Almost every house from Gwinnett's nineties boom came with a pressure-treated deck, and thirty summers later those decks are due. The pattern repeats across Duluth, Suwanee, and Lawrenceville: gray, checked boards on the sun side, a slick green film on the shaded end, popped fasteners walking up out of the traffic lanes, and a rail that moves more than a rail should. None of that means the deck is done. It means the deck wants a maintenance visit before the problems graduate.
Repair first, then finish
The visit starts with the awl, not the sprayer: probing posts at the ground line, joists at the ledger, and stair stringers for soft wood, then swapping the failed boards, refastening the walkers, and tightening rail hardware. Cleaning comes next — a proper wash and brightener, never a raw pressure jet that furs the grain — and staining waits for the dry days Georgia reliably supplies, so the finish cures into the wood instead of sitting on damp fiber. Semi-transparent stains suit most Gwinnett decks; solid finishes rescue older, patched surfaces.
Where the honest line sits
Board swaps, refastening, cleaning, and staining are repair work, and Georgia's repair exception keeps them lawful at any price with the written disclosure and the no-structural rule the state attaches. The structural side is exactly where that lane ends: a ledger pulling off the house, rotted posts or beams, or a rebuild or expansion is licensed-contractor territory — both because the law says so once value or structure is in play, and because a deck that drops a party is nobody's savings. When the probe finds structural trouble, the referral is the service.
The Gwinnett staining window
Late spring after the pollen quits and early fall before the leaves are the county's two good windows — warm, dry stretches when new stain cures right. Book the repair-and-wash visit a few weeks ahead of either window and the whole cycle lands in one season. Landlords and sellers get the same advice with a deadline attached: an inspection reads a maintained deck very differently from a gray one.