Every job below is one we do ourselves across Madison.
We frame new decks with joists set 16 inches on center and footings poured below the frost line, which runs about 42 inches deep in the Madison area. You get a choice of pressure-treated lumber, cedar or composite decking, and we pull the permit before anyone touches a shovel.
Soft or spongy boards, a railing that moves, stairs that bounce, we see all of it. Most repairs come down to a rotted ledger connection, rusted joist hangers or a post that was never set on a real footing, and we fix the cause, not just the symptom.
UV and standing water are what actually break down a deck surface, not foot traffic. We power wash, let the wood dry fully, then apply an oil-based or water-based stain depending on the wood species and how much sun that side of the house gets.
Multi-level decks, built-in benches, pergolas and stairs that land exactly where you want them in the yard. We draw it out and talk through board direction and railing style before we order a single piece of lumber.
Composite boards like Trex or TimberTech skip the yearly staining and won't splinter, but they still require correct joist spacing underneath or they'll sag between supports. We follow the manufacturer's spacing spec exactly, since it's usually tighter than for wood.
Wisconsin code requires balusters spaced so a 4-inch sphere can't pass through, and a lot of older decks don't meet that anymore. We rebuild railings to spec, with posts bolted through the rim joist instead of just toe-screwed in.
If the frame underneath is still solid, we strip off the old decking and swap in new boards without rebuilding the whole structure. It's a faster, cheaper way to get a deck that looks new when the real problem is just the surface.
Joists, beams and ledger boards take the real load, and that's where rot and rust actually cause failures. We sister rotted joists, replace corroded hardware, and re-flash the ledger board where it meets the house so water stops getting behind the siding.
A lot of our clients want part of the deck screened in to deal with mosquitoes without losing the open-air feel entirely. We frame the screen walls into the existing deck structure so it reads as one build, not an add-on.
Old decks with rotted framing sometimes aren't worth saving, and trying to repair around bad joists just costs more over time. We tear it out, haul off the old lumber and nails, and leave the site ready for the next build.
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 and repair covers Madison and the towns within about 50 miles of it.
Questions that come up once a deck project actually gets underway.
Describe the problem and we will tell you what it probably is. No obligation.
