Q: I’ve never worked with metal joist hangers. When I hold one in my hand, I question whether it’s actually strong enough to support all the weight that will be resting on it. Are they safe?

Robert even sent some of the rusted joist hanger nails. A few of them had lost well over 60 percent of the steel! The bottom of several hangers had holes in them, and the remaining metal was paper ...

The joist hanger on the left was from a home 13 miles from Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore. Imagine what it might have looked like had the house been built a few hundred feet from an ocean beach.