Decks in Old Nampa

Back decks here are retrofits, not originals. A 1920s bungalow was built with a front porch and a back stoop, so any rear deck you find was added decades later, often by an owner, often fastened to a rim board that has been wet for years. With a crawlspace under the house, the ledger lands on old full-dimension framing that does not match modern lumber sizes. We open the siding at the attachment, check the sill and rim for rot, and fall back to a self-supporting deck with its own beam beside the house when the old framing cannot take a bolted ledger.

Fifty-foot-wide lots leave narrow side yards and a long, thin back yard ending at the alley garage. A deck that runs the width of the house usually lands close to both side lot lines, and the 140-foot depth tempts owners to build a second platform out toward the garage. Nampa wants a site plan with the permit application, so the deck is drawn against the property lines and the garage before anything is ordered; what goes in a Nampa deck permit packet is laid out separately.

Most bungalows sit two to four steps above the yard, which puts a door-height deck right around Nampa's 12-inch permit line and often above it. On a raised crawlspace house a deck at floor level is more than 12 inches up at the outer edge even when the yard is flat, so we plan on a permit and design the stairs and guards to the 2018 IRC rather than trimming joist depth to slip under the line.

The grid is turned about 45 degrees to the compass. Because the blocks follow the tracks, back yards here face roughly southeast or northwest rather than straight south or west. A southeast-facing yard gets morning sun and the house's own shade by mid-afternoon, which suits wood decking; a northwest-facing yard catches the low evening sun under the eaves, which is where a pergola or a shade screen on the covered deck and pergola work we do in Nampa earns its keep.

Porch rebuilds are their own job. The nomination notes many front porches enclosed decades ago, and the open ones have posts, steps and floors that have been patched for a century. Replacing a porch floor, stairs or rail on a street-facing elevation changes how the house reads from the sidewalk, so we match the existing column, rail and stair proportions, keep tongue-and-groove porch flooring where it is used, and check for any local review first. For structural fixes short of a full rebuild, our porch and deck repair around Nampa covers what can be saved.

Mature trees are part of the district's character and part of the deck problem. Big shade trees drop leaves and seed into board gaps, keep north-side decks damp into spring and put roots where a footing wants to go. Capped composite tolerates the shade and debris better than bare pressure-treated boards, and footings are moved a foot or two rather than cutting a major root; our composite deck builds in Nampa cover the board choices.

Old foundations are not ledger material. The nomination records concrete and stone foundations under these houses, and a century-old stone or unreinforced concrete stem wall will not hold the through-bolts a modern ledger needs. Where the rim above it is sound, the ledger bolts to the rim; where the rim sits right on a crumbling stem, the deck stands on its own posts beside the house instead. New footings dug next to an old foundation are kept far enough away that they do not undermine it.

The alley is the access route. With garages on the alley and narrow side yards, materials, a mini excavator for footings and the haul-off from a tear-out usually come in from the back. Twenty-foot alleys are workable, but we plan the delivery around neighbors' garage doors and keep footings and spoil off the alley right-of-way.