Dr Decks is one of the premiere deck builders in the country and his innovation, design, and construction methods have been an industry leader for decades. In this episode we talk about the important things to consider when you are building a deck and what you should be paying attention to even if you are hiring someone to do it. For more about Jason (Dr Decks) head to http://www.drdecks.com/ Tune is now...as the Doctor is in for your deck prescription.

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[00:00:04] Dr Decks: But basically, what these heat blankets do is they're designed to repair carbon fiber on Boeing jets. Okay? So we took this technology and we had the company make us a specific size that we could take a deck board and put it in basically a silicone heating blanket sandwich that there's an outside layer of installation and then there's the heating blankets and then there's a deck board and we heat that board up for a certain amount of time at a certain temperature and it becomes pliable and then when we take it when it's still hot and we put it into a shape or a form that we create on the floor of our shop and then that becomes the new shape of that board.

[00:01:09] Eric Goranson: Dr. Decks, welcome to around the house, brother. Thanks for having me, Eric. This is great, man. Finally, you and I got to connect at that keen utility event. I know my listeners are like. Another person that you've talked to at Keen Utility, but yes, you and I finally got to sit down and connect a little bit. And that was a great time.

[00:01:48] Eric Goranson: And what got you into this?

[00:02:04] Dr Decks: And I started working for a management company that was responsible for several hundred apartment complexes. And they put me on a carpentry team and I was basically, pretty well built and a lot in better shape when I was younger and they're like, Hey, you can rip these decks out for us and then go from there.

[00:02:40] Dr Decks: They were so rotten. Like we, they would have them blocked off so people couldn't access them. And then I'm out standing on it, tearing it apart. And I swear, I almost killed myself a couple of times. Cause the decks as a deck is falling, I'm backing up into the breezeway. So I don't die, and that was my intro into construction. And then after a couple of years of that. [00:03:00] I was like 19, decided to move to Reno, Nevada, work for my father for a couple of years. He was a master carpenter down there and he was really into Redwood and alternate, just mostly wood. And then in 1991, I moved back to Washington state with my fiance, who is my wife now of over 28 years.

[00:03:23] Eric Goranson: And yeah, well done. Well done. And, it's interesting. It's so interesting how over the years, a deck is a deck, but it's not. How from 1991 to now, how technology has changed and how you built a deck then versus now,

[00:03:47] Dr Decks: I'm going to jump forward quite a bit here and say, COVID was my enemy and my friend as people, as the beginning of COVID happened and everything was shutting down, so did my contracts and my agreements with people. I lost, [00:04:00] 750, 000 worth of work and was stressing out. But then as COVID went on, people Realize, Hey, we're staying in this house.

[00:04:26] Dr Decks: That's why I got my start treated, pressure treated. And cedar is King where I live in the Pacific Northwest and Tacoma, Washington. I would do a tight knot cedar, and I was just blanging it down with an air gun, nailing, face nailing it with stainless steel ring shanks or whatever.

[00:04:50] Eric Goranson: That first track stuff. Exactly. No problem with tracks, but man, that first stuff compared to where it is now was a world of difference backwards.

[00:05:00] Dr Decks: Yeah, exactly. It was just ridiculous. So, as technology advanced and then we started, we're introduced to PVC. And right when PVC, a product called AZEC now it used to be called ProCell back then, and it might've been called something else before that, I might, I don't know everything about building decks I just take a different stance or an approach to how I build.

[00:05:44] Dr Decks: To create some really artistic and unique living environments. And I've exploited the heck out of that just to make my point, to get a name

[00:06:02] Dr Decks: Yeah. Automation, which kind of took a break from, because we actually filmed a pilot television show around deck automation.

[00:06:28] Dr Decks: And I was doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And we got. We aired on nationally on the DIY network. We we aired twice in the same night. We did not get a series for, I got as close to getting my own television show as you can get without getting one. Basically.

