Can a handyman repair a deck?

Many people in Everett ask this when one soft board or a wobbly railing turns up in spring. Sometimes it really is a small job. Sometimes the small problem you can see sits on top of a bigger one you can't, and that is the line worth understanding before you call anyone.

The short answer

Yes, a handyman can repair many decks. Replacing a few cracked deck boards, swapping popped nails for deck screws, tightening a railing cap or replacing a worn stair tread are all reasonable handyman jobs. A careful handyman with good tools will often do them well.

The answer changes when the problem is structural, meaning the parts that hold the deck up: the ledger board fastened to the house, the joists, the beams, the posts and the footings. Surface work is forgiving. If a deck board is slightly out of line, nobody gets hurt. Structural work decides whether a deck holding a dozen people at a summer barbecue stays where it is.

A simple way to think about it: if the fix sits on top of the joists, a capable handyman can usually handle it. If the fix sits under or inside the framing, bring in someone who builds and repairs decks as their main work.

What changes the answer on a real property

Around Everett, decks stay damp for much of the year. Long stretches of drizzle, shaded yards under tall firs and needles packed between boards keep the wood wet, and wet wood rots. A board that looks like a simple swap can sit on a joist that has gone soft along its top edge, where water has been sitting for years. Pulling up one board often shows the real job.

The ledger is the most common weak point on an attached deck. If the flashing above it was never installed or has failed, water runs down behind the ledger and rots both the ledger and the rim joist of the house. From the yard, that damage is mostly invisible. It is also not a handyman repair, because fixing it properly means supporting the deck, removing the ledger, repairing the house framing behind it and re-flashing the joint.

Height matters too. A low deck a step off the lawn is more forgiving than a second-storey deck off a kitchen, which is common on the hillside lots in Mukilteo and Edmonds. Elevated decks, and repairs that change or replace structure, may need a permit from your city. Someone who does not usually pull permits may not bring it up.

In Washington, people doing construction work for pay are expected to be registered with the Department of Labor and Industries. You can look up a registration online before you hire anyone, handyman or deck company.

What you can check yourself

You do not need special tools to get a good first read on your deck. A flat screwdriver and a flashlight cover most of it.

Push the screwdriver into the wood at a few spots: the ends of the joists where they meet the ledger, the bottoms of the posts near the ground, and the tops of joists where boards have been wet. Sound wood resists. Rotted wood lets the tip sink in easily or comes away in soft, stringy pieces.

Look at the line where the deck meets the house. You want to see metal or membrane flashing tucked behind the siding and lapped over the ledger. Dark staining, moss or crumbling wood along that line is worth a closer look.

Check the metal. Joist hangers, post bases and bolts that are rusted through or flaking should be noted. Older galvanized hardware can corrode when it touches modern pressure-treated lumber.

Grab each railing post and push hard outward. A post that moves at its base is a safety problem, not a cosmetic one. Walk the stairs and watch the stringers for splitting or sagging, and notice whether the deck bounces more than it used to.

When it needs a professional

Call someone who specialises in decks if you find any of these: a soft or stained ledger, rot in joists, beams or posts, posts rotting where they meet the ground or concrete, a railing post that moves at its base, a deck that sags or slopes, stair stringers that are cracked or pulling loose, or a gap opening up between the deck and the house.

If the deck has visibly moved or pulled away from the house, stay off it until it has been looked at. That is the one case where waiting a few weeks is a real risk.

Also be cautious of past patch jobs. Extra joists screwed alongside rotted ones, shims under posts or boards nailed over soft spots tell you someone has been treating symptoms. Each patch can hide what is going on underneath, and the next repair costs more because of it.

None of this means a handyman is the wrong choice for your whole deck. It means the framing deserves someone who looks at it every day and knows how the pieces carry load.

How this fits with what we do

If you are not sure which side of the line your deck falls on, a Deck Inspection is a sensible first step. We look at the ledger and flashing, probe the framing for rot, check the posts, footings, hardware, railings and stairs, and tell you plainly what we found. If the problem really is a handful of boards, we will say so, and you can decide who does the work.

When we do find damage, Rot Repair usually means cutting out the bad wood, replacing or reinforcing the affected joists or posts, fixing the cause of the water and closing it back up so the same spot does not rot again. On a lot of older decks in Everett, Snohomish and Lake Stevens, that work keeps a sound deck in service instead of replacing the whole thing.

If the inspection shows the framing is failing in many places, we will tell you that too, and explain why repair would not be good value.