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Shoutout to the guy who told me to use a chalk line for my deck boards
I was putting down a new deck last spring and just eyeballed the first few boards. A neighbor saw me and said to snap a chalk line every five boards. I thought it was overkill, but the difference was huge. The second half of the deck looks perfectly straight, and the first half has a slight wave you can see from the yard. Has anyone else found a simple tool that fixed a whole project?
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sean_johnson166mo ago
Grab a speed square for your framing. It feels like a toy but it makes every single cut dead straight.
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uma6856mo ago
Actually it's a rafter square for birdsmouths, a speed square is the triangle for marking cuts. They're similar but the rafter square has that extra lip for hooking on roof boards.
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jake_owens6mo ago
sean_johnson16 is totally right about the straight cuts, but a speed square is also a secret weapon for marking rafters. You can lay it right on the board and mark your birdsmouth without needing a separate framing square. It locks onto the edge and gives you a perfect plumb line every single time. Saves a ton of fussing around when you're up on the ladder trying to hold a big square steady. That little triangle does way more work than people give it credit for.
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