We Make It Easy to Find a Deck Builder in Lewiston, Maine

Bolting a deck to brick

A deck attached to a house transfers a large share of its load into whatever it is bolted to. On a framed wall, that load path is understood. On masonry it has to be established first.

The first question is whether the brick is holding anything up. Some walls here are structural masonry doing real work. Others are a brick skin over a framed wall, tied back and carrying nothing but itself. They look similar from the sidewalk and they behave nothing alike.

A skin will not carry a deck. Bolting into one puts the whole load onto ties never designed for it, and the failure is not gradual. If that is what you have, the connection has to reach the structure behind the brick, and that is a detail somebody designs rather than improvises on site.

On structural masonry, attachment is possible and it is specific. Anchors have to go into sound material rather than into mortar joints alone, sized and placed for the load, and mortar in this valley is often the weakest thing in the wall. This is not a job for whatever fixings are on the truck.

Water behaves differently at a brick wall. Masonry takes up water in a storm and releases it afterwards. Something clamped tight against it holds moisture at the face and, in an Androscoggin winter, freezes it there. The detailing at the wall is a different problem from the one a builder solves at wood siding, and it needs saying out loud.

Look at the wall's own condition before you add to it. Sharp freeze and thaw here is hard on older masonry, and spalled faces and failed joints are common downtown. A wall that needs repointing is not a wall to hang a new load on until that work is done.

And carrying the deck on its own posts alongside the building is the other route. Any builder looking at a masonry wall should raise it as an option rather than waiting to be asked, because on plenty of these buildings it is simply the better answer.

Older buildings also hide their own history. Openings get filled, walls get rebuilt in patches, and what is behind the face at the height you want to attach may not match what is behind it three feet away. That is a reason to open and inspect rather than to assume the wall is consistent.

Ask each bidder to tell you which of the two walls you have and how he knows. A builder who cannot answer that in one visit should not be drilling into it.

Downtown brick, and everything else

Lewiston has more masonry housing than any other town on my list, and it is concentrated in one part of the city.

Downtown is dense brick and wood-frame mill housing, multi-storey and much altered, on tight urban lots. This is where the section above applies and where it comes up constantly. Staging, parking and street access are real constraints on those lots, and they belong in the quote.

The Victorian stock near the college is largely wood-framed and detail-heavy, and a deck there is a conventional job done to a higher finish.

The postwar ranches and capes on the outskirts are simple, predictable and cheap to build on.

The permit office here is a proper one. Lewiston is the second largest city in the state, with full-time inspection staff and formal plan review, which means consistent answers and a real timeline. Downtown also carries historic considerations. Start with Lewiston Code Enforcement and build the review time into your schedule rather than treating it as background.

And the pricing here is good. Labour costs less than an hour south, which is what makes a properly engineered masonry connection affordable rather than exotic.

Who hires a deck builder in Lewiston, ME

Owners of downtown brick buildings adding outdoor space where there is none. Landlords replacing a deck on a mill-era multi-family. Ranch and Victorian owners doing conventional work on wood-framed houses.

What does the job cover here?

Establishing what the wall is, the designed connection into it or the posts that replace it, footings, framing, decking, guards and stairs.

On a masonry building, add the wall's own condition. Repointing that needs doing comes before a new load, not after it.

When should you build a deck in Lewiston?

Book in late winter, and add time for plan review. A formal process is a benefit and it is not a fast one.

Frost runs deep in this valley, so ground work opens later than on the coast. Autumn is a good window and it is when the crews here have the most room.

Why is Lewiston different?

Because a meaningful share of the buildings here are masonry, and masonry changes the single most important connection on a deck. In most towns the wall is a given. Here it is the first thing to establish and the thing that decides the design.

Worth knowing as you compare bids: Maine does not license general contractors or builders. Plumbers and electricians hold state licenses and nobody else does, so nothing certifies that a builder understands masonry attachment. References from work you can go and look at will tell you, along with insurance, financial stability and reputation, and my ten-step process verifies all four before I hand you a name.

What do Lewiston homeowners ask about hiring a deck builder?

Can you attach a deck to a brick house? Only after establishing whether the brick is structural or a skin over a framed wall. A skin carries nothing and will not hold a deck.

How do I know which kind of wall I have? A competent builder can usually tell in one visit. If yours cannot say how he knows, do not let him drill into it.

What if the brick needs repointing? Do that first. A wall with failed joints is not a wall to hang a new load on.

Is there an alternative to attaching? Yes. The deck can carry its own load on posts alongside the building, and on many masonry buildings that is the better answer.

Wood-framed work in this city prices at the low end of these rows. Masonry work does not, and the difference is design and anchoring rather than carpentry.

The line worth asking for separately is the wall assessment. Somebody competent looking at the masonry, saying what it is and what it will take, is a small cost that determines everything after it. It is also the line a cheap quote leaves out, which is how a homeowner ends up with a deck fastened to a skin that was never meant to hold one.