Fence Repair Marin
Fence Repair Marin
Mill Valley is shaded, steep and damp in ways that show up in a fence line faster than almost anywhere else in the county. Redwoods hold moisture around the base of a post most of the year, and ground under a canopy that dense stays wet weeks after the last rain. That is why so many fences here fail at grade while the boards above them still look sound.
The city's own rules are worth knowing before you plan anything. A fence up to seven feet in an interior yard, or four feet in an exterior yard, does not need a permit in Mill Valley. Anything taller goes through Planning and Building. Landscape and native vegetation are not covered by the fence rules at all, which matters if what you actually want is a screen rather than a structure.
Then there is access. Homestead Valley and the lanes up toward Cascade are narrow, and getting eight foot lumber and concrete to the back of a hillside lot is part of the job, not an afterthought. We plan that up front. Call today for a free estimate on fence repair, fence installation, or deck repair in Mill Valley.
In a yard this damp the species question is really a heartwood question. Redwood and cedar are both naturally decay resistant, but only the heartwood is, meaning the darker wood from the center of the tree. The paler sapwood from the outside has almost none of that resistance and it will rot in Mill Valley in a handful of years. Construction heart grades are specified to be heartwood. Construction common and garden grades are not, and they cost less for exactly that reason. That is the single biggest reason two fences built the same year in the same yard perform differently. For posts, which sit in wet ground, we would go further and use pressure treated regardless of species, then use heart redwood or cedar for everything above grade where it is visible. It costs more up front on a hillside run. In this canopy it is the difference between fifteen years and six. Over the hill in Sausalito the salt adds a second problem on top of this one.
A deck under redwoods never really dries out, and the failures follow from that. Debris collects in the gaps between boards, holds water against the wood, and the rot starts in the joints rather than on the exposed surface where you would notice it. Ledger flashing matters even more here than on a sunnier lot, since water that gets behind it has no chance to evaporate. And the underside of the deck, which nobody looks at, is generally in worse condition than the top. When we inspect one we probe the joists with an awl rather than looking at the surface, because a joist can be sound-looking and soft an eighth of an inch in. Clearing the gaps between boards a couple of times a year does more for a shaded deck than any product sold for the purpose. If the framing has gone, resurfacing over it is money thrown away, and we would rather quote a proper deck build than put new boards on bad joists.