Case Study · SB 721 · CSLB #1060736

Trex Stair Replacement — Apartment Community, Elk Grove

The paint had not failed evenly. It held on the risers and gave out on the treads, worst of all in the corner where the two meet — which is exactly where an outdoor stair rots.

Elk Grove, CATwo-story apartment communityCompleted Q3 2025

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Two-story Elk Grove apartment building with rebuilt exterior stairs in Trex composite and black aluminum guardrails

Deck Repair & Restoration

Project facts

Location: Elk Grove, CA
Service: Deck Installation
Property: Two-story apartment community
Units: 12
Elevated elements: 6 exterior stair runs serving the upper units, with their landings
Client: Owner / property management company
Scope: Tear-off of painted wood treads, risers, guards and newel posts, stringer and post-base repair, Trex composite treads with open risers, aluminum guardrails and wall-mounted graspable handrails
Timeline: 3 weeks
Completed: Q3 2025
Budget range: $45k–$65k

Compliance context · SB 721

SB 721 has a provision for conditions that pose an immediate threat: the inspector tells the owner at once, notifies the local enforcement agency, and the owner has to take preventive measures straight away. On a balcony that is a workable instruction — lock the door, post the notice, and the element is out of service until it is repaired. On an exterior stair it is not. The stair is the only way into and out of the units above it, so it cannot be taken out of service while anyone is living there. That changes what a stair item on a report actually means. It is not a repair you can park behind a barrier and get to next budget year; it is a repair that has to happen with residents walking through it, and the only real question is how soon it can be scheduled.

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Deck Installation

01 The situation

The challenge

Look at where the paint gave up. Not on the risers, which stand vertical and shed water, but on the treads — and worst of all in the corner where a tread meets the riser below it. On an outdoor stair that corner is a horizontal joint: grit settles into it, water sits in it, the paint film cracks along it first, and once it is open the wood underneath drinks. By the time we saw this run the treads were bare grey timber with white flakes still clinging on, and the newel post at the bottom was soft under its paint. The other runs on the property were in the same state, because they were all built at the same time and had all been repainted on the same cycle.

02 Execution

What we did

With no way to take a stair out of service, the sequence had to be planned before anything came apart:

Walked every stair run on the property, graded them by condition and put the worst runs first in the programme

Stripped the painted treads, risers, guards and newel posts one run at a time, so no unit lost its only access

Repaired the stringers and renewed the newel and post bases where paint had been holding soft wood together

Laid Trex composite treads with open risers, so the failed tread-to-riser joint no longer exists, and set aluminum guards with a black graspable handrail along the wall side

03 Outcome

The result

6exterior stair runs rebuilt

12units kept on their own access throughout

3 wksacross the whole property

Every run now carries the same detail: composite treads on repaired stringers, open risers where the failed joint used to be, aluminum guards, and a graspable handrail along the wall. Nothing on the walking surface needs sanding or repainting again, which matters more on a stair than on a balcony — a repaint cycle on a stair means a run out of service, and a run out of service means residents with no way home. The SB 721 items closed across all six runs as one programme instead of one run per budget year.

Results at a glance

Six exterior stair runs re-treaded in Trex composite over repaired stringers
Open risers replace the tread-to-riser joint where the old paint film failed first
Painted wood guards and newel posts replaced with powder-coated aluminum
Black graspable handrail carried along the wall side of every run

What the client received