Herriman and the south Salt Lake Valley
Deck Repair in Herriman, Utah
Soft boards, bounce underfoot, guards that move when you lean on them, and ledgers that have been quietly leaking into the wall. Most of the decks giving trouble around here went up between 1999 and 2010 and have never had the frame looked at.
Diagnosis first
The board you can see is rarely the problem
Surface weathering looks alarming and is usually cosmetic. Grey, checked, splintery boards sitting on a sound frame are a sanding job or a board swap, not a structural emergency.
What actually fails is hidden. Water gets behind an unflashed ledger and rots the rim joist inside the wall, where nobody sees it for years. Joist ends bearing against the ledger stay damp and go soft from the end grain inward. Guard posts bolted through a notched four-by-four lose most of their strength right at the notch. Fasteners that were never rated for modern treated lumber corrode from the inside and let go without warning.
So we start underneath with a screwdriver and a probe. Ten minutes down there tells you more than an hour of walking around on top.
- Probe the ledger, the rim joist and the first two feet of every joist end
- Push-test guard posts — a guard has to take 200 pounds at the top rail, and a failing one feels loose long before it breaks
- Check fastener and hanger corrosion, especially where galvanised metal meets treated lumber
- Check stair stringers where they meet the ground, which is almost always where they rot first
What we fix
Three kinds of repair work
Most jobs are a mix. A ledger repair almost always turns into some board work, because you have to lift boards to get at it.
Structural
Ledger removal, wall repair and reflashing. Sistering or replacing rotten joists. Replacing posts and beams, and re-hanging connections with hardware rated for the lumber it is touching.
Surface and boards
Swapping split, cupped or rotten boards. Re-fastening lifted decking, replacing popped nails with screws, then sanding and refinishing so the repair does not read as a patch.
Guards and stairs
Resetting or replacing guard posts into real blocking rather than a notch. Replacing balusters to correct spacing. Rebuilding stringers, treads and the landing at the bottom.
Process
How a repair gets scoped
Repairs are harder to quote than new builds, because the damage you can see sets the floor for the price rather than the ceiling. We are straight about that from the start.
Send photos
The underside of the frame, the point where the deck meets the house, and the stairs. Three photos usually tell us whether this is a repair conversation or a replacement one.
On-site inspection
Probing rather than looking. We check the ledger, joist ends, posts, guard connections and stringers, and we tell you what we found rather than handing over a number in isolation.
Findings and options
What is wrong, what has to be done now, what can wait a season, and what replacement would cost instead. If replacement is the better value we say so.
Materials and scheduling
Repairs often need matching or near-matching lumber, and older composite lines are sometimes discontinued. We sort that out before starting rather than mid-job.
The work
Structure first, then surface, then guards and stairs. Anything opened up in the house wall gets closed properly, flashed and made weather-tight before boards go back.
Walkthrough
We show you what was replaced and what we left, and we are honest about how much life the rest of it has.
The honest line
When repair stops making sense
There is a point where patching costs more than rebuilding, and it usually arrives earlier than people want to hear.
The rough tests we use: if much more than a third of the joists need sistering or replacing, if the ledger has been leaking long enough to damage the wall framing behind it, or if the posts are moving because the footings never reached depth — then repairing it means paying for the same deck twice.
We will still quote the repair if you want the comparison. We would rather you saw both numbers than took our word for it.
- More than roughly a third of the frame probes soft
- Wall framing behind the ledger is wet, stained or spongy
- Posts move because footings are shallow or were never poured
- You have wanted to change the size or shape anyway, in which case the tear-out is not wasted money
Plan the cost
Tick what is actually wrong and see a range
Built around the four ways a twenty-year-old Herriman builder deck fails — and honest enough to tell you when a repair has stopped being the cheaper answer.
Send three photos and skip a visit
The underside of the frame, the ledger where it meets the house, and the stairs. That is usually enough for us to tell you which conversation we are having.
Questions
Repair questions
How do I know if my deck is actually unsafe?
Two quick checks. Stand at the guard and push outward with your hip — it should not move. Then look at where the deck meets the house for a gap that has opened up, or staining on the siding below the ledger. Movement at either point means stop using it until someone has been underneath.
Can you replace just the boards and keep the frame?
If the frame probes sound, yes, and it is the best value in deck work. One caveat: if you are switching to composite, the old frame may be spaced at 16 inches on centre when the new boards want 12, especially for a diagonal layout. That means adding joists, and it belongs in the quote rather than as a surprise halfway through.
How long does a repair take?
Board and guard work is often one to two days. Anything involving the ledger takes longer, because the wall has to be opened, dried, repaired and flashed properly before it gets closed. Rushing that part is how the same problem comes back in four years.
Do repairs need a permit?
Like-for-like repairs usually do not. Replacing structural members, changing the footprint or altering the guard configuration often does. Every city draws the line slightly differently, so we check with yours before starting rather than afterwards.
My deck is grey and splintery — is it rotten?
Usually not. Grey is UV damage to the surface fibres and splintering is the surface checking as it dries. Both are cosmetic on sound wood. Rot feels different: a screwdriver pushes in with almost no resistance, and it is normally found at joints, end grain, and anywhere water sits.
Can you match my existing boards?
Wood that has been in Utah sun for a decade will not match new lumber whatever the species, so a scattered repair reads as a patch until it weathers in. Composite is worse, because colours get discontinued. Often the honest answer is to replace a defined area — a whole section, or the whole surface — rather than dot new boards through old ones.
Related work
Other things we do
A repair quote quite often turns into a replacement conversation, and sometimes into a railing job on its own.
Deck Installation
New decks laid out, footed and framed for your lot — from post holes to the last board.
See what’s involvedDeck Replacement
Tear-out and rebuild when the frame is past saving, usually on the same footprint.
See what’s involvedComposite Deck Installation
Capped composite and PVC surfaces on a frame spaced and flashed for the product.
See what’s involvedGet the frame looked at
Send the form with a description and photos. We will tell you what we would do and what it costs, including the option you might not want to hear.
Request a Quote
Tell us about your deck project below, including rough size, materials and photos if you have them, and we will follow up to set up a free estimate.