From last season’s log book
The weekend arithmetic
One weekend is a real schedule, not a slogan — the frame inspection on Thursday is what buys it.
Services
The re-deck sheet
01
Composite re-deck — from $38/sq ft
New capped boards over your inspected frame: clips, gapping to the manufacturer’s chart for this climate, twelve-inch centres added where the old frame ran sixteen, and a mitred border so the yard never meets a cut end. The Saturdays-back option.
02
Cedar re-deck — from $31/sq ft
Kiln-dried 5/4×6, plugged screws, finished on all four sides before it goes down. The classic surface over the bones you already own — and one oil day every second spring, named at the quote, not discovered in year three.
03
Rails & guards, re-set — from $96/ln ft
The old rail comes off with the boards anyway; the new one goes on with the blocking the code asks for and the 36-inch guard wherever the drop passes 30. Most re-decks look new twice over once the rail line is honest.
04
Stairs & skirting — from $1,450
Stair treads rebuilt to even risers, stringers sistered where the inspection flagged them, and skirt to hide the frame without trapping the moisture that killed the last set of boards.
One honest weekend
Thursday verdict, Sunday walkthrough
The schedule works because the frame inspection happens first — nothing is opened on Friday that wasn’t already read on Thursday. If the frame fails, the weekend becomes a quote for a rebuild instead, and you decide with the whole truth on the table.
Thursday
The frame inspection
Joists, beams, ledger, footings — crawled with a flashlight and a screwdriver, stamped into your folder. Pass: the weekend is booked. Fail: the rebuild is quoted and the weekend is yours.
Friday
Off with the old
Boards, rail and stairs come off and haul away; the frame gets its sistered joists and added centres, and anything the inspection flagged is fixed before lunch on day two.
Saturday
On with the new
Clips or plugged screws, gapped to the chart, picture-frame border mitred at the corners. The boards you chose Thursday go down Saturday, in the order the drawing says.
Sunday
Rails, stairs, walkthrough
Rail re-set to the code height, stairs trued to even risers, fasteners checked and the site swept. Warranty folder, care card, and dinner on the new boards — that part is traditional.
Milbrook · Dovecote Heights · 2025–2026
Same yard, one weekend apart
Six re-decks from last season, photographed the Sunday they finished. Every frame under them passed the Thursday crawl — and four of them had been told by somebody else that they needed a full rebuild.
Two companies told us the whole deck had to go — twelve thousand, four weeks, a dumpster in the drive. Brightfix crawled underneath Thursday, said the frame was better than their own, and had new composite boards and a code-height rail on by Sunday. Under half the money, one-tenth the drama.
The Thursday call was the part I keep telling people about: “Your ledger is perfect, your two end joists are not, we’re sistering them tomorrow, the price doesn’t change.” Then it actually didn’t change. Sunday dinner was on boards that did not exist Friday morning.
Our stairs were a lawsuit with handrails and everybody wanted to rebuild the world. They rebuilt the treads, sistered the stringers, re-set the rail — and the risers finally match, which I notice every single time and my knees notice more.
The free frame inspection is the whole company, really. A crew that crawls under your deck with a flashlight before it sells you anything — and then tells you the bones are good — has decided which end of this business it wants to work from. Sunday night we ate on the new boards and I forwarded the folder to three neighbours.
The re-deck questions
Asked before every weekend
The four that come up on every Thursday call — answered with the flashlight, the span chart and the calendar rather than hope.
How do you know if my frame can take new boards?
We crawl it. Joists probed for rot at the bearing ends, the ledger checked for lag bolts versus the nails it probably has, footings sighted for heave, every span measured against the chart for the board you chose. It is written into the folder with pass/fail per member — free, and yours whoever re-decks it.
When is re-decking a mistake?
When the ledger is fastened wrong and unreachable, more than a fifth of the joists are soft, or the footings have heaved — then new boards are the most expensive way to buy two years, and we quote the rebuild instead. Roughly one frame in four fails the Thursday crawl, and every one of those customers got the bad news before any money moved.
Can composite go over my wood frame?
Yes, with two conditions the span chart sets: sixteen-inch centres get sistered to twelve, and the frame must be dry and sound — which is what the flashlight is for. The boards carry a warranty only over the frame the manufacturer assumes, so we build exactly that frame and say why.
What does the five-year warranty cover on a re-deck?
The same workmanship terms as a new build: fasteners, gapping, rail rigidity, stair geometry. The boards carry the manufacturer’s full term on top — 25 years on the composite lines — and both papers go in the folder at the Sunday walkthrough.
Free frame inspections Thursdays across both towns · weekend slots book two to three weeks out · (555) 204-8835 · fix@brightfixdecks.example
Get the Thursday verdict.
A free crawl under the deck, a pass/fail in writing, and a weekend on the calendar if the bones are good. Milbrook, Dovecote Heights and the roads between.