Peter Wolczik - Home Improvement Contractor

05/20/2026

Sturdy and rustic handrail for the new granite steps for clients on a historic farm. : )

05/05/2026

Clients called requesting I quickly put back together the wall, pine soffit, and ceiling after the plumbers cut them open when looking for the cause of a suspected water leak. Fixed it to make it appear as though it never happened. Before and after.

04/27/2026

Client's fir deck needed a refresh. Sanded and stained - two coats. : )

04/17/2026

Clients' called me to assess some issues with their deck.Their deck had, in fact, failed. The contractor's team made critical mistakes.They hung a massive 16'×27' deck supported with only four cheap joist hangers using only 1.5" nails which had been only attached to the house's rim joist, which ran parallel to the home's joists. This means not much was keeping it from pulling away completely. It had started pulling away and was on the verge of collapsing. The deck was barely hanging on after the joist hangers nails pulled out. In one way, the nails pulling out was fortunate, because if they had held, the rim joist could have come with the deck compromising the house's structure. A gas line to the grill also runs through the rim joist and would have ruptured. It could have been catastrophic. You see tragedies of decks failing in the news. This was an emergency which had to be fixed immediately. Replacing the entire deck was not in the budget. To make it right, I first used a 20-ton jack to level the deck to the proper height and supported it with posts sitting on Diamond Piers. The four Diamond Piers are rated to support up to 17.5 tons. The deck is attached to the house but is no longer supported by the single rim joist and cheap joist hangers. I added bracing to prevent the deck from racking in any direction. You could land a helicopter on it now. : )

04/08/2026

A local business reached out saying areas of their entry ramp to their business had bounce. I continue to see this all over the North Shore. This generation of pressure treated lumber had high copper content in pressure treated lumber, and when in contact with galvanized fasteners and hardware (dissimilar metals) causes corrosion and failure very quickly. I've seen many nails and joist hangers rusting, losing their strength, dissolved away, and failing. Several joist hangers were completely gone, and that could have been a disaster. Made it right. : )

03/14/2026

A client called saying she heard a loud noise then a bunch of water came through the attic stairs. A handyman installed a long lenght of flexible plastic duct and only secured it a two spots. The water condensate built up over time creating a water p-trap. The plastic eventually ripped and dumped the water. Made it right with rigid pipe.

03/14/2026

Client asked me to repair her collapsed deck. The contractor who built the deck was apparently lazy and had no integrity. He did not install joist hangers, so the nails eventually rusted and failed. Another area had a couple of joist hangers but he never finished securing them. I leveled the deck and installed joist hangers along the length. I carefully saved the existing deck boards and reinstalled them. It's solid. You could land a helicopter on it. : )

02/01/2026

Tip: A quick fix to take care of ice dams is to fill stockings with ice melt and throw them on the roof attached to strings. The ice melt will cut through the ice dam to release the water. The string is to position the stocking and to pull it off the roof when the snow is gone.

01/16/2026

New HD Life Proof floor revitalizes this playroom. : )

12/03/2025