Customer Reviews

Cepco Tool 100-EBTYS Eb Ty Original kit, 100-Piece

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This system is great-I would just advise buyers to check with the manufacturer's website www.ebty.com before buying this package. The reason is the depending on the size and composition of the deck, you may need another size EB-TY than the one offered in this package. There are about 6 different sizes, each for a different purpose. So educate yourself before you buy this particular package. Happy deck building!!

First time I've used the product. It took a little while to get a system down, but it is still a very time consuming procedure. The end result is worth it, though. Using 1x4 mahogany decking and it looks great without screws or nails on the surface. Would highly suggest that you get at least one other person to help with the install, it would make it go a lot quicker.

Once we got the biscuit cutter properly calibrated, the installation of the hidden fasteners went very smooth. Instructions were clear and give some helpful tips.

The screws are bright stainless steel. It would be an improvement to have them black so that they blend in with the black biscuit.

The box should indicate that you need a square drive bit for the screws.

The finished results is just what I wanted. The installation process is tidius. It more than doubles your time to install. But I was installing a very hard wood (Brazilian Redwood). The only complaint I have is every box of clips only contained 90 screws instead of the 100.
I bought 800 units and came up short 80 screws.

This system is well worth the extra cost and time involved, I used it on composit decking. This is a two person job with composites, I bought a Stanley Board Bender because composites have a natural "bow" that has to be straightened to maintain the 3/16 spacing. The finished deck without the visable screws looks great.

We need the EB-TYs for a project that we were doing, we were building a deck and we didnt want to beable to see the screws or the nails. It turned out that these were cheaper then at the local hardware store and with the use of these, the deck looks AWESOME!

Best deal out there for "regular" size EB-TY fastners and these kits includes the stainless steel screws. Found many retail outlets selling the same hardware for more than twice the price.

I abandoned using this system while putting the first two boards down. I used 20 foot 5/4 Trex and cut the biscuit slots myself. Problems included the following:
1. When there is a crown differential in adjacent joist the fasteners tend to bend down making the installation of the next board very difficult.
2. The fasteners are too noticable. Even with black painted screws like I used the dark black biscuits are very visible from above and below through the 1/4" gap required by Trex.
3. This process is SLOW and unless you are blessed with tremendous patience and have a lot of time on your hands consider other options.
4. Cutting your own biscuit slots is a lot of work and very hard to do ahead of time accurately to hit the joist locations. This often leads to the need to recut the biscuit slot up on the deck to get everything aligned. Use pre-grooved material with these fasteners.
5. Trex and EB-ty both say the deck should be glued down as well. I never got this far as I could not get the second board to slide over the biscuits in the edge of the first board. IF I did it would have been really frustrating to then pull teh board off, apply the glue and then struggle to get the board to align with the biscuits again while sliding the board THROUGH the glue rather than dropping it ON the glue

Bottom line: I used 1-5/8" stainless steel trim head screws and set them below the surface using the clutch setting on the drill. All boards were glued down using Liquid nails exterior grade adhesive. I used two fasteners at every other joist since mine are at 12" oc. The glue ends up providing the real adhesion. The crew head become nearly invisible after you hammer the "mushrooming" Trex back down over the crew into the screw head recess. Using this process my wife and I installed 34 20 lengths of 5/4 Trex in 10 hours.

I have used EB-Ty on 5 decks now all composite and in different climate zones they are and excellent way to end up with a beautiful deck. All my customers and myself (1st deck) have sold more jobs for me. Also if you want to go the extra mile install sheet metal strips on top of you joists and girders to cover them with a 45 degree 1/2 lip on each side of the strip you'll have a life time deck if you use treated lumber as well or have access to the underside of the deck to treat the joists and girders with a preservative every 5 years or so. We use a preservative mfg by Flood available at Lowes.

Very good product. I liked this system because it is installed from on top of the deck. Great when you are only inches or a foot or so above ground level.