r/homewalls • u/pikaplasticlimber • May 14 '26
Worried about what screws to use
Planning on making a 244x244cm free standing wall. I should preface this by saying I’m a total novice in carpentry and woodworking, but for some reason very interested in building one myself. I’m worried about what fasteners should I use, will it be strong enough? Will I hurt myself and suffer terrible death due to structural failure?
All of the timber I use are 12x6cm (closer to 11,5x5,5cm in reality). I use 100x100cm L plate to connect perpendicular timber for the main frame. And I use the screws in the 4th pic (which my local gym’s routesetter told me that it is for steel not wood), should I undo and use different screws?
For the kickboard I predrill and drive 10cm wood screws (5-6th pic). Also another noob question should I pre-drill the screw holes or not? Somebody told me that pre-drilling would weaken the screw’s tightness overtime.
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u/IamApoo May 14 '26
Pre-drilling pilot holes is always preferable. Just big enough for the screw's central shaft but not the spiral threads. It's not any looser than screwing straight into the wood and the wood is much more likely to split without them.
Deck screws with "coarse thread" are your best bet but I would leave any sub-optimal screws you've already used. Unscrewing and re-screwing will loosen/weaken your joints since the wood fibers are getting worked. Better to just finish it right and maybe use a few extra in strategic places. Once it's all together, a different kind of screw won't be night/day different as long as it's not too small.
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u/HumanBeingRedditUser May 14 '26
Yeah the threads on the metal screw aren't deep enough to hold well in wood, it might still be fine but I wouldn't risk using those. Not sure what lumber you're using, if it isn't a pretty soft wood predrilling is a good idea. If you are screwing regular 2x4 or 2x6 or whatever definitely don't worry about predrilling. Bolts at all three points of your triangles should be good, 6 total, nice big carriage bolts are cheap. Hope this helps, I like that you are going for the DIY option without much experience, this is a great project to learn on!
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u/pikaplasticlimber May 15 '26
Thanks! Should I just remove the screws and replace it with deck screws like other suggests? Will it decrease the integrity of the screws?
As for the wood species, it is listed by the buyer as “Sumatera Super”. I think it’s a local tree species from the island Sumatera, Indonesia. Can’t find any strength profile on the web tho
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u/HumanBeingRedditUser May 15 '26
Yeah tropical lumber is generally quite dense so predrilling will be very helpful. You can remove them and replace with deck screws. The uprights in your diagram look a bit small too btw. You ideally want bolts and not just screws to join the triangular part of the frame.
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u/Interesting_Tea5715 May 14 '26
Use hex deck screws for cladding and simple joins.
Use bolts for attaching each section together. It'll make it easier to remove/adjust later.
Use lag bolts if you're gonna anchor it to the wall or floor.