May, 2006

Fasteners

Mother Nature, deck technology and evolving building materials drive manufacturers to create new ways to improve and expand their product lines.

By Craig A. Shutt

The company also has introduced its Dexxter screw that prevents the "mushroom” effect that other types of screws can produce when they are screwed into composite decking materials, causing the material to deflect around the fastener. "The growth of the composite-decking market is leading us to create new products for those uses,” Swan says.

PrimeSource’s Kubitz agrees. "Composite-deck screws are fairly new for everyone, and it’s a market where sales are strong. Everyone is introducing new products.”

Those products include new options with tinted heads to match composite decking and other trim pieces. Swan Secure, for instance, has a line of powder-coated heads that match the colors on deck surfaces, while GRK added a screw with a white head for trimboards. Maze Nails has worked with a variety of PVC manufacturers to create painted nails in both coils and hand-driven forms to apply trim products, Pohl says. The company also offers pre-finished painted nails to match all of the colors in the James Hardie Colorplus Technology fiber- cement siding and trim. "We continue to introduce new products to meet industry trends and new applications.”

New Treatments Need New Products

New products also are being introduced for wood decking, owing to the new ACQ treatments, which are far more corrosive than past chemical applications. "New fastener coatings are coming out regularly, and it was a huge push when the new treatments were first introduced in 2004,” says Simpson’s McLain. "I couldn’t get my new products out then because we were so busy testing coatings.”

"The recent transition and changes within the treated-wood industry have had a huge impact on fasteners,” Pohl agrees. "There are still issues and concerns over which nails and screws will work with the new copper-based treatments.” With the CCA-based treatments that had been used for more than 20 years, she notes, hot-dipped galvanized or stainless-steel fasteners were recommended. "When to use hot-dipped fasteners and when to use stainless-steel seems to be the question in our industry.”

Coatings remain a volatile subject, as manufacturers wrestle with the best way to meet the market’s needs. Simpson Strong-Tie has released several Technical Bulletins dealing with the issues surrounding preservative-treated wood. Noting the materials Simpson has put out, Maze’s Pohl says, "In a nutshell, you should know the chemical-retention level of the wood treatment you are using. The treated-wood suppliers provide this vital information on their wood products.”

Later this year, PrimeSource, plans to introduce a new coating that will last longer and provide better protection, "That’s been a big focus of ours for some time,” says Kubitz. The coating will come with a lifetime warranty and should be ready to ship by late fall, in time for next year’s construction season.

GRK uses a triple-zinc polymer, Walther notes, "and we keep looking for something better and testing new coatings. It’s difficult to find something that has the durability, consistency and pricing that is necessary.” Environmental regulations play a key role, as some potential options prove to have too high of an environmental cost to be feasible.

But not all manufacturers are focused on new coatings. Swan Secure, for instance, only produces copper and stainless-steel products. "Anything with a coating is susceptible to having the coating wear off, even in shipping and handling,” says Swan. "Contractors have to keep up with what’s going on, and most of them are aware of the concerns, but not all of them read the magazines and see the information.”

Stainless-Steel Options Grow

The stainless-steel market is expanding, as it offers the strongest option to meeting any challenge. "Our line of stainless-steel products is definitely growing,” says PrimeSource’s Kubitz. "Those are the only products that give you the confidence that it can be used in any location. You pay more for those products, but they make the contractor and homeowner a lot more comfortable.”

Such incremental costs are becoming more reasonable to contractors whose customers are sensitive to the dangers that might harm their homes. To put its HurriQuake nail into perspective for contractors, Bostitch’s Langston points out that the additional cost to upgrade to this fastener on an average 2,000-square-foot home is less than $15. "This isn’t a huge investment when you consider the fact that it may save thousands in the long run.”

As codes tighten, fasteners become a larger point of concern and are inspected more rigorously. To help speed inspections and ensure specified fasteners are used where needed, many companies are stamping the heads of their nails and screws with identifications. "Specifiers like it because it helps ensure the plan is followed as defined, and inspectors like it, too,” says Simpson’s McLain. "It connects the entire food chain down the line from the plans to the installer.” PrimeSource, too, has begun a program to stamp its various fasteners. "More and more inspectors are checking fasteners closer today,” says Kubitz.

Merchandising Takes Organization

With more emphasis on having the right fastener in the right place, manufacturers want to be certain that dealers have a logical, organized way to present the products and have educational materials available. "We tend to supply more information to the big-box stores, because their customers are less educated about the differences,” says Simpson’s McClain. "But we supply dealers with a variety of pieces, including flyers and technical bulletins.” Most other suppliers also offer this array of pieces, plus header cards and some point-of-purchase pieces to help organize the department.

Swan Secure recently introduced a new group of merchandising sets to better brand the products, says Swan. "The new header cards offer a better presentation in the lumberyard,” he says. The cards fix to the back of the cartons to draw attention and explain the key benefits. Most manufacturers also follow a color-coding system that provides visual cues to guide customers to the right fastener for each type of application. Key information also is provided on carton labels, as the packages typically are stocked on the shelves as they are, serving as the prime face for the products.

Creating strong merchandising and organizing products is critical in order for the contractor to understand the specifics of what he needs and to ensure he buys from a high-quality manufacturer. "There is a lot of borrowing of ideas in this industry,” says GRK’s Walther. "There is a lack of patent protection unless another manufacturer takes every one of your features. It can reflect badly on us. Sometimes the contractor assumes he’s using our product because it’s so similar, but it doesn’t work as well.”

Contractor Events Boom

To ensure contractors know who they’re dealing with, suppliers participate in a wide range of contractor events sponsored through dealers via their local reps. "We’ll do breakfasts, hot-dog lunches, formal dinners, whatever the dealer is planning,” says GRK’s Walther. "We want to reach the contractor before he buys, in whatever fashion we can.” Swan Secure’s Swan agrees. Sometimes, he says, spreading information through other sources can be like a game of telephone, in which each repetition changes the final form until it becomes confusing. "The message often isn’t consistent unless we work with the dealer and have them or our representatives talk directly with the contractor.”

In its Technical Bulletin T-PTWOOD06, Simpson Strong-Tie offers a five-step process to select the proper connector for a project:

1. Evaluate the application, considering the type of structure and how it will be used.

2. Evalute the environment. Indoor, dry environments will be less corrosive than outdoor uses. In exterior uses, the application may be wet or dry, and it also may have a high-level of exposure, such as in marine environments or around fertilizers and industrial zones.

3. Evaluate and select a suitable pressure-treated wood for the intended application. The treated-wood supplier should provide this information, which should include the type of treatment used, if ammonia was used and the chemical- retention level. If no information is available, stainless-steel connectors probably should be used.

4. Select the appropriate connector finish or material. Simpson Strong-Tie has created a separate chart to indicate the type of connections necessary when dealing in each of the five environments (interior and exterior dry, exterior wet, high exposure and uncertain) for each of seven wood-treatment applications.

5. Compare the treated-wood supplier’s recommendation with the Simpson recommendation. If they differ, Simpson suggests using the most conservative option.