[00:06:46] Eric Goranson: I liked it. I was,

[00:07:08] Dr Decks: It took me about a year to get over that. But in the meanwhile, I think

[00:07:32] Eric Goranson: But the stuff now that's 500 bucks a week. And

[00:07:50] Dr Decks: Most don't. When I did this show, it was 2016 and flip shows were the thing, the hottest thing. There was 30. Shows vying [00:08:00] for two slots on the on Scripps network, on the DIY network. Which Scripps owns HDTV, DIY food, channel travel time.

[00:08:11] Dr Decks: it. Okay. And they chose to flip shows.

[00:08:20] Eric Goranson: totally agree. But at the same time, man, that would have been really good for you, but I think it would have also been such a boat anchor for you as well. That would have held you back because you wouldn't be doing all that stuff you're doing now.

[00:08:52] Dr Decks: And I have some really great art that I want to put out to the internet. And now that I have an audience I'm going to [00:09:00] do that. It's just a matter of when, I don't know when, cause I'm just trying to keep my business afloat and keep things going right now, and that can be a total time suck in itself.

[00:09:21] Dr Decks: Sure. I'm known for that nationally and actually around the world because of my social media footprint.

[00:09:50] Dr Decks: But basically what these heat blankets do is they're designed to repair carbon fiber on Boeing jets. So Yep. Okay. So we took this technology and we had the [00:10:00] company make us a specific size that we could take a deck board and put it in basically a silicone heating blanket sandwich that There's an outside layer of of installation, and then there's the heating blankets, and then there's a deck board, and we heat that board up for a certain amount of time at a certain temperature. And it becomes pliable. And then when we take it when it's still hot and we put it into a shape or a form that we create on the floor of our shop.

[00:10:54] Dr Decks: Every, yeah every brand is different. We don't really do a lot of cap composites anymore. [00:11:00] PVC is where I'm at. That's my love. I love ASEC decking. I bleed ASEC, so that's the stuff I use and it's a great product to do what I do with.

[00:11:14] Eric Goranson: Exactly what it's going to do. You're not dealing with the six different brands that are out there and this company's house brand that maybe made it this way one year and makes it that way the next or whatever. Yeah,

[00:11:30] Dr Decks: I haven't really messed with those. I'm sticking to us made products that I really enjoy working with. And Hey, okay. So 15 years ago when I was doing this and I was getting it on the cover of professional deck builder magazine. ASICs like, or it was TimberTech back then TimberTech and ASIC were actually separate companies and TimberTech had XLM, which was a PVC.

[00:12:13] Dr Decks: And they're not going to frame the deck they're not going to do this properly. They're not going to do it the way you do it. And then we're going to have warranty issues. And I said, I don't give a crap about your warranty.

[00:12:23] Dr Decks: not a problem. My, all my clients understand that we're totally voiding the warranty.

[00:12:45] Eric Goranson: absolutely. Absolutely. And that's cool. I remember the first time seeing your stuff. I was like, all right, this cat's got something different going here. And I thought it was stunning just with the stuff you do with that and the railings and everything else. And one of the things that I [00:13:00] really appreciated out of it is.

[00:13:14] Dr Decks: We both live in the Pacific Northwest and you get just as much, if not more rain than we do.

[00:13:51] Dr Decks: So I put on

[00:13:59] Dr Decks: 18. Yeah. [00:14:00] Yeah. So anytime I started doing, I, okay. So I started using back before G tape was a thing, there's this stuff called Vicor. Would say as early as 2000, I started taking Vicor and cutting it into strips and putting it on top of flat blocking to protect it from getting moisture and I'm not saying I started any kind of a trend or anything, but I was the first one in the United States to ever touch G tape.

[00:14:41] Dr Decks: Cause they use it in the automotive industry and all these other places, but it's actually owned by Mitsubishi. And It's funny how you can make a footprint And not even realize what you're doing with it until somebody says, yeah, these guys in Japan are really digging what you're doing with their product.

[00:14:57] Eric Goranson: Yeah.

[00:15:05] Dr Decks: So I think it's a worthwhile investment, at least the joist tops, I protect the beam tops and everything else.

