Fence Repair Marin
Fence Repair Marin
Sausalito is two jobs in one town. On the hill, access defines everything. A lot of these houses are reached by exterior stairs from the street, with a steep garage approach or no driveway at all, and every post, board and bag of concrete goes up those steps by hand. We would rather say plainly that this is what the labor line covers than quote vaguely and surprise you.
Down near the water the problem is chemistry. Salt in the air works on hardware faster than it works on wood, so a fence that is structurally sound starts dropping boards because the fasteners gave out first. On the exposed western lots we use stainless or heavy hot dipped fasteners instead of standard galvanized. It costs more on day one and saves the run later.
Slope, drainage and old retaining walls run through both halves of town, and all three get looked at before we quote a fence that has to stand on any of them. Call today for a free estimate on fence repair, fence installation, or deck restoration in Sausalito.
Gate problems are the most common single call we get in Sausalito, and there are usually only three causes. The gate post has moved, which on a slope is the most likely one, since a post carrying a gate takes a constant sideways load that a line post never does. The gate itself has sagged out of square, which shows as the latch side dropping and is fixed with a diagonal brace or a tension cable rather than by planing the gate. Or the hardware has corroded, which near the water happens faster than people expect. Diagnosing which one you have takes about two minutes and decides whether this is a small job or a post reset. A gate on a slope also needs to be hung with enough clearance to swing over ground that is not level, which is something worth getting right at installation rather than shaving the bottom of the gate later. Across the water in Tiburon the salt does the same thing to hardware.
Railings are where old Sausalito decks most often fall short, and it matters because a railing is the thing between people and a drop. The general expectation for residential guardrails is around thirty six inches of height, with balusters spaced so that a four inch sphere cannot pass between them, which is the standard meant to keep a small child from fitting through. Plenty of decks here predate that and have wider gaps or lower rails. A guardrail also has to resist a real sideways load, and on an older deck the failure point is usually how the railing posts attach to the framing, not the railing itself. Notched posts fastened with a couple of lag screws were common once and do not hold. If your deck is being worked on anyway, bringing the railing up is comparatively cheap while the framing is open. Where the whole structure is past its life we will quote a new deck rather than bolt a compliant railing onto something that will not carry it.