around the screw.

I've also had good luck chucking screw head in a drill and backing out.

Unless you need a side grinder, I would stick with the sawzall + metal blade.

BTW, if you rarely use a grinder, this is the one thing I would go to Harbor Freight to get one for 20 bucks.....

[Justin Foley]

Thanks for all of the responses! I picked up some vise grips and an angle grinder. One of those things should help!