Happy Friday afternoon!

The sun is shining, and I’m so happy. We’re finally out of winter. We have spring here, and it’s a beautiful day!

Last week I was down in Nashville with my Iron Sharpens Iron mastermind community. I want to give a quick shoutout to Aaron Walker and all those amazing folks who had a great weekend down there. I had a great time with my specific group. It’s important that we invest in ourselves, and I’ve been so grateful that I have relationships with other business owners that are like-minded and care about success. They push me to be better. That’s much of what last weekend was. It was a great weekend, but I’m glad to be back this week.

Today, I wanted to show you something that we’re working on. Many times the question is: Does my deck need to be completely replaced, or can we fix it?

There are some advantages to fixing your deck. The biggest one is that permits are not required if we don’t make it any larger and are basically renovating it. As long as we don’t take the whole structure down, it’ll save you a significant amount of money in the cost of your project. It doesn’t limit your functionality.

Now, if you really want to make your deck larger or change it significantly, we can do that. Many times, we help clients figure out how to make what they have structurally sound, aesthetically pleasing, and long-lasting.

That’s what we’re working on here. I want to show you some things that we’re doing because this one was actually pretty rough. It’s going to look great when we’re done.

First of all, this had an old-style, composite decking. Unlike the new capital proposals we use, you can see that these steps were all sagging because they didn’t have a lot of strength. This was a product that actually changed colors after it was installed. It started out brown but has turned gray over time. About 15-20 years ago, we were using this product, but technology has really improved. In this case, we’ve got broken stair stringers here.But the rails were actually in pretty good shape. So, we took the rails down and out of the way so that we can replace all this framing and stair treads. We’re also going to close this in so that it meets current code and use these existing posts and rails to save our clients money. Also, since this vinyl can just be cleaned, they’ll have a nice new set of steps.

We’ve got some other things going on over here. Here we’ve got twisted posts that affected the rail up above. We’re going to take this out, install temporary support, and fix it. We’re in the process of putting a new post in right here. By putting the new posts in, we get it back straight and sound with the frame remaining in pretty good shape. We also took all the decking off up there, so we’re going to put new wood-decking back in this case to fulfill what the client wanted.

Then over here we had another situation where there are some posts here that don’t serve much of a purpose. Therefore, we took it out and opened up this for the customer. We’ll redo this for the rail, but there’s no longer an obstruction here. The coolest part of all this is that, when we get done, they’re going to have a nice new deck. We’re going to put a patio in down here underneath the deck. We’ll click range under this deck so that they’ll have a dry area here. Then we’re also going to fix a few runoff issues that they have around this door while we’re doing the deck. Here’s the coolest thing.

Their kids are excited because we’re also putting a slide in right here. They’ll have a circular slide that comes right off their deck for their kids – and maybe any adults – to go right down to the backyard.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if something can be fixed. I was actually on a deck yesterday that visibly looked terrible, but the frame was actually really good. We’ll be able to strip it down to the frame, renovate it, and save them a fair amount of money. We’ll structurally evaluate that frame and, if there are any issues, we’ll either fix it or tell you that it’s too far gone. That’s what we do for many of our clients. We get out there, evaluate it, and help you decide what makes the most sense for your family and your budget in order to create a nice space.

Anyway, we’re excited for this project as it is coming together. We’ll be sharing photos on Facebook over the next couple of weeks as this project takes shape. I wanted you to see this early stage of it. We’re stripping things down to fix the structure, and then we’ll start putting it back together and make it look nice.

Anyway, have a great weekend with your family. I think there’s going to be some sunshine, maybe a little bit of rain. Either way, it’s going to be a good weekend to get outside. Waynesboro farmer’s market opens this weekend! Go on down there and check that out. Support those folks.

One of our own, Josh Gorman, and his wife, Holly, have got a small business there. If you get down there, say hi to them! Have a great time with your family and your friends.

We’ll talk to you later. Bye.