Tract builders lay decks with enviable speed, firing nails faster than a Metal Storm automatic, but because homeowners increasingly desire a fasten-free look to their upscale composite and hardwood decking, most contractors who work on such projects have had to slow down–until now. Manufacturers are finding ways to put the power into concealed fastening systems. Be it with clips, biscuits, screws, or even plugs, going invisible has been semi-automated.

“Now manufacturers are making these special guns to automate the clip installations,” says Dave Lombardo, owner of American Deck Inc. in Baltimore. He says it’s all about looks, durability, and time: “These variables are driving fastener companies to say, ‘What’s the fastest way we can do it with the best appearance and at the lowest cost?’ So it’s gotten to be real competitive.”

Pneumatic guns are not the only tool driving deck fastening trends. Small changes like a guide gadget, a counterbore, or a tweaked glue nozzle design transform tedious techniques to meet consumers’ demand for hidden fasteners and contractors’ need for speed.

Thirty-Round Clips
“When we started out, the biggest hurdle to get over in the entire hidden deck industry was awareness,” says Don Martel, one of Tiger Claw Hidden Deck Fastener’s founders. “People just didn’t know about them. Over the past couple years, that’s absolutely changed; awareness is much greater. The end user is asking for them–they don’t want to see the screws anymore.”

Tiger Claw designed an 11-inch pneumatic gun adaptable to its TC-G clip as well as TimberTech’s CONCEALoc clip, Trex Hideaway fasteners, Fasco’s InvisiDeck clip, Beck’s Hidden Scrail Fastener, and Guardian’s Ghost Grip. As long as the deck board has a groove, you can install the clips twice as fast, says Martel–”just pull the trigger and shoot them in.” The gun nose holds the clip until you insert it in the board’s groove, press the tool against the joist, and fire.

The Ballistic NailScrew driver by Fiberon inspired “gunnable” versions of its hidden Line and Butt Joint Fasteners, cutting installation time in half, says Fiberon. Once the builder sets the clips into the groove and aligns the nailer, the clips install with screws as fast as by firing nails.

Another gun-compatible concealed system is the Mantis Deck Clip from Sure Drive USA, which receives screws fired from the RCS Eliminator Auto Slide and works with composite, hardwood, and pressure-treated decking.

One tool that does away with clips and screws altogether is the Hid-Fast system, which resembles a hardwood floor nailer and fires collated 3-inch fasteners.

“Once contractors learn the new tools and the speeds they can get, they don’t want to go back,” says Glenn Tebo, inventor of the Hid-Fast. He patented the tool after building decks for 25 years. The Hid-Fast secures most deck materials except CorrectDeck and green pressure-treated lumber.

While not a firearm-type tool, Trex’s Hideaway Universal Hidden Fasteners still shave time for contractors, says Adam Zambanini, director of marketing at Trex. Designed by Tiger Claw, the Hideaway clips come preset with screws positioned so builders can drill them straight down between deck boards and back them out just as easily. The clips fit most grooved composites, spacing the boards 1/4 inch apart, and will slide along the groove, making it easier to replace a board.

Tough Angle
Squeaks, board movement, and the trouble of replacing a bad board clipped tight at the back of the deck led National Nail Corp. to invent a system that installs with no clips from a new angle. It introduced the Camo Hidden Deck Fastening System at the International Builders’ Show this year. A small hand tool guides tip-less deck screws, spaces the boards 3/16 inch apart, and requires only a cordless drill and a Camo driver bit. With no predrilling, the screw fastens decking to the joists at an angle, leaving a small screw head hidden between the grooves.

“We have done testing with just about every major board product out in the field today,” says Greg Groenhout, product manager for National Nail Corp. A similar hand tool made by Fiberon for its PVC decking is the Deck Pilot, a guide for driving screws at an angle through the side of its boards.

However, pnuematic guns and clever hand tools are not for everyone. “Generally, contractors like to stay within their comfort zone–what they’ve been used to doing for the last 20 years,” says Tebo. “So to get them to take on a new tool or a new process and learn it is a little difficult.” Many builders prefer top-down anchoring, cannot invest in a pneumatic tool, or just don’t like clips. Starborn Industries Inc. took notice.

Plug-In Updates
Carpenters have plugged holes for thousands of years, but Starborn found the hardwood market largely untapped. So it sped up old-school joinery techniques last summer with a patented glue nozzle and the Smart-Bit Pro Plug System.

“The problem with using hidden fasteners on ipe is that it doesn’t come pre-grooved,” says Ryan Unick, Starborn’s deck products specialist. And plugging in the past has been time-consuming: “They had to cut the counterbore for the plugs, countersink for the screw heads, roll the plug in glue, hammer it in, and since they made the plugs themselves, they would have to chisel off the top of the plug and sand it.”

Starborn now cuts hardwood plugs to use with the Pro Plug tool, a drill bit that countersinks and counterbores in one step. A stop collar spins independently so it will not mark the face of the board. The Pro Plug glue nozzle attaches to any exterior glue bottle, inserts in the hole above the screw head, and dispenses glue out the sides of the nozzle to coat the hole walls.

“We took out half the steps of that process and made it about a third of the time,” Unick says. Since last summer, Starborn expanded the system to include about 20 hardwood decking lines.

For the PVC and composite market, Cortex plugs by FastenMaster are still a strong product.

“Contractors are being asked by homeowners to conceal the complete deck,” says Anthony DiSanto, pull-through manager at FastenMaster. “Channel systems can do the majority of the deck, but when you get to your stairs, to perimeter boards that go around the deck, to any kind of custom inlay, it’s really difficult for a contractor to use a clipped system.” Cortex plugs allow for complete screw head secrecy and the builder can say, “All portions of your deck can be concealed,” he says.

Fast Future
“The manufacturers of decking are driving the trends in fasteners–the fastener guys are playing follow the leader,” says Lombardo. The latest board on the block is capstock, which puts a PVC-like wrapping around a composite core. Now that this trend is under way, expect fast fasteners to follow in the near future.

“[For] any guy coming out with a new board, and even existing companies with popular boards, the pressure is on them to have a hidden fastening solution,” says Martel.

Whether gun-fired screws, a new thread design, or a special glue dispenser, “all these ideas, they’ve already been done, you go inside and see examples of dowels and plugs and biscuits,” observes Lombardo, but the ways to power-drive these old techniques appear endless.

Adds Martel: “There are always a lot of things that are new and popping up, so just keep your eye out, because there’s more to come.” --Evelyn Royer. This article originally appeared in PROSALES magazine.