A deck inspection that looks where decks actually fail
For $200 to $400 you get a structural deck inspection with a written photo report: the ledger, the frame, the posts and footings, the rails and stairs, each graded in plain language. Sellers use it to defuse the deck before listing, buyers use it before waiving anything and owners of 15-plus year old decks use it the way you use a physical. Priced on the published table, scheduled within days.
What gets checked, in the order failures happen
The ledger first, because deck separations start at the house: bolt pattern, flashing, rot probing along the full length. Then the frame, joist tops where water sits, hangers and their nails, beams at the posts. Then the ground story: post bases probed at grade and footings checked for depth and heave. Rails get the hard push they exist for, stairs get their stringers examined at the notches. The sequence follows the American Wood Council’s residential deck provisions at awc.org, which is the standard the report is written against.
Who books inspections here
Sellers across the 90s and 2000s stock in Center Grove and Bargersville, where the deck’s age is exactly the age buyers ask about. Buyers of older south side homes where the deck came with the third owner and no paperwork. And hosts with raised decks who want the guardrails and ledger checked before the season of graduation parties. Southside Deck Rebuilders treats the inspection as its own product with its own finish line: a report you can rely on, whoever does the eventual work.
Inspection questions, answered
The home inspector already looked at the deck. Why a separate inspection?
General home inspectors do valuable broad work with limited time per system, and decks fail in specific hidden places: behind ledger flashing, inside post bases, at hanger nails. A deck-specific inspection spends its whole visit underneath the structure with a probe, which is how ledger rot gets found before a closing instead of after a barbecue.
We are selling. Does an inspection help or just create problems?
It converts an unknown into a plan. A passing report becomes a selling document that answers buyer worries before they discount for them. A failing report before listing gives you the choice between repairing on your schedule or pricing honestly, both better than a surprise demand at closing week.
What does the report actually contain?
Photos of every checked component, ledger, flashing, joists, hangers, posts, footings, rails, stairs, a plain-language condition call on each, anything urgent flagged separately and repair ranges off our published table where work is warranted. It reads in ten minutes and holds up when an agent or buyer forwards it around.
If you inspect it, are you just going to find work for yourselves?
The report and the repair are separate decisions on purpose. Plenty of inspections end in a passing grade and a handshake, the report says what we found with photos behind every claim and you are free to hand it to any contractor. Being the trustworthy answer on inspections is how we earn the repair calls we do get.
Book the twenty minutes that settles it
Address, deck age if you know it and what prompted the call. Reports usually deliver within two days of the visit.