Every job below is one we do ourselves across Douglasville.
We build new decks from the ground up, starting with footings poured below the frost line and a ledger board flashed to keep water out of the rim joist. Framing goes down before we ever talk about board color, because a deck that racks or bounces is a framing problem, not a finish problem.
Soft or spongy boards usually mean the joist underneath is rotting, not just the board itself, so we check the frame before we replace anything on top. We'll pull a few deck screws and probe the wood with a screwdriver to see how far the rot has spread before we quote the fix.
Pressure-treated pine should get a fresh coat of sealer every one to two years or the UV breaks down the wood fibers and it starts to gray and check. We pressure wash at low pressure first, let the wood dry for a couple of days, then apply a penetrating stain instead of a film-forming coating that just peels later.
If you want a second level off an upstairs door, built-in bench seating, or a deck that steps down around a tree, we draw it out before we cut anything. We size the joists and beams for the actual load, not a generic span table, so a hot tub or a crowd of people doesn't become a structural problem later.
Individual boards crack, cup, or splinter years before the rest of the deck needs work, and there's no reason to rebuild the whole thing over a handful of bad boards. We match the board profile and fastener pattern so the repair doesn't stand out from six feet away.
Composite boards don't rot or splinter, but they still call for proper joist spacing underneath, usually tighter than what pressure-treated lumber uses. We use hidden fastener systems on most composite jobs so you're not looking at screw heads down the length of the deck.
Georgia code calls for guardrails at 36 inches on most residential decks, with balusters spaced so a 4-inch sphere can't pass through. We replace wobbly posts by bolting through the rim joist with structural screws instead of toe-nailing, which is why most railings fail in the first place.
A screened porch is a roof, a deck floor, and framed screen panels, and each of those has to tie into your house without trapping water against the siding. We flash the roof-to-house connection the same way we flash a deck ledger, because that seam is where most porches eventually leak.
Ledger boards bolted into rim joists without flashing are the most common failure we find, usually after the rim joist behind it has been rotting for years unseen. We replace the ledger, add proper flashing, and check that footings haven't heaved or settled before putting new boards on top.
We wash decks at 500 to 600 psi with a wide fan tip, enough to lift dirt and mildew without gouging the wood grain. This is also when we spot loose boards, popped nails, and rot before they turn into bigger repairs.
Four steps, and no surprises in any of them.
You tell us what you want doing, we look at what is actually there, and we ask the awkward questions early.
In writing, itemised, free. If something might add cost later we flag it now rather than at the end.
Same crew throughout. We cover your floors, keep the dust down and tidy up before we leave each day.
You point out anything you are not happy with and we fix it before the invoice, not after.
Deck installation, repair, and staining across Douglasville and the surrounding towns served.
Questions that come up once a deck project is underway.
Describe the problem and we will tell you what it probably is. No obligation.
