Martinez House Remodeling Outdoor Staircase Replacement
This is the second time we have used Joel for a home renovation, and both times the outcomes were outstanding. His process always started with a site visit, a thoughtful review of my needs, a budget analysis and a negotiation of cost saving opportunities.
Joel prefers to do indoor remodeling, but he took on our outside job with enthusiasm, despite the terrible heat of late August. We wanted to repair some worn steps and loose rails on our staircase up to our garage, which admittedly had been neglected after a few paintings - it was almost 30 years old. After some discussion we decided to do a complete staircase replacement with pressure treated wood and select Trex composite square boards. The treads (steps) and stringers (side step supports) were fabricated with 3 1/2" finished thick on-ground pressure treated lumber (4" nominal thickness), the balusters were upgraded from 2 x 2" to 2 x 4" from the same wood, and the handrails were dense 2 x 6" Trex Transcend composite boards. Where a number of the old balusters and side rail structures were separated from their supports because of being connected by nails only, the entire new structure used decking screws, and the screwheads on the top of the handrails were plugged with matching composite plugs to be only visible by hunting for them. The old stairs were fairly secure, but the new staircase feels rock solid.
Joel treated every cut wooden board end with copper-based preservative, and painted the exposed edges of composite boards with color matched paint. He also sealed some minor cracks with wood filler and did an extra preservative treatment layer on the thick stingers and treads. Joel finished the job with an extensive cleanup and washing of our concrete wall, which was much appreciated.
Initially, the job was scheduled to take a bit more than a week. Despite losing a day because of a poor quality wood delivery and replacement. Joel and his team finished the job in 5 days, including on Saturday. Surprisingly, he was able to take down the old staircase and replace it with the basic supports and stairs on the first day, so we did not even lose one night of access to our garage and rear parking spot.
I highly recommend Joel Martinez of Martinez House Remodeling for your next job. He might not be able to do all jobs, but if he can find a way to do it, you will not be disappointed. We will try to use him again. read more