Lake Balboa is flat, and so are its decks. The houses across the tract streets between Victory Boulevard and Sherman Way, the blocks around Beilenson Park and the lake, the Balboa Boulevard corridor and the streets near Birmingham Community Charter High School are 1950s single-story tract ranches, typically 1,200–1,700 sq ft on 6,000–7,500 sq ft lots; the decks and balconies on them, and on the garages and second-story additions behind them, were built level. Level is the problem: water sits in the low corner, the coating gives up at a seam, and the plywood beneath goes soft over a few winters.
The other half of the work is the apartment and condominium buildings along Lake Balboa and the Sepulveda Basin: shared walkways, open stairs and stacked balconies that stay in use while we repair them, and the elements SB 721 and SB 326 now require inspected. Those are the jobs that most often come to us with a report attached.
A Lake Balboa deck that leaks usually leaks at the door threshold, the wall or the drain, not in the middle. We open a test section, check the plywood and the flashing, re-slope to the drain, and only then install the system.
Either way we open it up before we price it. A re-coat over sound, dry framing is a small job. A re-coat over wet framing is the same job done twice, and the second time costs more.