We repair decks — we don't build new ones. These 13 services cover everything that goes wrong with an existing deck in the Baltimore metro, in three groups: structural and safety work that decides whether a deck is sound, restoration and finish work that decides how long it lasts, and the rowhome rooftop deck work almost nobody here does properly. Not sure which you need? Start with an inspection.
Structural & safety repairs
This is the work that decides whether a deck is safe to stand on. Where decks fail is well documented — the ledger board, beams, support posts, hardware connections, railings and stairs — and the ledger is the most failure-prone of all, especially on decks fastened with nails rather than bolts.
Deck repair
The right starting point when something is wrong but you can't name it. Boards, framing, fasteners, railings and stairs diagnosed in one visit, and fixed in the same visit wherever scope allows. We find the underlying cause rather than treating the symptom you noticed.
Deck structural & rot repair
Rotted joists, failing ledger connections, sinking posts and sagging framing. This is the work that decides whether a deck gets another twenty years or comes down — and we price what's actually rotten after opening it up, not what we guessed from the yard.
Deck board replacement
Cracked, cupped, splintering or soft boards swapped out and blended in so the repair doesn't read as a patch. The walking surface fails first because boards hold standing water while railings shed it.
Deck railing repair & code retrofit
Wobbly railings made solid again, and guards brought up to current requirements: at least 36 inches high on one- and two-family dwellings, with no opening a 4-inch sphere can pass through. A railing that flexes when you lean on it is a post connection that has loosened or rotted, not a cosmetic problem.
Deck stair & step repair
Treads, stringers, handrails and stair footings. Stringers are routinely found resting on soil or a block instead of a frost-depth footing, which rots them from the bottom up — so we look at what the stairs stand on, not just what you step on.
Deck safety inspection
A documented check of the ledger, framing, posts, footings, railings and stairs, with photos and a written punch list. NADRA estimates roughly 30 million of the 60-plus million US decks are past their recommended service life and fewer than half were built to code — an inspection tells you which side of that yours is on.
Restoration & finishes
Once a deck is structurally sound, finish work is what protects it — and Maryland is hard on finishes: roughly 45 inches of rain a year, humidity near 75% from August through October, and winters that swing above and below freezing again and again, prying open every joint water has found.
Deck restoration
The full revival for a deck that's sound underneath but looks finished: strip, sand, repair and refinish in one coordinated project. It's the service for the deck you'd written off, and it costs a fraction of replacement when the framing checks out.
Deck power washing & stripping
Algae, mildew and failed finish removed at the right pressure. Too much pressure permanently furs the wood and no amount of stain hides it afterwards — which is why this is a prep trade, not a rental-machine afternoon. Green film is a wet-shade problem; black streaking is mildew.
Deck staining & sealing
Prep, stain and seal, timed to Maryland's weather — finish applied over damp wood fails within a season. Water-repellent sealers generally need redoing every 12–18 months, semi-transparent stains last 12–18 months on horizontals, and solid colour holds 1–3 years underfoot.
Deck waterproofing
Coatings, flashing repair and under-deck drainage that keep water out of the framing and off whatever is stored below. The goal is a deck that sheds water at the details — ledger, post bases, stair connections — not one that only looks sealed.
Composite & Trex repair
Faded, stained, scratched or mold-spotted composite boards, including early generations that didn't age the way the brochure promised. Start here when a repair kit won't cut it — filler and epoxy don't fix a board failing through its thickness.
Baltimore rowhome rooftop decks
A rowhome roof deck isn't a backyard deck that happens to be high up. It spans party wall to party wall on shared masonry rather than hanging from a ledger on a rim joist — which is why the city requires drawings sealed by an architect or engineer licensed in Maryland, and why generic deck contractors get them wrong.
Rooftop deck repair
Rotted sleepers and framing over a roof, guards loosened at their bases, and decks built over roofs never meant to carry them. We work the rowhome neighborhoods — Canton, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Locust Point — where 2000s and 2010s renovation-wave decks are now 10 to 20-plus years old.
Rooftop deck waterproofing
If a ceiling stains after hard rain, the deck above usually isn't the problem — the membrane under it is. We diagnose whether it's the membrane field, a flashing detail or a penetration at a post base, and we'll tell you if a standard roofing membrane has been doing a pedestrian deck's job.
Not sure which service you need?
Most people call with a symptom, not a diagnosis — a soft spot, a stain, a railing that moves. Two pages will orient you:
- Start with a deck safety inspection if you want to know what's actually wrong. You get photos, a written punch list and a plain repair-or-replace recommendation — free.
- Start with the Baltimore deck repair cost guide if you want to know what the work runs before you call anyone. Every published range by repair type, labelled as the national data it is.
Or read how to tell whether a deck is unsafe and check yours in ten minutes. We serve the metro from Lutherville-Timonium — Ellicott City, Towson, Severna Park and every area we serve.