Tag Archives: Archadeck Macon

Choosing a contractor, Decks

Some contractors don’t disappear

Hiring contractors can be a scary experience. Being a contractor can be a frustrating experience – for the same reason. The bad contractors ruin it for everyone. Bad contractors leave a bad taste and often shoddy work in their trail making homeowners leery of engaging a contractor to do business at their home.  As a reputable contractor doing business here in the Macon/Warner Robins area for over 26 years, we often meet homeowners that have expectations of sub-par value and communication that is even worse.

Deck-Fiberon Protect-Warner Robins GA 750When looking for a builder, there are a couple great litmus tests to apply to a contractor but all of those won’t tell you whether that contractor will be around 5, 10 or more years in the future if something goes wrong.

Recently a past client gave me a call. My team built his deck about 11 years prior. The client was replacing a few “rotten” deck boards himself and had some questions. I remembered the homeowner and set a date to go take a look at the deck. Pressure-treated wood is warrantied against fungal rot and termites for the life of the project or 45 years by the wood manufacturer. Regardless, the Archadeck plate is affixed to that gentleman’s deck and we stand behind our work.

Fiberon Protect-Deck-Warner Robins 750The homeowner noted that some of the deck boards and joist were rotting. Usually when someone says their deck is rotting it is actually not fungal rot, but a loss of structural integrity due to lack of maintenance. The sun and rain are very destructive to pressure treated lumber if it is not maintained properly. However, when I inspected the deck I found some of the joists were actually rotting from fungus! This is something I’ve virtually never seen. I also noticed that Restore paint had been used on the decking boards. We do suspect this contributed to the condition of the deck boards because it does not allow wet boards to dry. But the joist should not have been affected and regardless there should not have been “rot” from fungus. The homeowners did not realize that this was covered by the ArchadeckWarrantyy but I did. So, I explained to our clients that we were going to take care of this issue.

Now that the homeowners knew we were going to replace the joists that were rotting and were going to do this at no charge to them, they decided to upgrade the decking to a composite decking to alleviate annual maintenance in the future. I did this at a discount just to cover the labor in replacing the joists and installing the new decking boards. It’s our busiest time of the year and losing a crew for a week is painful; but our past clients are just as important as our new ones, whether those homeowners have been with us 1 month, 12 months, 11 years or more.

Stephen Denton Archadeck Augusta square lrIf you are considering adding a porch, deck, patio or other space to your Central GA area home, give Archadeck of Central GA a call for a free consultation at (478) 745 – 2000. We look forward to your call.

To see hundreds of great pictures, watch Archadeck of Central GA videos, or read customer reviews and testimonials, visit our Archadeck of Central GA website.

 

Porch builder/contractor, Porches, Screened porches

Sometimes adding a porch feels like putting a square peg in a round hole

Screen Porch-Macon GA-before 1400At Archadeck of Central GA, we have been called a few times by homeowners hoping to build a porch but their home configuration makes it very difficult to identify how to attach a roof to their home. Take a look at the back of this home before a porch was added. There are two facades at different depths each with their own gable roof.

The homeowners originally called us about 2 years ago to discuss how to tackle attaching a screened porch. After reviewing a couple design ideas, they were not ready to move forward yet. Fast forward to 2016. They were ready to move forward. We again worked with a couple different design ideas for how to connect a new porch to the complicated back of their home.

Screen Porch-Macon GA-after 1400

As you can see, the design solution complemented the double gable roof lines with a gable style roof on the new porch. The room does not obstruct the view from the bay window section on the center facade. We kept a portion of the existing deck structure but we changed out the decking boards and railings to make it look like new.

Take a look at the new porch from the side of the home.

Macon GA-screen porch-matching soffit 1

In order to build the size porch the homeowners wanted, we extended the porch out past the side of the home. We matched the trim, soffits and roofing to make sure the porch looked original to the home.

Now take a look at the inside of this screened porch below. Even from the image, you can appreciate the view the homeowners now have while enjoying both sun and bug protection. The gable roof creates a vaulted ceiling inside the porch. The gable end is open to let in as much light as possible. The header boards are trimmed for a slightly more elegant look while maintaining the rustic character of the exposed rafter ceiling. We used dark-colored narrow profile pickets to ensure the greatest visibility of the yard.

Macon GA-sceen porch-metal Balusters 1400

We have been called a number of times from homeowners whose home configuration makes it difficult to design how a new porch would attach to their home. We are always able to provide a solution. If other builders tell you it can’t be done, give us a call for a free consultation. As this job demonstrates, we accept these challenges head on and enjoy taking it to the next level of making it look like it was always there.

Stephen Denton Archadeck Augusta square lrGive us a call at (478) 745 – 2000 or send us an email at centralgeorgia@archadeck.net for your free consultation. We look forward to talking to you.