It's depressing to post something that didn't work out, but it happens and hopefully someone can benefit from the experience.
As you might have seen on the blog, we built a pool and a deck. Most is working out fine. The deck wood, however, did not work out well... not by a long shot.
What happened?
After following the retailer's installation instructions — using their recommended (and branded) fasteners, the wood swelled... closing up the gaps and then some. This caused the boards to buckle and eventually push the entire lot of them out on the sides as much as 3/4in. The swelling caused the boards to retain (not drain) water which made it worse. Things got dirty. The wood clearly needed far more gap than the retailer recommended and the design of the clips themselves tended to pull the boards tighter than they needed to be (the screws go in at an angle from a single side — rather than from the top and both sides — pulling each board a bit closer. Had these been top-screwed, it might not have been as much of a problem, but then later sanding and re-finishing would be an issue...
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