[00:15:22] Eric Goranson: I still have to go through my deck with, I have a really cheap battery powered plug in power washer, which is great for cleaning that stuff out.

[00:15:41] Dr Decks: Yeah, all the time. And they even make tools called the deck flosser. And there's all kinds of people that have come up with ideas to do that.

[00:15:54] Eric Goranson: That's all I do. And I, that's all that thing ever does is just cleaning off the deck with that, just to keep it good. Cause [00:16:00] yeah, you're right. And that stuff gets packed down in there in the Northwest.

[00:16:09] Dr Decks: Yeah. It'll still rot, man. If it's in the wrong environment, does not matter. I don't care what people say, how long it's going to last. It's you gotta protect it.

[00:16:19] Eric Goranson: And you have been doing recently and I see more and more of it. And I don't know if it's just that I'm catching up more and more on your channel, but man, you're two and almost three story decks that you've got going out there are pretty spectacular.

[00:16:40] Dr Decks: But there's a lot of conservative clientele that really, that's beautiful. They think I'm going to really ding them for it or something. So they just stay, we'll keep a rectangle. If I'm going to build a rectangle, I'm going to build a really nice one, and those double deckers are really cool because what we're doing is we're waterproofing the upper deck with a waterproof membrane.

[00:17:14] Dr Decks: Absolutely. So, that's a cool feature and we're doing more and more of that. Instead of doing a patio cover, we're actually just building another deck. Above it and waterproofing it. And then they get that balcony. Now this last one we're doing is pretty big. It's like a 16 by 20 upper and it's free spanning.

[00:17:43] Eric Goranson: so you're using that bladder system where basically you're putting that sheet rubber.

[00:18:03] Dr Decks: You direct it away.

[00:18:30] Dr Decks: The whole idea is that you're creating a completely, oh, and it also protects the joists in the framing.

[00:18:39] Dr Decks: Yeah. So you're protecting your frame. And you're getting a nice dry space below that. And in this case, you're getting a dry space below that and on the ground.

[00:19:02] Dr Decks: good graphic explaining that very well, Eric,

[00:19:05] Eric Goranson: And it's funny. Okay.

[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And so it's crazy. And what I like about this whole thing too, is. It doesn't, you got enough angle that when the rain and the water goes, it doesn't collect up so much of that. It's not like it's super flat. So any pine needles and stuff to get in there, it's just going to get washed out into that gutter system.

[00:19:26] Dr Decks: I've actually Mike Gurdon. He I love Mike, by the way. He's a good guy. Don't follow him. Maybe search him out on Instagram. He he did one 20 years ago and a similar style that I do. And he tore the decking up because the decking was bad. I don't know if it's one of his rentals or something.

[00:20:00] Dr Decks: It's funny. But I've never had a call back. Yeah. I've never had a waterproof bladder.

[00:20:17] Dr Decks: years.

[00:20:34] Eric Goranson: So

[00:20:50] Dr Decks: As a matter of fact, I have him on speed dial because I often consult him when I come up against something that I'm not a hundred on, because it happens to all of us, right? I'm a professional deck builder. That's what I do for [00:21:00] a living. I've done it for a long time, but to have a vote of confidence from somebody that you could really trust.

[00:21:12] Eric Goranson: He's just a good guy that way. And that's but that's what I love about this industry of the experts that we have out there is that and I've talked this with other people here is that the good people get along, right?

[00:21:34] Dr Decks: some of these younger builders. I'm looking at some of the stuff they're putting out and I'm just like, man, they're putting screen rooms and all kinds of accessories and really lighting it up.

[00:21:57] Dr Decks: Cause I don't think I have anything worthy of [00:22:00] placing except the one I'm building right now. If I finish that in time, I'll probably enter that. But I don't know if it'll even place because there's just so many similar type builds that are just money, I'm just impressed.

