Fences, decks, sealcoat
Fences, Decks and Sealcoating
Privacy fence work, new deck boards and stairs, deck stain, and blacktop driveway sealcoating.
Grey boards, leaning posts, a driveway turning pale and cracked
The outdoor jobs announce themselves. A privacy fence goes grey and then starts to lean at the corner posts. A deck that was a clean tan the summer it went in is splintery and dark by year five, with a rail that gives when you lean on it. A blacktop driveway fades from black to charcoal to a dull grey, and then the hairline cracks start collecting water.
Indiana winters do most of that. Water gets into a crack, freezes, and widens it. Wood posts sitting in wet ground rot at the soil line first. Sun and rain strip an unfinished deck faster than most people expect, and the damage is much cheaper to head off than to rebuild.
From Brownsburg out to Mooresville, and across Plainfield, Camby and Noblesville, I have worked on all three. If one of them is on your mind, call 317-850-6427 and describe what you see.
Freshly sealcoated black driveway in front of a brick and tan siding garage, a wood privacy fence at the left and trees behind
Set the post, stain the board, seal the blacktop
On a privacy fence the posts decide everything. I dig them deep, set them plumb, and run a string line so the top of the boards follows one clean line along the yard. Boards are fastened to rails, not just to each other, and gravel along the base keeps water from sitting against the wood. A new fence of treated lumber goes up fast; a repair job usually means replacing the posts that have rotted and straightening the run between them.
Decks get the same attention from the ground up. New boards are laid with a gap for drainage, stairs are built with solid stringers, and railings are fastened so they hold weight. Staining comes after the wood has dried out, with a coat worked into the grain rather than painted over the top. The same approach works on a porch floor, where a coating over bare boards closes them up against weather.
For sealcoating, the driveway is swept and cleaned first, oil spots are treated, and cracks are filled so the sealer is not just sitting on top of a gap. Then the sealer goes down in an even coat, edge to edge, and the driveway stays closed to cars until it has cured. I check the weather before I schedule it, because sealcoat needs a dry day.
Keep the finish ahead of the weather
None of these finishes last forever, and I will not pretend otherwise. Stain wears from the top of the rails and the stair treads first, where feet and sun hit hardest. Sealcoat wears where cars turn and where the sun sits longest. A fence needs a look every spring for loose boards and any post that has started to move.
How often to redo each one depends on the wood, the traffic and how much sun it gets, so I would rather look at your place than hand you a number off a calendar. What I can say is that a refresh while the surface is still sound costs far less than waiting until the boards are bare or the cracks are wide open.
A hot water wash is often the first step before staining a deck or fence, and I do that with my own machine. Once the work is done, the habits are simple: keep soil and mulch off the base of the fence, sweep leaves off the deck, and keep an eye on the driveway edges after winter.
The Residential Handyman — Licensed, bonded and insured general contractor. Call 317-850-6427.
Outside the back door
Boards. Posts. Blacktop.
Fence
Privacy fence work
Posts, rails and boards, new runs and repairs
Deck
Deck building and staining
New boards and stairs, stain on rails and treads
Blacktop
Blacktop sealcoating
Clean, fill cracks, seal edge to edge
