Deck Builder in Calhoun, GA

Ten road miles from the shop

Calhoun sits 10.3 road miles up the interstate, close enough that for a small job the difference between ten miles and forty is whether it gets scheduled this month or next. The town itself is 18,183 people in 7,199 homes, 3,703 of them owner occupied.

Second-generation decks on eighties houses

Half the houses here predate 1986. That vintage is old enough that the original deck has usually been dealt with once and young enough that the second one is now the problem. What tends to survive is the footing layout, which means a rebuild can often reuse the geometry even when nothing above ground is worth keeping. The deck build page covers how that's framed, and staining and sealing is what decides whether the next one lasts as long.

Fence runs between subdivision and acreage

Calhoun falls between subdivision grid work and acreage runs, and a fence gets laid out differently for each, so what that means for gates and run length is on the Calhoun fence page, with the materials covered by the fence company page.

55.8 percent, and what a shade structure has to prove

Calhoun sits at 55.8 percent owner occupied, a little under the middle of the towns we work in. In a market like that a pergola is competing with the idea of doing nothing, so what sells it's not the structure but the shade line: where the shadow actually falls at four in the afternoon in July, which is a question of orientation and rafter spacing, not of style.

The Oostanaula River and Moss Lake

Two named waters sit inside the Calhoun boundary, the Oostanaula River and Moss Lake. Standing water is the one that drives insect pressure hardest, and Moss Lake is standing water. Anywhere within reach of it a screened enclosure buys back the hours between six and nine at night, which for most of the summer is the only part of the day worth being outside for.

251 feet of grade across the town

Calhoun runs 619 to 870 feet, a spread of 251 feet. That's modest by the standards of Dalton or Cartersville, and it changes the wall conversation: the typical Calhoun job is a low garden wall squaring off a soft slope, not a structural hold. The retaining wall page covers both, and the shorter one is usually the honest answer here.

Blackwood Creek, Lynn Creek and Oothcaloga Creek

Five named streams cross the boundary, including Blackwood Creek, Lynn Creek and Oothcaloga Creek. A yard sitting between two of them has water crossing it twice, and every hard surface you add changes where that water ends up. Patios and walkways here are planned with the fall first and the pattern second.

Fire pits in Gordon County

Where it sits is decided in the yard, not in advance. The build itself is hardscape work, and the fire pit guide has the layouts.

Calhoun and Gordon County

In Gordon County, Calhoun is the only place we work. The gallery collects what has been built so far.

Further reading

• cleaning, staining and sealing a deck
• screened porch, sunroom or three-season room