Watch out for pressure treated lumber and galvanized fasteners

I built a deck last summer up in the Adirondacks and used what I thought were good galvanized screws. After about 4 months I noticed some dark streaks running down the boards. Turns out the newer pressure treated wood has way more copper in it and it ate through the coating on those screws faster than I expected. I had to pull up half the deck boards and replace the fasteners with stainless steel ones which cost me an extra 200 bucks and a whole weekend. A buddy of mine who does commercial work told me he only uses stainless or hot-dipped galvanized now and never has issues. Has anyone else run into corrosion problems with the newer treated lumber?

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evannelson4d ago

My treated lumber deck has been fine with regular galvanized screws for three years now, so maybe it's a regional thing.