This is the 2nd time I've had this guy out (and it was only to correct his mistakes the first time, although he charged me another $180.00) Obviously he's not coming back. Here you can see he cut halfway into the support beam holding a very heavy plaster ceiling- right near the wall. Apparently he didn't want to go back to the store and get a pipe extension. You can see earlier where he drilled into the floor and hit the rafter on his last visit, bored about 3" down, then discovered his mistake and started drilling elsewhere. Obviously the boards were put there for a purpose, and I half think he has a 2nd agenda of bringing the house down. How do you structurally repair dumfuk cuts like this? I just don't want breaking sagging or failure in the years to come.

Hi, New to the forum. I have a western red cedar deck in the back yard. We had it built nearly two years ago and it was stained/sealed not by me (with TWP 1500) a little under a year ago. I'm going to reseal before it starts getting brutally hot down here in Central Texas. I spent today cleaning it - first with oxygen bleach and next with oxalic acid. Fun stuff. Took much longer than I thought it wood (it's a 20 x 20 deck). Only issues - on some of the railings there are drip lines (from dirty rain water perhaps?) that I couldn't get rid of. The same on some of the stair stringers and the beams around the sides of the deck (these are both rough sawn cedar, as are the posts). So here are my questions: 1) On the railings, which are smooth, those are easy enough to give a light sanding to. But what about the rough sawn cedar? Not thinking sanding makes sense there. The drip lines are fairly faint and I could just let them be. Do I need to sand the deck boards as well? 2) After cleaning, the deck boards, stairs and railings--all of the smooth sanded wood--looks pretty light colored and clearly ready to accept stain. The rough sawn lumber is still darker and looks like it's held on to the original stain. Should I still add a coat of stain/seal to the rough sawn lumber? or do I just need to worry about the deckboards, stairs and railings? 3) Some of the deck sits under a roof extension, but for the most part the deck gets a lot of sun from morning through early afternoon. With temps getting up to the mid 80s, should I wait to put the stain on until late afternoon when the deck doesn't get direct sunlight? Or do it early in the day when it's cooler but already getting sun? I know that's a lot of questions. Thanks in advance for any input!