Deck Stairs, Lafayette, CA, July, 2022

This was a rental property in Lafayette that needed some sprucing up on a very limited budget. The work was straightforward carpentry: replacing rotted wood on the deck stairs and bringing the balcony joists and columns back into shape.

On a rental, the goal is to make the space safe, sound, and presentable without spending more than the property needs. So the first step was finding out what actually had to be replaced and what could be repaired. Wood that’s rotted through goes. It isn’t worth patching, and on stairs it’s a safety issue. We cut out the rotted sections and replaced them with new lumber, fastened solidly and fitted to match what was there.

Where the damage was only on the surface, as on some of the balcony joists and columns, we repaired rather than replaced. We dug out the soft spots, filled them with Durham’s water putty, and sanded the patches smooth to blend with the surrounding wood. It’s a hard-setting, durable filler that holds up well in these kinds of repairs, and it lets you save framing that’s structurally fine but cosmetically rough.

Then we painted. Exterior wood lasts only as long as its finish, so every repair, new board, and patched joist was covered to keep water out. Fresh paint also ties old and new wood together, so the repairs disappear and the whole deck reads as one piece again.

The result was a safer set of stairs and a balcony that looks cared for, done for a price that made sense for a rental. Not every job needs to be a showpiece. Sometimes the right work is simply fixing what’s failing and making the rest look good.