Cortex Plug Hidden Fasteners - for Azek Acacia -300 sq ft. pack

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Price: $245.00    

Product Feature

• Very quick and easy to use
• Provides maximum holding power
• The best option for fastening AZEK decking

Product Description

The Cortex Hidden Fastening System is the fastest, easiest way to hide the heads of your deck screws on market-leading deck board types. Set the screw, set the plug, and you're all set. Cortex offers a strong connection between the deck board and the joist and can hide fasteners across the entire deck: first and last board, perimeter, and stairs. Cortex is available for use in the following AZEK decking brands: ?AZEK®: Arbor, Terra and Harvest Collection All screws, plugs, and setting tools are included in every box.

Cortex Plug Hidden Fasteners - for Azek Acacia -300 sq ft. pack Review

First of all, there is also a 100-sq ft pack you can buy. I bought the 300-sq ft package for a 16x16 Azek Acacia Deck with joists 16" On-Center (not 12" as some townships require). I mention this because my Deck is only 256-sq ft and I ran out of both Screws and Plugs using a 300-sq ft box. I needed another 30 screws and 40 caps to finish my job! However, Cortex (FastenMaster) responded to my email call for help and quickly sent me the extra screws & plugs for free using UPS 2nd day priorty at no charge to me - if you are reading this, Thank you for standing behind your product and sending me the extras!

The positives (in addition to good customer service): Install quickly and easily using a 18V impact-driver. I used a Dewalt DCF885 rotating 3-hour battery packs for non-stop fastening. USE AN IMPACT DRIVER, do not use a drill. As you can see in the stock picture, the driver tool has a plastic-disk that will drive the screw to the correct depth every time so that the Plugs install flush to the Deck Boards. The plugs are a perfect color match to Azek Acacia, right down to the grain pattern. You can literally find a plug for a perfect match, orientate the plug so the grain direction is in-line with your Deck Board. Perfect match... look GREAT. I'll attach picture of my finished deck - it is a very good hidden fastener system. The guys at the lumber yard where I purchased said in the past 8-years there has been zero complaints, no customers have complained about plugs popping off or coming loose during snow, rain, ice, etc. It was also very easy to remove a stripped screw using the next-size-up square headed driver from my tool-box. Just hammer the oversized driver into the head of the stripped screw, and then slowly reverse it out (you'll have to re-hammer two or three times).

The negatives: Unfortunately, you have to be very gentle with the driver-tool. For several reasons. One, if you apply too much pressure or if the pressure is not directly vertical, then the plastic-disk will put a circular mark on your expensive Azek Decking. The Azek Deck Boards scratched pretty easily by this disk-tool. But if you don't drive it all the way down, then the plug-caps will not be flush to the Deck Board. Two, the driver-tools will break! This is why they give you 6 of them in the box. You need to discipline yourself to replace the driver tool after every 200 screws or damage will occur. It always breaks when DRIVING the screw, which as you can imagine is impossible to stop the Impact Driver from hitting the Deck Board when it suddently breaks without warning. This happened to me 3x during my install. All 3 times left a permanent indentation in my decking. The indents are not possible to cover-up with another plug because they are too close to the actual screw that you are driving that requires a Plug. Another complaint is that to remove a plug you need to drive a screw into it, then pull out (this wastes a plug and a screw because it will not come back off the screw). And finally, the extra plugs & screws that they sent me included a driver with a felt disk but this did not seat the screws consistently every time so I MUCH preferred the plastic-disc driver tool.

A bit of warning on using Azek Deck Boards is that they do not offer any fillers/putty/caulks. Not only don't they sell anything, but they also will not qualify any other name-brands for use with Azek. Why do I mention this under my Cortex Review? Because you need to drive a screw into the side of the Azek Board to close any small gaps between boards. For me, every stair had a 45-degree angle cut to hide the visible cut edge of the Azek Deck Boards. So every 45-degree angle was closed tightly by driving a Cortex Screw into the edge of the boards and pulling the tightly together BEFORE attaching the Deck Boards vertically. And the Plugs look just as nice plugging a side-hole as they did for plugging the top boards. Just know in advance that you can't use caulks/fillers/putty with Azek Decking (you also can't spray mosquito spray or use suntan lotion with plastic decking such as Azek). You wouldn't be able to do this side attachment/plug with any other fastening system out there! Big Bonus.

Overall I give this product a B+ for the reasons stated above. I hope my suggestions will help you. My deck is shown with white facia boards and acacia color decking. I bet you can't spot a single hidden fastener on my entire deck!

Good Luck with your Deck. I am not a professional, just a DIY handyman. I've built 3 other decks each with a different fastener system (Tiger Claw, screws, and Trex). I had far fewer issues using this Cortex Hidden System than any other brand - but I think they each have thier own pluses and minuses.

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