Case Study · SB 721 · CSLB #1060736
Balcony & Exterior Stair Waterproofing — 32-Unit Multifamily Community, Sacramento
The rot wasn't out at the edge — it was where the deck met the wall. We stripped every balcony to bare sheathing, rebuilt that junction, and carried the same system across the stairs.
WaterproofingProject facts
- Location
- Sacramento, CA
- Service
- Balcony Waterproofing
- Property
- Two-story multifamily apartment community
- Units
- 32
- Elevated elements
- 32 balconies and 8 exterior stair runs
- Client
- Owner / property management company
- Scope
- Tear-off to sheathing, framing repair at the wall junction, waterproof deck system, stair coating, balustrade repair and repaint
- Timeline
- 8 weeks
- Completed
- Q1 2026
- Budget range
- $140k–$175k
01 The situation
The challenge
The visible damage was at the bottom of a stair run, where the post had split and gone soft at its base. The real problem was thirty feet away and invisible. On every balcony the coating simply ran up to the stucco and stopped — no termination, nothing behind the lath — so water had been wicking into the wall junction for years. When we opened the first deck, the framing along that wall came apart in our hands with the nails rusted through. A new coating laid over the top of it would have looked finished on day one and changed nothing about what was happening underneath.
02 Execution
What we did
Every balcony came apart to the same depth before anything went back on:
Stripped each balcony to bare sheathing and cut the stucco and lath back along the wall line
Replaced the rot-damaged framing and sheathing at the deck-to-wall junction, then rebuilt the transition with a proper termination
Masked the units, set temporary guardrails, and installed the reinforced waterproof deck system with a textured non-slip finish
Carried the same system across the stair treads and landings, and repaired and repainted the wood balustrades
03 Outcome
The result
Balconies and stairs came back as one system instead of two projects on two budgets. The wall junction — the detail that had been quietly feeding water into the framing since the building went up — now terminates and sheds instead of wicking. The SB 721 report was closed against photographs of every repair made before the coating went down, and the owner has a re-coat date rather than an open finding.
Results at a glance
- All 32 balconies stripped to sheathing and re-coated
- Rot-damaged framing replaced at the deck-to-wall junction on every balcony
- 8 exterior stair runs coated with the same non-slip system
- Wood balustrades repaired and repainted across the community
What the client received
- SB 721 findings closure covering balconies and stairs in one report
- Manufacturer warranty on the deck system plus our workmanship warranty
- Photo record of the framing behind every wall junction before it was closed up
- Units masked and protected — residents stayed in place throughout
- Re-coat schedule aligned to the next six-year cycle
Transformation
Before & After
The exterior stair run
A balcony: opened up, then finished
On site
Project Photos
“The report listed the stairs and we had them penciled in for next year. They showed us it was the same water and the same wood, so we did it once instead of twice.”
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