Deck Repair & Restoration
A Pacific Northwest deck lives a hard life. Eight months of damp shade-moisture, three months of freeze-thaw that walks every screw a half-turn out of its joist, summer UV that drives the cedar tone gray, the chronic moss bloom on the north-side boards, the ledger flashing that was installed wrong in 1998 and has been wicking water behind the siding ever since. Deck repair and restoration is the trade for keeping the structure sound and the surface presentable — board-by-board replacement when the surface is failing, joist sister-up when the rim has gone soft, ledger re-attach with proper lag screws and flashing when the old nailed ledger is the actual deck-collapse risk, staining and sealing inside the narrow May-to-June dry window, pressure-wash tuned to the material, composite resurface over a still-sound frame, railing repair to the four-inch sphere code, and the inspection-and-safety walk that decides which of those visits the deck actually needs. Eight service families, every one with an honest scope. From $250 for a written inspection and safety walk to $65,000 for a full composite resurface with new fascia, hidden fasteners, and a code-compliance rail rebuild. Handis self-performs the carpentry, board work, staining, pressure-wash, and inspection scope; structural failures that require an engineer's sign-off on permit route to a licensed Washington L&I general contractor — we coordinate and pass the engineer's fee through transparently on the quote.
Services
Deck Repair & Restoration Pricing
Final pricing depends on deck size, board material, the extent of structural damage, whether ledger or joist work crosses into engineer-permit scope, and whether a stain or seal coat is booked into the dry-window forecast. Each child page lists detailed pricing for that service family. Licensed-GC and engineer fees pass through transparently with the line item named. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Send us photos of the deck, the ledger, and the joist hangers — we will tell you what stage the deck is actually in.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for Deck Repair & Restoration
Most deck calls we get are eight to fifteen years in the making. A 2008-vintage cedar deck whose builder used nails at the ledger instead of structural lag screws (the residential code required lags after the Chicago porch collapse in the early 2000s — most builders did not catch up until later), a 1990s pressure-treated deck whose joist hangers were never the right galvanization grade for ACQ-treated lumber and have been rusting through for a decade, a 2015 composite resurface whose installer never replaced the underlying joists and now the boards are flat but the frame is sagging. The path from a surface failure to a structural one runs through the ledger, the joist hangers, and the rim. Catching the failure at the board stage is a $500 visit. Catching it at the ledger or joist stage is a $1,500 to $4,500 visit. Catching it at the full-frame-replacement stage is a $40,000 project with a permit and an engineer. Handis is honest on arrival about which stage the deck is actually in.
Estimate
Tell us the deck (size in square feet, height off grade, single-tier or multi-tier), the board material (cedar, pressure-treated, composite, brand if known), what scope you have in mind (single board, full stain, ledger inspection, full composite resurface), and any known issues (soft boards, leaning rail, ledger flashing damage, visible rim joist rot). Send phone photos if you can. We will tell you on the response whether it is a Handis-only visit or whether the scope crosses into engineer-permit work, and we will quote both portions line by line.
What Our Customers Say
Recent deck repair and restoration reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
2003 cedar deck off our Wedgwood craftsman, ledger was nailed and the flashing had been wicking water behind the siding for years. Handis pulled the bottom course of cedar siding, exposed the ledger, found the rim joist behind it was soft for about four feet, named a licensed Washington L&I GC for the rim repair, the GC came in for the structural portion, then Handis returned to re-attach the new ledger with LedgerLOK lags, install proper Z-flashing, and re-side the cut-back area. Two trades, one coordinated project, no surprises.
Full composite resurface on a 380 sq ft cedar deck off our Bellevue house. The structural frame inspection showed two joists needed sister-up before the new boards went down — Handis did the joist work in the same visit. New TimberTech composite, Cortex hidden fasteners, new fascia, new post caps. Three working days. The deck looks like a furniture-store catalog and the underframe is more solid than it was when the deck was built.
Just the inspection and safety walk. Tech spent about 45 minutes on the deck and another 20 under it with a flashlight and an awl. Came back with a written punch list — four soft boards near the steps, one joist hanger rusting through, a baluster missing, the ledger flashing reversed (water draining behind the siding instead of away). Recommended sequence and budget for each. We hired Handis back the next month to do the work and they hit the quote on the nose.
Cedar deck on our 1996 split-level had not been stained in five years and looked gray and mossy. Handis washed it at the right PSI (low — the tech said high pressure raises the cedar grain and the next stain coat sheets right off), screwed down 28 popped fasteners, replaced six rusty galv ones with stainless, and rolled a cedar-tone Cabot stain coat the next week against a 72-hour clean window. Deck is still presentable in October.
Multi-joist sister-up on a 12-year-old pressure-treated deck where the original hangers had rusted through and two joists had gone soft at the rim. Handis sistered up the affected joists with matched 2x10 pressure-treated, replaced 11 Simpson ZMAX hangers, and screwed the existing surface boards back down where the fastener bite had failed. Honest about which joists needed work and which were still solid.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis deck repair and restoration — pricing, scope, ledger and joist work, stain timing, composite resurface, and the licensed-GC handoff.