Fence & Deck Repair in Tiburon, CA

Tiburon puts more process around a fence than most Marin towns, and it catches people off guard. A new fence over forty two inches can trigger planning review here, and the town wants a site plan showing the fence against your property lines, a dimensioned elevation, and a post footing detail. It also wants the property line itself verified, by survey map, a letter from a surveyor, or signed acceptance letters from the neighbors on that line.

The material spec is written down too. Posts and boards have to be pressure treated or naturally decay resistant, which in practice means construction heart redwood or cedar. That is not a bad rule on this peninsula anyway. Wind comes off the bay from two directions and carries salt with it, and budget lumber with standard hardware does not last long in it.

We handle the drawings and the footing detail as part of a new fence rather than handing you a packet and wishing you luck. Call today for a free estimate on fence repair or deck repair in Tiburon.

How Long the Tiburon Approval Actually Takes

Since a fence over forty two inches here can trigger planning review, the useful thing to know is what that does to your schedule. The drawings themselves are quick, a site plan, an elevation and a footing detail. The property line verification is the part that sets the pace, because if you do not already have a survey or a surveyor's letter and you are going the route of signed neighbor acceptance letters, that runs on your neighbors' timeline rather than anyone else's. Getting that started early is the single best thing you can do for the schedule. Once a complete package is in, review is a matter of weeks rather than days, and an incomplete submittal is what turns weeks into months. We prepare the package as part of the job rather than handing you a checklist. What we cannot do is speed up the town or your neighbor. Over in Ross the review process is stricter still.

Decks With a View, and What Holds Them Up

Tiburon decks tend to be elevated, cantilevered, or both, because that is what a view costs. A cantilever, meaning deck framing that extends past its supporting beam with nothing under the end, is fine when it was designed as one and a problem when somebody extended an existing deck by running the joists further out. There is a limit to how far framing can safely overhang, and it is shorter than most people assume. The other Tiburon-specific issue is hardware. Everything structural on a deck here is held together with metal, and salt air off the bay in two directions works on standard galvanized fasteners and connectors steadily. Stainless or heavy hot-dipped hardware costs more and is the correct answer on an exposed lot, particularly at the ledger and at post connections where a failure is not a maintenance issue. When we quote a new deck here the hardware line is higher than you would see inland, and that is deliberate.