Decks

Deck Repair & Rebuilds

We get under the deck first, because the ledger and the hangers fail before the boards do.

Walk out and the boards give underfoot in one corner. The rail moves when you lean on it. A stringer has split along the grain down where the stair lands.

Decks fail where you cannot see

A deck almost never fails where you're looking. It fails at the ledger, which is the board bolted to the side of the house, at the base of the posts, and inside the joist hangers. Every one of those is out of sight from up on the boards. Carolina weather does the slow work. Water finds a fastener hole, sits behind flashing that was never lapped right, stays damp through a wet spring, and twenty years on the connection carrying the whole deck into the house is the weakest thing on the property. A floor that bounces and a rail you can rock are both worth a phone call.

How we read a deck

First somebody goes under the deck with a light and a screwdriver, because putting new boards over a bad frame is money spent twice. Then we walk it with you and separate the safety items from the ones that are only appearance. That split is the part a property manager cares about, since a deck is the part of a rental most likely to hurt somebody. Permits come down to the address. Inside city limits is one process and out in the county is another, and we work out which one you're on before anything starts.

Repairs yes, new builds no

We repair and rebuild residential decks. A brand new deck built from the footings up goes to a licensed residential builder, since our own builder's license is still in progress, and large commercial structures are outside what we take on. If footings need pouring, that concrete is somebody else's work too.

What goes to another trade, and what stays with us, is on the services overview. A deck flagged on an inspection report is rarely the only item, so agents and managers can start with closing punch lists.

Nobody falls off a bad drywall patch

A bad drywall patch is ugly. A bad deck connection drops people onto concrete. Clay reads a deck from the ledger and the post bases outward and gets to the decking last. If a joist hanger is short on nails, he'll show you the empty holes.

Deck repair questions