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You pushed a screwdriver into a window sill and it sank in like it was cake. Or you pulled off a piece of trim and the wood behind it just fell apart. Now you're wondering: dry rot or termites? It matters, because the fix is different. Rot is a water problem. Termites are a pest problem. Treat the wrong one and the damage keeps going. The short answer: dry rot cracks wood into small cubes and turns it brown and crumbly, and it almost always sits where water gets in. Termites

If you just found soft wood under a window or got a pest report with "fungus/dryrot" circled, here's the short version: most dry rot repairs in the U.S. cost between $500 and $3,000, and the average job comes in around $1,400 (Angi). In the Bay Area, plan on 30 to 50 percent more than that. So a rotted window sill or a section of fascia usually lands in the $500 to $3,000 range here. Once rot gets into studs, floor joists or the mudsill, the bill can climb past $10,000. The b

If your retaining wall has started to lean, bulge in the middle, or open up a crack you can slide a finger into, the wall is telling you something. Usually it is not telling you the blocks were bad. Almost every failed retaining wall I get called out to look at failed for the same reason, and it is not the part anyone looks at. Here is what actually goes wrong, how to tell how urgent yours is, and what it costs to put right. The wall is almost never the problem A retaining wa

Half the backyards around here are not really backyards. They are slopes. If your lot drops off behind the house, you already know the feeling of looking at a hill you cannot use and wondering what it would take to turn it into something you actually sit on. That is a hillside deck, and it is a different animal from the flat rectangle a lot of contractors picture when you say "deck." Here is what changes, what it costs, and what to watch out for before you sign anything. What