[00:22:23] Eric Goranson: I better do my stuff better and there's nothing wrong with it. We're

[00:22:42] Dr Decks: I talked to pizza makers And I talked to carpenters, there's a ton of people that follow and that are constantly Asking me for information. Nice. It's overwhelming.

[00:22:59] Dr Decks: Yeah. We're [00:23:00] doing one of two things usually we're either face screwing and cortexing it with a stainless steel top lock screw, which is now available to everybody, by the way or we're using the fast and master fusion lock gun, which is more of a professional made from.

[00:23:33] Dr Decks: I'm not going to mention any brands, but I've actually had some issues with the screw snapping and I've had to go back and then I had to cortex a bunch of decks anyways. Yeah, because the ends all snapped on these because PVC moves, man, it's going to move, it gets hot, it gets cold, it grows, it shrinks.

[00:24:05] Eric Goranson: So some of those screws are so thin.

[00:24:21] Dr Decks: Yeah. Those top lock screws though, that's the absolute best way to fasten down a deck. Even with the Cortex, with the AZEC vintage product You can barely see the quirks, but if you look hard enough, you can see them. It depends how particular your clients are.

[00:24:37] Eric Goranson: The client, depending on how they are, they can go out there and get on their hands and knees with blue tape if they want to, but yeah, there's always that guy, but you really, it's a deck and that's so much better. Think about where it used to be with ring shank and cedar.

[00:24:51] Dr Decks: right? Yeah. If you chalked your lines off, you're lucky. There was a I swear I was on, I was with a friend and he was a deck [00:25:00] builder and he subbed everything out and he didn't do any of the work himself. I don't do that. I actually am on every job every day with my team building.

[00:25:28] Dr Decks: I'm like, dude, you better stop him. He fired him on the spot. Where did you find this guy, man? Like he, he like he was on something. Cause he was going way, way too fast. And it's unfortunate that people like that. Give us a bad name in the industry. And I'm trying to change that, man. I want to put out when everything I touch, I want people to look at it and go, dang, that is, that's nice.

[00:25:59] Eric Goranson: is stunning. And [00:26:00] I'm not just saying that cause you're sitting here on the show. If for me to refer back to what you're doing on this deck stuff, man, it is just, it's amazing. It's just, it's beautiful stuff. And you can tell the care that's been put into it.

[00:26:27] Dr Decks: Exactly. So somebody's got to be responsible for it,

[00:26:33] Dr Decks: And I can't tell you, even the little stuff, I have to go back and in the evenings and weekends and fix because none of my guys are going to get up at, six in the morning on a Saturday and go do it.

[00:26:50] Eric Goranson: No question. That's why you only get one reputation out there and that's why you've been owning it, man.

[00:26:55] Eric Goranson: I wanted to talk a little bit about helical piles a little bit, because those [00:27:00] are something that I think is really important depending on the land and the grade and all that other stuff, but it's not something I'm seeing.

[00:27:23] Dr Decks: I started looking at helical piles as a viable solution to foundation or to footings when the state of Washington mandated a 60 pound per square foot live load instead of a 40 pound per square foot live load. What that did is it almost tripled the amount of concrete we had to pour just by adding that extra 20 pounds per square foot.

[00:27:56] Dr Decks: And when I was realizing, Hey man, I am pouring. [00:28:00] Yards of concrete and I'm not used to I don't short load a truck for three yards of concrete We hand mix that.

[00:28:09] Dr Decks: so i'm bringing pallets of concrete to the job site and we're hand mixing pallets of concrete I was like, there's got to be a better solution than this So I reached out to you,

[00:28:25] Eric Goranson: They didn't figure out that maybe that connection from the deck to the house is the number one failure point versus footings, but heck, they're going to, they're going to deal with footings. Cause that's easier for them.

[00:28:45] Eric Goranson: You

[00:29:03] Dr Decks: No problem. Double cost. I'm good with that. Yeah. 65 a foot. I got dinged for 7, 500 for the beams on that deck. The beam! I almost puked. I'm like, I called her, I said, is this correct? She goes, yeah, those haven't gone down at all in price. I'm how proud are these people of this product? Cause Holy smoke.

