Deck, Porch & Fence Repair in Morrisville, NC

Check the documents first

This page starts differently from the others because in Morrisville the first question is not what is wrong with your deck. It is whose deck it is.

A large share of what we would repair here is attached to a townhome, and townhome associations divide responsibility in ways that vary considerably. Some treat balconies and decks as common element and maintain the whole thing. Some maintain the structure and leave the surface to the owner. Some leave the lot to the owner. Occasionally it differs between unit types inside a single association.

Your governing documents say which applies to you. It takes five minutes to check, and it is worth doing before you pay anyone — including us — for work your dues may already cover. We would genuinely rather you found that out first.

If it turns out to be yours, everything below applies.

Raised balconies: the connection is the job

Where a balcony is above ground level, the important part is not the bit you can see.

The load goes through the ledger connection into the building. That connection depends on the fasteners being right and, more importantly, on flashing that keeps water from getting in behind it. When flashing is inadequate or has failed, water tracks into the joint and works on it out of sight, for years.

That is the failure mode worth acting on. Surface boards are cosmetic by comparison. On any raised structure it is the first thing we look at, and if what we find is bad we will say so plainly rather than resurfacing over it.

Small footprints change the economics

Townhome decks and balconies tend to be a fraction of the size of the rear decks in Apex or Holly Springs. That has a useful consequence.

Replacing every board on a small deck is not an expensive proposition, and it usually gives a better result than replacing the three worst ones and living with a visible patchwork of new boards against twenty-year-old grey ones. On a large deck that trade-off goes the other way. Here it is often worth doing the lot.

Railings

The same rule as everywhere: movement almost always comes from the post connection at the rim rather than from the railing itself, and it is a repair rather than a rebuild. On a raised balcony a guardrail is more than a nuisance if it is loose, so it is worth dealing with quickly.

Fences and gates

Smaller lots mean shorter fence runs and often shared boundaries, which brings its own question about who is responsible for what. Between neighbours that is usually a conversation rather than a document; within an association it may well be in the documents.

Gates sag for the same three reasons everywhere: the post moved, hinge screws pulled out of end grain, or the frame racked. We fix the cause, not the symptom.

Getting a price

Photograph the whole structure, the worst area close up, and — on a raised balcony — the point where it meets the building, including underneath if you can safely get a shot. Tell us whether you have checked the ownership question. Morrisville is about twenty minutes from us.