Hi everyone, I'm looking for some input on what the best method is of attaching the header joist on a deck. I've got a ledger attached to the house, a 15' joist span, two intermediate beams, and a three foot cantilever at the end. I was going to use joist hangers on the header but after really thinking about it, the joists are resting on the beams, so there will be little to no downward pressure on the header joist. That probably makes joist hangers somewhat useless. I'm thinking about just nailing the header into the joist ends, maybe using three nails angled up and three angled down or something. I have 45 degree angles on the corners so I have some braces for those. The only significant pressure I can foresee is from leaning on the railing, the posts of which will be bolted to the inside of the header. Any thoughts on this? Maybe I should use a 90 degree brace on each side of the joist ends, but then I'm almost back to using a joist hanger, so maybe those are the best option after all. Now I'm talking myself in circles... Thanks, Brad

We're building a deck off the back of the house aprox. 12 x 28. Due to the fact that this will extend a 12 X 12 deck we built last week, the house, a door and a tree in the way, we'll be running the beams (2x8) the long way with 4x4 posts aprox 6 feet apart. The question we have is if we can use two beams for 2 X 8 joists for the 12 foot span or do we have to put in a third beam in the middle. Thanks, JM and K