Serving Holden and nearby WV communities
Holden's houses were built to a plan, set into a hillside, with drainage laid out for the coal operation rather than the buildings. A century on, that has produced floor joist repair that is remarkably consistent from one house to the next.
We'll reach out to schedule a look.
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The kind of floor joist repair work we take on across Williamson and the surrounding West Virginia communities.
Jack Smith
4 months ago
Had them out after the back steps started going soft underfoot. He came and looked properly before quoting anything, and told me the structure underneath was still sound — so it ended up a smaller job than I had braced myself for. Turned up when he said he would, cleaned up after himself, and the price at the end was the price we agreed. Not much more you can ask for.
Owner replied
Skyler White
9 months ago
Called on a Tuesday and had someone out the same week. What I appreciated most was being told straight what needed doing now and what could safely wait until spring. No pressure and no trying to talk me into the bigger version of the job. It has held up fine through the winter since.
Trevor Alford
2 months ago
The quote came through itemised and the final bill matched it, which has honestly not been my experience with everyone around here. They worked around an awkward driveway without once making it my problem, and left the place tidier than they found it. Would have them back.
Kaleb Withrow
3 weeks ago
Fair price, showed up on time, tidy work. No complaints.
Sample reviews shown for illustration.
Send a few photos and we'll tell you what it'll take — free written quote, no pressure.
These houses are dug into the slope, and water coming off the hill behind them is the constant. The floor framing on that side has been taking it since the camps were built, and that's where the damage collects: sill plates, joist bearings, and the posts under the back of the house.
Sill plates and joist bearings on the low side
Floor joist replacement where ends have rotted through
Posts reset with bearing below disturbed ground
Runoff kept clear of new supports
Shoring staged on a site with little room
What you get when Mackwood does your floor joist repair — and what we won't do.
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From first call to finished work — no surprises in between.
Step 1
Call, text, or send a message with what you're looking to build or repair. No form to fill in and no call centre — it comes straight to us, and you'll get a real answer about whether it's something we do.
Step 2
A few photos are often enough to tell us what we're dealing with. Where it isn't — anything structural, anything hidden underneath — we'll come out and look properly before quoting rather than guessing from the kerb.
Step 3
You get a written quote that itemises the work, so you can see what you're paying for and what you aren't. If we think part of it isn't worth doing, we'll say so. No pressure and no surprises at the end.
Step 4
We turn up when we said we would, work clean, and haul the offcuts away with us. The job gets built to last in this climate — and we'll walk it with you before we call it finished.
We'll come and look, then tell you straight — including if it isn't worth doing.
Straight answers to what we get asked most.
Because that's the low side, dug into the slope, and the drainage here was laid out for the coal operation rather than the houses. Water comes off the hill and sits against that side, and the floor framing there has been taking it since the camps were built.
It tells us the movement is one-sided, which is the normal pattern here: the back settles while the front doesn't. It points straight at the supports on that side rather than at the floor framing generally.
It helps a lot. These houses were built to standard patterns, so the same joists fail in the same positions. We still get underneath and check, but we can price with more confidence here than almost anywhere else.
Only if the new bearing goes past the disturbed ground and the water is kept off it. Where the lasting answer involves drainage we'll tell you, even though that isn't our trade.
Usually, and Holden is the best case for it. The houses were built to standard patterns, so the profile you need is generally still visible on the same street. Where something genuinely can't be sourced we'll show you the nearest option rather than substituting quietly.
Quite possibly. These houses were built the same way at the same time on the same ground, so they tend to reach the same failures together. It's worth a look underneath before it becomes urgent.
It's the normal situation in the camps and it's usually the side the work is on. It affects access and how long material handling takes, not whether the repair can be done properly.
Rotted fascia, soffit, sills, and siding, cut back to sound wood and replaced.
Learn moreNew porches and full rebuilds — covered, open, and built for a hillside lot.
Learn moreKitchen remodels from the floor up — walls, subfloor, cabinets, and trim.
Learn moreWe handle floor joist repair across Williamson and the surrounding West Virginia communities.
The full picture
Most people are buying a result, not a list of tasks. Pick a topic to see what we look at before quoting in Holden.
Because the houses were built to standard patterns, the damage repeats. The same joists fail in the same positions on house after house, so we know what we're looking for before we get underneath and can price it with more confidence than usual.
It also means the sagging floor is one-sided. The back settles and the front doesn't, so floors fall steadily toward the back rather than dipping, and doors on that side bind while the others stay fine.
Resetting a post onto the same ground that moved is a repair with a countdown on it. Where runoff has been undermining a support for decades, the correction has to take bearing past the disturbed soil and keep the water off it from then on.
The second half of that isn't carpentry, and we'll say so. Where the lasting answer involves drainage, we'd rather tell you than take money for floor work that the same water will undo.
Bringing a settled back side up happens gradually rather than in one lift. On houses this age, a fast correction cracks plaster and opens joints that were sound.
Where the joist ends on the low side have rotted through, the order is shore, cut out, replace, then lift. Lifting a floor on rotten joists just crushes what's left of the bearing. Floor joist replacement comes first, and the floor comes back up on new wood.
About forty-five minutes from Williamson, US-119 to WV-44. The camps sit on narrow streets laid out for the era, so there's limited room to stage timber and jacks, and the approach is tighter than the drive suggests.
Houses set into the hillside also mean the crawl space is usually lowest and tightest at the back, which is exactly where the job is. That affects how the day runs and how the shoring is staged rather than what the repair needs.
Holden is a planned coal town rather than a town that grew, and it shows in the housing more clearly than anywhere else we work. Island Creek Coal built these houses to a small number of standard patterns across the numbered camps, which means whole streets share a floor plan, a porch detail, and a foundation type. For carpentry that is genuinely useful: once we have seen the failure on one of them we know where to look on the next, and matching original trim and porch detail is realistic because the pattern is documented by the houses around it.
These houses are approaching a century old and were built with untreated framing on block and stone piers, set into hillside sites where drainage was designed for the coal operation rather than for the houses. Water coming off the slope behind a house is the constant, and the damage concentrates at the back and the low side — sill plates, joist bearings, and the porch structure where it steps down the grade. The uniformity that helps us diagnose also means the whole street tends to arrive at the problem together.
About forty-five minutes from Williamson, US-119 to WV-44. The camps sit up off the main road on narrow streets that were laid out for the era, so the approach is tighter than the drive suggests and there is limited room to stage material. Houses set into the hillside also mean the working side is often the awkward side, which affects the day rather than the price of the carpentry.
Tell us what you're building or repairing and get a clear, no-pressure quote. Free quotes, honest answers, and craftsmanship built to last.
