Cortland sits at the northern edge of the Finger Lakes region, about 25 miles south of Syracuse, and receives more than 80 inches of snow in a typical year - often more during heavy lake-effect seasons. The city is also built on glacially shaped terrain with hills and valleys that affect how water drains away from foundations and outdoor structures. Homes throughout Cortland deal with wet soils, especially in spring when snow melts quickly and the clay-heavy ground cannot absorb runoff fast enough. Post bases and footings on outdoor structures need to be set with these drainage conditions in mind, not just with snow load in mind.

A large share of Cortland homes were built before 1940 - many of them Victorian and Craftsman-style two-story structures with covered front porches, decorative woodwork, and original framing that has been through many hard winters. Decks and fences added to these homes over the years were often built to the standards of the decade they were installed, not to current building codes or material specifications. Any outdoor structure on a pre-war Cortland home deserves an honest assessment before new work is added or repairs are patched on top of a compromised foundation. Getting that right the first time is far less expensive than correcting it after another winter.

Cortland is a small city of around 18,000 people in Cortland County, serving as the county seat and the civic center for the surrounding rural townships. SUNY Cortland sits right in the city and shapes the character of several neighborhoods, particularly the residential streets closest to campus. The broader city is a mix of Victorian and Craftsman-style single-family homes, two-family houses, and apartment buildings - many of which were converted from older single-family structures to accommodate the student population over the decades. Most homes in the central and near-north sections of the city were built before 1940, and they reflect the architectural styles and construction methods of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The city sits in a hilly, glacially shaped landscape at the northern edge of the Finger Lakes region, and the terrain varies considerably across different neighborhoods - from the flatter streets near downtown to the sloped residential blocks further out toward the city edges. Cortland County extends well beyond the city itself, taking in rural townships like Homer, Virgil, and Harford where larger lots, older farmhouses, and outbuildings are more common. Homeowners across this area rely on contractors who know the local building conditions and can work efficiently on the older housing stock that defines much of Cortland. We serve the full Cortland area as well as neighboring communities, including Utica to the northeast.