Deck & Fence Building & Repair in Old Toronto

Look at any leaning fence or bouncing deck in the GTA and the story is underground. The post either rotted where it meets the soil or the footing was never taken deep enough to sit below the frost line. Everything above it is fine. It just has nothing reliable holding it up. Frost is the mechanism. Ontario ground freezes well down, and freezing soil expands with enough force to lift a post that is bedded above it. It comes back down slightly out of position. Repeat that through a winter and across a few years and the deck is out of level, the gate stops latching, and the fence line develops a wave. Rot is the other half, and it is almost always at the same place - the transition where wood meets soil, or at the base of a post buried in concrete that is holding water against it like a cup. The post looks perfectly sound at eye level, and the last twenty centimetres has turned to sponge. The fasteners quietly do their part too. The wrong screws corrode in treated lumber, ledger boards attached without proper flashing let water in behind them, and hardware that was not rated for exterior use gives up in a decade. None of it is visible from the deck chair.