I have some decking in my back garden and some of the planks need replacing. However, the screws are difficult to remove.
Some have rusted/weakened sufficiently so that I've managed to remove the screw head entirely when trying to unscrew them while others are just very stubborn and hard to undo.
I've put some WD40 on them and this has helped in some cases, but there are still many that are proving very hard to get out.
The planks will be thrown away so I was considering drilling through the wood around the screw and effectively allowing me to remove the plank and leave the screw behind (possibly in a little plug of wood left behind) but then I'm stuck with still having to get the screw out.
I'll also have to remove the shafts of the screws that have lost their heads but I'm hoping that using pliers will do that.
What would be an effective course of action for dealing with stubborn screws in old decking?
Best Answer
When the boards having the heads are being discarded, a simple way to remove them is to cut through the screws at the joint between the board.
You can use a reciprocating saw (often called by a brandname, Sawzall)
or a multitool
In either case, you need to use a blade intended for cutting metal. Some blades are combination blades that work in wood or metal. Place the blades between the bottom of the decking and the supporting framing and cut just the screw. The small amount of wood taken out will not matter, but lean the blade toward the wood being discarded.
If you can't access the bottom of the deck, you can remove a section of the board to be discarded close to the screw and then cut the screw horizontally.
The stub of the old screw in the framing board will be covered by the new boards.