Thread: Joist hangers or just framing nails for new deck?

Hi everyone.

This is probably the first of many posts for me and like many others I am just throwing a dilema I have out there for anyone to comment on.

Just moved into the new place and I have just started my second ever deck. The first one I did was your typical rectangular design and pergola combo. Standard setup with joists ontop of bearers but the new one is a little tricky.

I didn't have the ground clearance for me to install bearers to the posts and then have my 140x45mm joists resting on top. I needed the 140s because I have so much fall at the front that I needed to get down to the footpath with as few landings as possible.

Anyways, my dilema is that I managed to fix the joists directly to the bearer face fairly quickly using my paslode framer and 75 x 3.06mm gal nails, 3 - 4 each end.
I know you should use hangers but seeings the 3 longer landings/steps are only 1100mm deep each joist seems pretty strong as it is.

My question to many is should I still go and nail hangers to all the joists or has anyway adopted this method before on decks?

I have attached some pics for reference.

Any feedback would be ace.

regards

TBM1