3 ms·

> Screws are convenient, sure, but they are necessarily much harder than nails and are prone to embrittlement and cracking,... That sounds like bike-shedding :

by jopsen 5y ago

> Screws are convenient, sure, but they are necessarily much harder than nails and are prone to embrittlement and cracking,... That sounds like bike-shedding :D

sneak 5y ago
It's not, when you are talking about load-bearing framing.
jjeaff 5y ago
Ya, it is bike shedding in most cases. I've seen a few side by side comparisons of nails vs screws for framing and while it's true that screws are more likely to sheer off, nails are more likely to pull out. And assuming you used a reasonable size and quantity of screws, the load required to sheer them will be so far and above anything required by code that it becomes a distinction without a difference.
- ARandomerDude 5y ago
  > nails are more likely to pull out That's why you toe nail in opposite directions, giving you the best of both worlds.
- fock 5y ago
  as a dumb european: what are non-structural screws? I've only ever seen people building their bike-shacks and terrace stuff, using "Spax". Which are sold as "structural" screws in the US. Then, if you somehow fix together things with a classic nut and bolt-screws (from mechanical engineering): well, for most real things you probably would think about the force anyway I hope. And then screws are used in like any industrial machine...
  - icambron 5y ago
    A good example is the common wood screw, which you might use in repairing a piece of furniture. Another is a drywall screw that holds drywall to the wooden studs behind it You don't always want the beefiest screw. Sometimes you want it small and cheap. Most screws a random person would have sitting in their garage are of the small and cheap kind, because they're well-suited for most of the everyday projects people do. For example, I recently mounted speakers to the walls of my living room. The wires come out of the wall, so to make that work well without just having holes in the wall, I mounted outlet boxes in the wall and covered then with panels that let the wire through. Those outlet boxes are screwed into the studs (the boxes have little channels in them to run the screw through). Those screws aren't structural, and probably wouldn't fit if they were.

by jopsen 5y ago

> Screws are convenient, sure, but they are necessarily much harder than nails and are prone to embrittlement and cracking,... That sounds like bike-shedding :D

sneak 5y ago

It's not, when you are talking about load-bearing framing.

jjeaff 5y ago

Ya, it is bike shedding in most cases. I've seen a few side by side comparisons of nails vs screws for framing and while it's true that screws are more likely to sheer off, nails are more likely to pull out. And assuming you used a reasonable size and quantity of screws, the load required to sheer them will be so far and above anything required by code that it becomes a distinction without a difference.

ARandomerDude 5y ago
> nails are more likely to pull out That's why you toe nail in opposite directions, giving you the best of both worlds.
fock 5y ago
as a dumb european: what are non-structural screws? I've only ever seen people building their bike-shacks and terrace stuff, using "Spax". Which are sold as "structural" screws in the US. Then, if you somehow fix together things with a classic nut and bolt-screws (from mechanical engineering): well, for most real things you probably would think about the force anyway I hope. And then screws are used in like any industrial machine...
- icambron 5y ago
  A good example is the common wood screw, which you might use in repairing a piece of furniture. Another is a drywall screw that holds drywall to the wooden studs behind it You don't always want the beefiest screw. Sometimes you want it small and cheap. Most screws a random person would have sitting in their garage are of the small and cheap kind, because they're well-suited for most of the everyday projects people do. For example, I recently mounted speakers to the walls of my living room. The wires come out of the wall, so to make that work well without just having holes in the wall, I mounted outlet boxes in the wall and covered then with panels that let the wire through. Those outlet boxes are screwed into the studs (the boxes have little channels in them to run the screw through). Those screws aren't structural, and probably wouldn't fit if they were.