[00:29:25] Dr Decks: I wonder,

[00:29:28] Dr Decks: So, so I decided I got ahold of this guy, max with a mass core helical piles out of Ontario, Canada, and he has a great shipping connection. So he said, Hey man, buy the power head.

[00:29:45] Eric Goranson: And I

[00:29:59] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Cause they need to see [00:30:00] what that pressure load is to that way. The depth

[00:30:17] Dr Decks: Cause it took us two days to drive the piles on that job. Cause we had the overhang of the roof that we had to deal with while we were trying to, Dig the pile. So we had to suspend temporarily suspend the roof. Those are the things people don't get. Like you want to sleep at night, then don't do some of the stuff I do because it'll keep you up.

[00:30:34] Dr Decks: And we both agreed that it was ridiculous that they were calling out, but then the inspect, the building inspector comes out and he's yeah, where's your engineer report? I go it's at the engineer. And he's it's not here. And was he present for this? And I'm like no.

[00:31:02] Dr Decks: So, I'm like, okay I'll do my best to give you what you're looking for, but I don't know if it's gonna be enough. But I tell you what, I've done 10 of these, probably 15 decks with them now. And It saves me time money. You can build on them right away. As long as you hit the pressure you're looking for, you're not, nothing's going to settle.

[00:31:22] Eric Goranson: So much more durable compared to just a concrete footing, because those things are so tied into the ground compared to just putting a boatload of concrete there.

[00:31:51] Dr Decks: Upside or sideways because I hit some really hard ground,

[00:31:57] Dr Decks: battery connection got hit, arced out [00:32:00] on the frame and then it started smoking. It was like,

[00:32:05] Dr Decks: And then the oil, it was blown it was awful. So at that point, I was like, okay, if I want to be serious about this, I got to get a bigger machine that'll drive the pile.

[00:32:26] Eric Goranson: Man, it's so great. And when you've got fill soil or anything else like that, or you're on the side of a hill where you're.

[00:32:45] Dr Decks: we can, if we can get a, if we can get the machine into the space, we definitely use them. If we can't, then we might go to an alternative maybe a diamond pier or something like that.

[00:33:03] Eric Goranson: So you've got that laid out. Footing for that, but using metal posts, using

[00:33:24] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. So what are you doing these days for railings, man? Cause I see you have some beautiful glowing, lit railings on a lot of your projects. What's that material you're using? Cause that's super cool.

[00:33:48] Dr Decks: And then the kicker that they do is this product called crystal rail and crystal rail is a really beautiful, low iron glass and has these special pods. That [00:34:00] are shaped like an egg. A lot of people make fun of the shape, but they're designed that way for a reason so they can withstand the forces that need to be with withstood for code and you lay these things out and then you tighten up the glass to And then they have an led in the base and you light them up and it becomes this beautiful lit attraction at night.

[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: That is awesome. That is awesome. Cause yeah, that's, it's, it makes that whole deck just glow. I love lighting cause as a designer myself.

[00:34:46] Dr Decks: it's good stuff. And the company, I love the company cause they're really supportive. They back their product. They have a great warranty and it's really easy to install.

[00:35:10] Eric Goranson: So what are you using for tools out these days, man? I know you've got your favorites out there and I want to give you, make you give away all your trade secrets, but you know, you got some cool stuff I see you using out there.

[00:35:27] Dr Decks: So it's a dual 12 amp hour batteries. Those usually last us a day, if not a little bit longer, that's mounted to a cut hub chops, a chop station. And on particularly right now, we're running two chop saws on it. So we have the big 12 inch saw, and then we also probably my favorite saw. It's this little seven and a quarter inch Metabo HPT.

[00:36:08] Dr Decks: So we have a full set. We don't use a cordless table saw. We actually use a corded saw because of the stuff we rip, the wet treated lumbers batteries will only last maybe 40 feet.

