New decking over old joists

alig04

I want to remove the 2 X 6 pt decking I installed last year as the surface is splintering, creating a foot hazzard. I went over the original super structure, avoiding framing a new deck (15 yr old joists were in great shape) However, I did have some trouble with fasteners as the old nail holes lined up and left little bite. Solution was longer nail.

Any tricks, what about using synthetic decking and angle hidden fastener system, thinking the angle would put new fastener at an angle, thereby missing the (now even bigger nail hole).

thanks

Daniel Holzman

There are some very interesting invisible fastener systems, often used for Ipe decking, that use clips fastened to the decking. These would screw into the joists, and would probably not line up with any of the nail holes. By the way, I would stay away from PT decking, that stuff is notorious for splintering, and I don't trust the chemicals in there for bare feet. There are some naturally rot resistant woods for decking, Ipe and redwood come to mind. I have heard mixed reviews about the plastic/wood decking, i.e. Trex, perhaps others have used the product and know more about it.