Most of this work starts with a symptom rather than a plan. A floor that slopes. A door that stopped closing. A soft spot near the deck. A home inspection that used a word the buyer did not like.
The symptom is rarely where the problem is. A door sticking upstairs can be a failed post in the crawlspace. A sloping floor can be a settled girder, a rotted sill, or termites — and in Georgia, it is termites more often than people expect.
So we diagnose before we quote. Following the load path back from the symptom to the actual break is the job; the carpentry afterward is usually straightforward.
What we find most often
- Joists cut through by a plumber or HVAC installer, often decades ago, often right where they bear.
- Rot at the rim joist and sill, frequently behind a badly flashed deck ledger. This one is a safety issue, not a cosmetic one.
- Termite damage in the crawlspace — common enough in metro Atlanta that we look for it on every assessment.
- Posts sitting on dirt instead of a footing, slowly sinking.
- Previous unpermitted wall removals where the beam went in and the point loads never did.
- Cut trusses, usually for attic headroom or a duct run.
