Older houses, mature trees, and a lot of porches
Fort Oglethorpe sits right up against the Tennessee state line north of Ringgold, next to the Chickamauga battlefield, and it is effectively part of the Chattanooga area while being firmly in Georgia. The town grew around a former army post, and a good deal of the housing reflects that history — established streets, mature trees, and houses that have been added to and altered by successive owners over a long period.
Two things follow from that for us. The first is porches. This is a town with a lot of front and side porches, some original and many added, and a fair number of them are now at the point where the roof structure or the flashing where it meets the house needs proper attention. Rebuilding a porch, or adding a covered one where the house has only an open slab, is one of our more common jobs here.
The second is that mature tree cover changes what lasts outdoors. A deck under heavy canopy stays damp long after the rain stops, so boards hold debris and the shaded sections grow algae years before the sunny ones do. It is the main reason we talk about composite rather than treated timber on this side of town, and about board spacing and where the water actually goes.
- Covered porches, flashed properly. Where a new porch roof meets the house it is flashed and kicked out at the bottom, not caulked.
- Porch rebuilds. Existing porches with failing structure or flashing, put right rather than patched.
- Leak diagnosis under tree cover. Valleys and penetrations first, because that is where debris-driven leaks start.
- Bathrooms and custom showers. Older bathrooms rebuilt, with whatever the strip-out reveals shown to you.
- Decks and fencing. Including the stepped fence lines that sloping yards here need.
- Minutes from Chattanooga. Georgia address, Chattanooga-area drive time.
What we build in Fort Oglethorpe
Carports
Single and multi-bay carports built across Fort Oglethorpe.
Learn more ›Pole Barns & Shops
Post-frame buildings for equipment, workshops and storage.
Learn more ›Custom Showers
Tiled walk-in showers with benches, niches and glass doors.
Learn more ›Garage Conversions
Attached garages turned into finished, heated living space.
Learn more ›Decks & Porches
Decks, covered porches, stair runs and fencing.
Learn more ›Covered Porches
Gabled or shed porches added to an existing home.
Learn more ›Why Fort Oglethorpe homeowners call us
The junction is the whole job
Where a new porch roof meets the house is where these fail. It gets flashed and kicked out, because caulk is not a detail.
We look where leaks actually start
Under heavy tree cover the answer is nearly always a valley or a penetration, not the middle of a slope.
Older houses get opened carefully
Framing is not always where you expect it and previous work is not always sound. You see photographs before we build over anything.
Straightforward drive
Fort Oglethorpe is an easy run for us, so an estimate visit is not something we have to build a day around.
Fort Oglethorpe Questions
Often, and it depends on what the structure underneath is like. If the posts and framing are sound and the problem is the roof covering or the flashing where it meets the house, that is a repair. If the posts have gone at the base or the roof structure is failing, rebuilding is usually better value than propping up something that will need doing again. We will get underneath and look before saying which.
It changes the finish more than the structure. Under heavy tree cover a deck stays damp far longer after rain, so the boards hold debris and grow algae in the shaded sections. It is worth talking about composite rather than treated timber in those spots, and about spacing and drainage, because a deck that never dries out is the one that gets replaced early.
Frequently yes, and the constraint is the existing roofline rather than the slab. Eave height determines what pitch a new porch roof can have, and too shallow a pitch is a leak with a delay on it. We will also check whether the slab is sound and thick enough to take post bases before designing around it.
It can, particularly a deep one across a wall of windows, and it is much better raised now than discovered in November. A gable rather than a shed roof helps, as does a shallower depth. If the room behind is one you use in the daytime, we will tell you what the trade-off actually looks like.
Regularly — it is most of the older stock here. What it means practically is that we open things up carefully and expect the unexpected: framing that is not where the plan would suggest, previous work done to a variable standard, and occasionally something that needs putting right before we can carry on. You get a photograph and a price before we do.
Fort Oglethorpe is in Georgia, in Catoosa County, so Georgia rules apply even though the drive is a Chattanooga one. Requirements here differ from Whitfield County and from the Tennessee jurisdictions across the line. We will tell you what we understand applies to your address when we come out.