The porch roof has a belly in it now, the gutter tips toward the middle, and the corner post is soft where it meets the floor. Nearly one Jeannette house in three predates 1940, in a town the glass works built. We prop the roof, cut away the rot, and frame it back square.
Jeannette Repairs
Some 93% of homes in Jeannette date from before 1980, with 1952 the median year. City Hall's permit form gives porches several lines of their own, and that's where most of the outside work here begins.
On a prewar house, the porch roof hangs on one beam and a handful of posts that have held snow and rain for generations. You see the middle dip, the gutter run backward, and brown rings across the beadboard ceiling.
Temporary posts carry the roof while we pull the tired beam and supports, then heavier ones go in over new footings. City Hall's residential application lists porch roof work separately, so that application is in before demolition.
Beams, posts and headersSome front porches were closed in decades back with a knee wall and a row of windows. Eventually the sill beneath those windows decays, the floor tips toward the street, and the room stays chilly and damp all winter.
The knee wall is opened, decayed sill and studs give way to treated lumber, and the floor framing is brought level. Enclosures get their own line on the city form too, and new windows for the room are on our Jeannette windows page.
Jeannette windowsWhere the yard falls away, a back deck may perch high on long posts. It bounces when the kids run, a post has started leaning, and rust bleeds down the siding under a ledger someone nailed on instead of bolting.
Every post, girder and joist gets probed, and the rim behind the ledger checked for rot. The ledger comes back with flashing and through-bolts, weak members are swapped, and posts land on new footings. Decks over 30 inches are permit work here.
Porch and stair structureOlder sections of Jeannette run rain and sewage through one pipe, and storms have backed it up into cellars along 12th through 15th streets. MAWC forbids storm water in its sanitary lines and puts backup damage on the owner.
We follow every downspout to its end; if one empties into the sewer, we cap that connection and pipe the water across the lawn to open ground. Since the gutters are already off, soft fascia and soffit come out at the same time.
Jeannette sewer backupsClose to 33% of local households rent, and roughly 15% of the city's housing is in duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. Fire Department inspectors visit a rental ahead of every new lease, and landlords often use that window to catch up on porches, steps and trim.
Railings are anchored to the framing, spongy treads and porch boards replaced, and raw wood primed and painted. On a building with several units, a shared porch is finished in one go so every side matches.
Jeannette rentalsConfirmed mining touches just a small corner of Jeannette on DEP's map. That means when the dining room floor of a prewar or fifties house starts to slope, an overloaded beam, a sunken post or a joist notched for old pipes is the first suspect.
Down in the cellar, the beam, its posts and every joist get inspected and the floor gets measured for drop. Repairs range from doubled joists, to fresh posts with footings, to a full beam swap, with a city permit for anything structural.
Sagging floors and joistsHousing ages: Census ACS 2020–2024, Jeannette, in round figures. Porch and deck permit lines: Jeannette's residential UCC application. Sewer: MAWC and Tribune-Review reporting.
The rest of the job
How it runs, what it costs and who builds it are on our main exterior restoration & structural repairs page.
Repairs in Jeannette
Three Jeannette details steer an outside repair: what City Hall's form calls permit work, how the older sewer copes with roof water, and where torn-out wood ends up.
30 inDeck height on the city permit form
Building and Code at City Hall names porch roofs, roofed porches, enclosures and decks above 30 inches on its residential form, and asks whether the property sits in a flood hazard area. Swapping matching boards or trim stays ordinary repair. Our additions page has more.
Jeannette permits$14.3MMAWC's plan for the city's lines
Some lines here still mix rain with sewage, and MAWC has put $14.3 million toward separating and enlarging them. Whatever its progress, a downspout feeding the sewer adds to the strain in a storm. Our Jeannette basement page covers backups.
Jeannette sewer backups$60/wkPrivate roll-off permit
Curbside pickup in Jeannette refuses most construction debris. Old siding and porch lumber need a container instead: a private roll-off on a $60-a-week permit, or the city's own 6-yard box for $185. Our kitchen page covers it further.
Jeannette debris rulesRepair Questions
These come up while we stand with Jeannette owners and landlords under a sagging porch ceiling. For how a repair runs from inspection to cleanup, see the service page.
Ask a QuestionWe can say once the bad wood is exposed and we've reached solid lumber on every side. A handful of porch boards and some trim cost the least; rebuilding a porch roof from the footings up, or redoing a whole enclosure, costs the most. The number is on paper before we start.
Repair price rangesMatching some boards or a rail is ordinary upkeep. Replacing the beam, the posts or the roof falls under the porch lines on the city's form, so the application goes to City Hall before the old structure is removed.
Jeannette permitsIt's part of our plan for the job. Because curbside pickup won't accept most construction debris, it goes into a permitted roll-off or the city's rental box, and the estimate says which so nothing is left sitting at the curb.
Jeannette debris rulesCity Hall's form asks, and a yes can change the standards a rebuild must meet. Before designing structural work, we pull your property up on FEMA's flood map, and if the lot is mapped, the new framing follows the flood provisions.
Jeannette permitsLess than in many towns around it, because DEP's map puts confirmed mining under just one small corner of the city. Ordinary policies exclude subsidence regardless, and DEP's lookup shows whether a given lot falls inside.
About JeannetteOther Services
Elsewhere in the house, we remodel Jeannette kitchens and bathrooms, finish attics and cellars, build additions and fit new windows. Those pages are below.
Kitchen RemodelingNew layouts, new cabinets, new counters: framed, built, and installed by the same crew.View Service
Bathroom RemodelingFull gut renovations with proper waterproofing, new framing, and tile set by hand.View Service
Attic FinishingUnused attics framed into bedrooms and offices: subfloor, insulation, drywall, and a proper stair.View Service
Basement FinishingUnfinished basements turned into real rooms: framed, insulated, drywalled, and finished by our crew.View Service
Additions & ADUsAdditions and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), framed from the ground up and tied in clean.View Service
Windows & Exterior DoorsWindows and exterior doors set, flashed, and trimmed so water stays out of the wall.View Service
Decks & Covered PatiosDecks, covered patios and three-season rooms, flashed to the house and built for Westmoreland winters.View ServiceVerified Google Reviews
5.0 out of 5 · 17 reviews
Written by the homeowners we've worked for across Westmoreland County. Every one verified on Google, every one pulled from the real feed.
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Tell us about the project in the form or give us a call. Either way, estimates are free and the number is the number — priced to the actual work, written down before anyone swings a hammer.
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Trafford, PA 15085
