West Hollywood is flat, and so are its decks. The houses across West Hollywood West, the Norma Triangle, the Design District and the streets north of Santa Monica Boulevard are 1920s–40s Spanish and traditional single-family houses on small lots, with many duplexes and condos; historic resources survey applies; 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 Santa Monica Boulevard: 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 West Hollywood 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.