[00:36:26] Eric Goranson: I was out cheese years ago. What? Seven years ago, I was out at his place helping him put his kitchen in. And that thing showed up in a white box. It hadn't even, it was the, one of the pre production ones. And so that showed up in this white box at his house and I helped him carry it in and unbox it and I'm like, okay, this is cool stuff.

[00:36:51] Dr Decks: Yeah we always run that thing cordless too. It seems to run better cordless than it does it that there's a power adapter. You can plug it in, but man, we really like it running [00:37:00] cordless.

[00:37:20] Dr Decks: And I was shooting into some steel and I broke the driver on it. It sounds so stupid. I was trying to get the gun to jam. Remember we were talking about jamming guns? We shot that video today. For our YouTube channel. And then I'm like, Hey man, it's not resetting. What's going on? And I tore it apart.

[00:37:38] Eric Goranson: Oops. Yeah. I got a gun that I think is, I've done that too here that I haven't quite taken apart yet, but I think that's exactly what I did as well. So

[00:37:54] Dr Decks: That's what they want. And they want me to do a video about it. Then we're going to do a giveaway. So perfect because it's so light. It's [00:38:00] like a tinker toy compared to most other guns. It's so light, really? But it's a gas, it's gas powered. Gas and battery powered. Okay. It's a small battery and a gas.

[00:38:13] Eric Goranson: That's cool because that's my biggest complaint about the, especially the framers, man, those are even worse. The framers are just sitting there. It's like you got 25 pounds off the hand of your hand. Oh, yeah.

[00:38:37] Eric Goranson: Yeah.

[00:38:38] Eric Goranson: that makes no sense. Yeah.

[00:38:46] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. That stuff's so soft, especially with, in the Pacific Northwest here, we have that pressure treated wood. It's not like some of that Southern yellow pine you see everywhere else.

[00:39:06] Dr Decks: Exactly. Yeah, you can always get good penetration on a nail gun with it. Absolutely.

[00:39:14] Eric Goranson: What are some of the next things that you see out there with DAX and the future with these composites? Cause I know you, you talk to the manufacturers a lot out there. I'm so impressed where we've come over the last five or six years. My parents, when they built their house in the Tri Cities in Eastern Washington, they put in That Trex fencing product that came out and that was a mistake.

[00:39:50] Dr Decks: Yeah, it's unfortunate. There was a few different brands that tried to come out with fence boards, and I don't think any of them are still around.

[00:40:20] Dr Decks: So, I have a little hoard of it, in my boneyard that I always go to and we'll just hack it down into three and a half or five and a half inches of whatever we need, and it works really well. Cause we also buy composite shims. I used to use cedar shims, but they deteriorate. Yeah.

[00:40:36] Eric Goranson: pretty quick.

[00:40:55] Eric Goranson: One thing I liked that we're starting to see out there too, is and I want to give a shout out to Simpson [00:41:00] strong tie. They've come out with some brackets and some stuff that are really starting to make sense as far as decorative and functional, because over the last 30 years, it's just been this galvanized stuff that ain't pretty, but they've really come out with some

[00:41:16] Dr Decks: It's a thing We're using more and more of it on our builds. And it is, it beautifies things and the clients really like it. I didn't tell these people they're getting a free upgrade on this last job, but we put that stuff all over the deck and man, it really enhances it. It makes it look nice.

[00:41:31] Eric Goranson: I think for you guys too, if you're putting together some glue lambs and stuff, those big T brackets they have are solid and they look good. Like they're supposed to be there where before you were using these little tiny, you had the only thing you had were those little tiny Simpson galvanized brackets.

[00:41:49] Dr Decks: Yeah. That, or you're putting a massive 200 steel monsters on there. Which really that's more for commercial use and I've done it. I've done it both [00:42:00] ways depending on the budget of the deck, but I enjoy retrofitting these instead because you can actually get everything set together and pin it all together and then go back and put these brackets on and not only does it enhance it meets the code.

