this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2026
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Im still not quite getting it. It looks like the screw in the old board on the left is more than 1.5” away from the two screws on the new board on the right. I feel like you’d want at least 4” on the “joist” or whatever you call the crossing beam underneath.
Are you saying you just drill at an angle so you come into the joist at the corner or even at the side of the board?
Edit: those screws in that pic don’t look all that angled to me.
Not OP but I build stuff for a living - including 3 decks this year. The joist is a little less than 2 inches wide (48mm) so in a spot like this I place the screws about an inch to an inch and a half from the end of the board and drive it in at an angle. That way I pretty much hit the corner of the joist but as the screw goes deeper it digs deep into the solid centre wood of the joist. It just holds the end of the board down. There's another set of screws on the next joist - the board doesn't get to move sideways either way. Sometimes there is only half an inch of joist for the deck plank to rest onto. That's perfectly fine.
OP mentioned some of his joists are 4" thick. The deck screws on the right look about right, i.e. roughly 3/8" from the edge to the deck screw center. The deck screw on the left looks like it would be a miss unless the joist is 4" thick there. The angle I was talking about is when using a nail gun, not deck screws.