When using green treated lumber for the framing of anything, always exercise hardware maintenance over the first few years. For instance, the year after I completed our covered dock-deck, I went over every stainless steel carriage bolt and most all of them accepted a couple of cranks to snug them back down. Green treated lumber will shrink a whole bunch. Well, I skipped the second year. Here now, some 3-1/2 years later, I decided it was time to take a look and see if anybody needed to be tightened up. GOOD IDEA, JAKE. I walked over to one the 6 x 6 main vert's and grabbed it with both hands and tried to give it a shake. WHOA; there was some play and the entire structure had a small tremor goin' on. Not good. So, I pulled out the ratchets, deep wells, and wrenches. Jeez, good call...some of the nuts were actually loose enough that I could have spun them with my fingers. I mean, some of those 1/2 x 8" stainless carriage bolts took 3 or 4 revolutions to pull it up tight as a drum. At the end of the tune up, no more wobble.
