Decks, Fences & Exterior Repairs in Lakewood, CO

On a deck, I look at the structure before anything cosmetic. Where a deck attaches to the house — the ledger — is the connection that matters most, because ledger failures are how decks come off buildings. I check the attachment, flashing, and post bases for rot, and if I find something genuinely unsafe I'll tell you plainly. Replacing surface boards on a deck with a failing ledger is spending money in the wrong place.

Fences here fail at the post, almost always at ground level where the wood stays damp. A leaning panel is usually a rotted or heaved post rather than a panel problem. Resetting a post properly means the right depth for our frost line, a footing sized for the load, and drainage at the base so water isn't held against the wood. Concrete poured straight into a hole around a post without drainage is the single most common reason a replacement post rots as fast as the original.

Masonry repair is mostly about mortar. Older Denver brick was laid with softer lime-based mortar, and repointing it with modern high-strength Portland mortar is a genuine mistake — the hard mortar won't move with the brick, so the brick face spalls off instead of the mortar giving. Matching mortar strength and color to what's there is the difference between a repair that lasts decades and one that damages the wall.