Deck repair
The ledger is the board bolted to the house that carries one whole side of the deck, and it is where serious deck failures most often begin. Older Atlanta decks were commonly nailed rather than bolted to the house and built with little or no flashing, so rain running down the siding soaked the ledger and the rim joist behind it for decades. We open it up, check both sides, re-fasten with structural screws or through-bolts, and flash it properly. If the house rim itself is soft, you need to know before the deck goes back on.
The ledger is the length of lumber fastened to your house that carries the house side of the deck. When a deck fails suddenly, this is one of the most common places it lets go. When a deck fails slowly, this is where it also damages the house, because the same water that rots the ledger soaks the rim joist of the house behind it.
A lot of decks in this area were built or added in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, before connection details were enforced the way they are now. We regularly find ledgers nailed rather than bolted, fastened through siding rather than to solid framing, and installed with no flashing, or with flashing that sits on top of the siding where water runs straight behind it. With around fifty inches of rain a year, that detail matters for decades.
We remove the boards and siding along the ledger to see both sides. A sound ledger gets re-fastened with structural screws or through-bolts and properly flashed, with the flashing tucked behind the siding above it. A rotten one gets replaced, and if the house rim joist behind it has rot we write that down separately - it is a house repair, and you should know about it. Ledger work usually comes with some frame repair at the house end and new boards over it.
Seen often on added-on decks in Atlanta and Decatur, and on original 1970s and 80s decks in Dunwoody, Marietta, Sandy Springs and Smyrna.
How long does it take? Usually a few days. Rot found in the house rim joist adds time and becomes its own repair.
These usually turn up on the same inspection:
Sistered joists, new beams and posts, footings reset below the clay - the structure that holds a tall deck up.
Learn More →Soft boards, loose railings, bouncy framing - we find the cause underneath and fix that, not just the symptom on top.
Learn More →Tear-out and rebuild when the frame is past saving - built to current code, in pressure-treated or composite.
Learn More →Free - No Obligation
Two minutes. We call you back the same day.