[00:42:12] Eric Goranson: see, that's the best of both worlds with that, which is awesome. So

[00:42:19] Eric Goranson: nice, nice. Yeah. That's, I remember when the few years ago they started to come out with and they dipped their toe in it a little bit. And then over the last number of years, they've just exploded that line.

[00:42:32] Eric Goranson: right?

[00:42:37] Eric Goranson: That's a lot of

[00:42:39] Eric Goranson: That's a lot of work. What else are you doing out there, man? I'm noticing one thing that I noticed that you really pay attention to and I want to just give you a shout on this.

[00:43:07] Eric Goranson: I, I. Yeah. You got to do a lot of surgery sometimes on siding, but it sure looks good when it's all done.

[00:43:25] Dr Decks: Through the house and there was no support post. So I had to cut all that back flush. And then I had to lay it out so that I was attaching to the blocks that are in between the joists that we cut back so that we made sure we had the proper attachment so that we had something that wasn't going to pull away from the house.

[00:43:46] Dr Decks: it was a tricky, sticky situation.

[00:44:03] Eric Goranson: I looked at the window and I was, I knew it was going to come down anyway, but I stood out on it. And I went, Oh, I could see the metal railing starting to pull away as I stepped back in the door and went, yeah, we're not going back out on that again. Wow. Sure enough, it was. That was just cedar two by tens hanging out there that were coming out just cantilevered and They should have been replaced.

[00:44:28] Dr Decks: Oh, yeah,

[00:44:32] Dr Decks: Yeah, I don't think people realize the difference between a structural screw and just anything you can buy at home depot You know there's so much that you need to know about construction if you're going to build Professionally for other people, like you're held to a higher standard than most people do, but the things I tear apart, it never ceases to amaze me what I see in a demo.

[00:45:05] Eric Goranson: You see the mixture of the black drywall screws that are rusty. You see the yellow. Deck screws that they used to be called back in the day that

[00:45:22] Eric Goranson: You need to get into something that's rated. I love using Simpson fasteners with Simpson hangers, for instance, I try to match those up pretty well.

[00:45:45] Dr Decks: except for keeping up with technology and things like that. But yeah, I love Simpson products. I love all the brackets, like you said, and then fast and master. I love most of their fastening products and some of their structural stuff as well.

[00:46:00] Eric Goranson: Is that what you're using out there?

[00:46:03] Eric Goranson: of yellow in your videos, so

[00:46:18] Dr Decks: And they showed us the competition and they dissected every single, of course they do, who wouldn't, if I would do the same thing. When you're good, right? That's why I do the Stabila challenge, man. Cause people think I'm being abusive to my tools and some guys get offended. But I'm actually trying to throw that level as far as I can.

[00:46:52] Eric Goranson: Sorry, Milwaukee.

[00:46:56] Dr Decks: It's just a plastic insert that, that's has a kind of [00:47:00] a lever inside of it that holds the vial level. But once you drop it too much, or if it vibrates too much, then those, that the cam moves inside the level and then it's no longer a level.

[00:47:12] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And that's crazy. I love when you do your challenge and you're sliding that thing across your framing and you see it go 30 feet down there. There is no way to fake that level of quality. It's either slides or it doesn't.

[00:47:33] Dr Decks: So I have to do it on every job now. Every time I have the opportunity,

[00:47:50] Eric Goranson: Oh, big time. And you have to go in and set each and every one of those things to make it work. And it's either right or it's [00:48:00] not.

[00:48:08] Eric Goranson: And that's one thing with the composites is they're flexible enough that you can start to see that in there.

[00:48:31] Dr Decks: Like you asked me a question earlier. What do I see coming in the future? It's alternate metals framing, but I skipped the steel train and I'm waiting for the aluminums to come. I think aluminum framing is going to be one of the biggest booms In our industry, and it's going to take another five to 10 years for it to really start to roll out.

[00:49:39] Eric Goranson: You think about that. If you're putting down a deck product, that's got a long warranty, you've got aluminum in there. That's very consistent and is virtually weatherproof.

