Almost every homeowner looks at a deck from above — the boards are gray, a few are soft, so the deck must be done. That is the least important surface on the whole structure. Decking is the cheapest part to replace and the easiest to inspect.
What actually decides repair versus replace is underneath: the ledger board where the deck meets the house, the posts, and the footings they sit on.
This is the board bolted to your house, and it carries half the weight of the deck. If it was nailed instead of bolted, or installed without flashing, water has been running behind it for years. A deck that pulls away from a house almost always fails here first.
Push a screwdriver into each post about two inches above the concrete. If it sinks in, the post is gone, regardless of how solid it looks from four feet up. That is where water sits.
In northwest Minnesota footings need to be below the frost line. A deck sitting on patio blocks or shallow piers will move every single winter, and nothing you build on top of it will stay square.
If the structure is sound and the problem is the walking surface, replacing decking and railings is good money spent. You keep the frame and get a deck that looks new.
If the ledger is rotten or the footings are shallow, a repair is spending real money on a structure that is going to fail anyway. The rebuild costs more and lasts twenty years instead of three.
Either way, the inspection is free. It takes about twenty minutes and it is worth knowing which one you have.
Tell Darius what the job is and roughly where. He will come and look, and you will get a price for the work before anything starts.
Crookston, MN · and the towns around it
custom.carpentryllc26@gmail.com
Custom Carpentry Solutions LLC is run out of Crookston and works across Polk County, into East Grand Forks and Grand Forks, and down through the smaller towns south and west.
Jobs are quoted on site, so there is no shop to visit — call and Darius will come to you.
Free estimates across Crookston and the Red River Valley.