The porch looked well-maintained, spruced up with yearly paint jobs. The owners just wanted us to check out a minor problem—a broken decorative bracket. We soon discovered, however, that everything above eye level was held up by trim, and everything below our feet threatened to collapse. Naively, the owners had hired people to do a yearly camouflage job to cover up water stains on the porch ceiling and floor. They also hired a guy to come out every six months and jack the porch roof back up. No one had told them the porch had major problems. On a large porch like this, you can't repair just one or two places. You have to work on it