[00:49:50] Eric Goranson: That's a solid system right there. You can put a deck on it and get decades out of that without having to worry about. And for you're not putting to put all the wrap on it, you're not having to do all the [00:50:00] waterproofing on the deck board, on the joists and stuff.

[00:50:05] Dr Decks: interlocking clip system too, that we're able to use. So it locked all the boards down and then we only had to fasten it like every five boards. Yeah, it was cool. And it doesn't move.

[00:50:19] Dr Decks: No, there's no, there's also cortex driller.

[00:50:37] Eric Goranson: dude, that is awesome. Okay. You got me looking at that now. That's cool stuff. And I think that's, you're right.

[00:50:51] Dr Decks: Yeah. Yeah. I think mostly like this guy was, his issue is where to import it from, where to import it to And then how to get it [00:51:00] to the States and warehousing and all that.

[00:51:02] Eric Goranson: you're like ported Tacoma.

[00:51:29] Eric Goranson: of that. Yeah. You get totally different spans out of this

[00:51:46] Eric Goranson: How tricky in a contemporary house could you imagine doing that?

[00:51:50] Dr Decks: Yeah. Laser thin. That would be laser thin. Like for those rooftop, those flat rooftop areas that , people have rubber or whatever. Membranes and stuff on 'em. Yeah. Pop mop on 'em, whatever. [00:52:00] Yeah. This is a cool, that's what, that's why we had to use his system.

[00:52:08] Eric Goranson: Yeah. So good call. Good call, man. So that's cool stuff. You heard it here first guys. That's the trend from Dr. Dax. That's,

[00:52:20] Dr Decks: If you let the shavings go down onto your nice patio or cement, it's going to rust. Okay. So you got to cut off site almost or somewhere contained. And then you still have that often because you can't have

[00:52:34] Dr Decks: It might be silver specs, but it's not going to rust. Um, and then pergola is timber tech just acquired structure, which is an aluminum louvered roof.

[00:52:52] Eric Goranson: didn't see that those guys had grabbed them. That's awesome. Because I looked into that stuff. It's cool. I got a buddy. Really? One of my really good [00:53:00] friends that lives down the street.

[00:53:13] Dr Decks: thing they're not cheap.

[00:53:39] Dr Decks: When I go on these estimates, people don't realize how expensive that's going to be. You want a 20 by 20 enclosed covered area with a deck, you're spending a hundred plus thousand dollars and people don't realize they're thinking it's 20 grand and the materials

[00:54:00] Eric Goranson: So,

[00:54:05] Eric Goranson: Yeah.

[00:54:23] Eric Goranson: No, it's still labor is labor materials or materials when it comes down to it. You're not having to move off the site, but these days it's not like you're sitting there leaving, your tools on site for a week either. You're still packing up either way. So it's just one big job and it's not like you don't have a waiting list out there either.

[00:54:44] Eric Goranson: They have not got that straight yet. And that's, it's, I don't think they're going to anytime soon. I don't care where you're located. It's pretty rare to get, it's feast or famine. When you think, okay, it's slowing down out there, the new home builders are going to [00:55:00] not take up as much time.

[00:55:10] Dr Decks: No, it's unfortunate. It's just struggling with that right now.

[00:55:17] Eric Goranson: We have blasted through an hour so quickly. Jason, what's the best way for people to track you down out there, man? If someone's going to track you down social media website, where do they find you?

[00:55:38] Dr Decks: And my website is also, if you just Google Dr. Decks, you cannot miss me. We will pop up and drDecks. com. That's my webpage. I haven't updated it recently. If you want the most up to date, probably going to go to Instagram, but our YouTube channel is really unique. My son actually cuts the videos and edits and [00:56:00] uploads everything.

[00:56:07] Eric Goranson: That's simple. That's simple. Click subscribe on that one guys. And that's where you get your masterclass on this stuff.

[00:56:14] Eric Goranson: All right, brother. Thanks for coming on today, man.

[00:56:18] Dr Decks: Yeah. Thanks for having me.