Logan sits where the Guyandotte meets Island Creek, and its houses sit on piers. Put those two facts together across ninety years and you get the structural work this town actually needs: sill plates and joist ends that have lost their bearing, on houses where the ground under them never fully dries.
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
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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.
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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.
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Kaleb Withrow
3 weeks ago
Fair price, showed up on time, tidy work. No complaints.
See something like yours?
Send a few photos and we'll tell you what it'll take — free written quote, no pressure.
Coal-era houses here were framed in untreated lumber on block or stone piers with no continuous foundation. The framing bears at specific points rather than along a wall, which concentrates everything — load, moisture, and eventually failure — at those points.
Sill plate sections renewed at the pier line
Joist ends sistered where bearing has gone
Posts and piers under girders reset
Girders supported where they have sagged
Shoring set before any load-carrying member comes out
Why Choose Mackwood Construction?
What you get when Mackwood does your framing repairs — and what we won't do.
Free written quote, itemised before anything starts
We get underneath and look properly before quoting — not from the kerb
We'll tell you straight if a repair isn't worth doing
Based in Williamson — Mingo and Logan counties, about an hour out
Straight answers on permits, which differ either side of the county line
Built for this climate: drainage, flashing and ground contact done right
From first call to finished work — no surprises in between.
Step 1
Tell us about the project
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
Send photos or schedule a look
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
Get a clear quote
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 build it right
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.
Not sure what your framing repair needs?
We'll come and look, then tell you straight — including if it isn't worth doing.
Usually far less than people fear. On pier-built houses the failure is at specific bearing points rather than across the whole floor, so repairs can be targeted. That is exactly why we get underneath before quoting rather than pricing the whole floor.
My floor slopes in one direction. What does that mean?
Typically that one side of the house has taken more moisture than the other, which is common up the hollows where the slope sheds water toward the back. The supports on that side have gone first, so the house is tilting rather than dipping.
Why does the job take longer than it looks like it should?
Because most of it is shoring. Nothing carrying load comes out until that load is somewhere else, and on a house on piers the temporary supports need something solid to bear on. It does not look like progress and it is what makes the work safe.
Does structural work need a permit in Logan County?
Often, and Logan County administers permitting and inspection separately from Mingo County. Structural work is the case where it matters most, and we confirm what applies before we start.
Do you actually come out to Logan, or just Williamson?
Logan is a regular run for us — about 40 minutes from Williamson on US-119. It's well inside the hour we cover, and we're in Logan County often enough that it isn't a special trip.
Is a permit different in Logan County than in Mingo County?
It can be. Logan County and Mingo County administer permitting and inspection separately, so the same job can have different requirements depending which side of the line you're on. Structural work is the case where it matters most. We'll tell you what applies before we start rather than after.
My house is up a hollow with a narrow drive. Is that a problem?
No, it's normal here. It affects what we can haul in one trip and how long material handling takes, not whether the job can be done. We'd rather see the access before quoting so the number accounts for it.
Most people are buying a result, not a list of tasks. Pick a topic to see what we look at before quoting in Logan.
More on framing repair work in Logan
So the damage is not spread evenly through a floor. It is at the ends of joists where they sit on the sill, in the sill itself where it sits on a pier, and at the posts under a girder. A floor can be entirely sound across most of its area and have three places where it is carried by wood that has lost most of its section.
That is good news for cost, because a repair can be targeted rather than wholesale. It is bad news for anyone judging by walking on it, because those three places are exactly where you cannot see.
Hollow houses and the ground behind them
Up the hollows off Island Creek and Mud Fork, houses sit on a grade with the slope shedding water toward the back of them. The structural consequence is uneven — the low or uphill side takes the moisture and fails first, so the house does not settle evenly, it tilts.
That shows as a floor with a consistent fall in one direction rather than a dip in the middle, and as doors on one side of the house being fine while the others bind.
Repairing it means correcting the supports on the affected side and bringing the structure back gradually. Doing that quickly on an old house causes damage of its own, so it is staged over visits rather than forced in a day.
Shoring, and doing it in the right order
Nothing structural comes out until the load it carries is somewhere else. That sounds obvious and it is the step most commonly skipped, because shoring takes time and does not look like progress.
On a house on piers it is also more involved than on a slab, since the temporary supports need something solid to bear on and the ground under these houses frequently is not. Getting that right is most of what makes this work safe.
About forty minutes from Williamson on US-119 — a regular run for us. Town lots are tight and hollow driveways are steep, which affects staging rather than the structural work itself.
Homes around Logan
Logan's housing runs heavily to early-to-mid 20th century stock built when the coal operations were at their peak — company-built houses in town and up the hollows, most of them wood-framed on block or stone piers rather than a poured perimeter foundation. Nearly all of them have a covered front porch, because that was standard on the pattern. Those porches were framed with untreated lumber and set close to grade, which is the single biggest reason porch work is the most common carpentry call in this county.
What we see locally
Logan sits at the confluence of the Guyandotte River and Island Creek, and the town has a long, documented flood history — the 1977 Guyandotte flood is still the benchmark locally. Repeated wetting is what drives the rot we see: sill plates, porch posts, joist ends, and the bottoms of exterior door frames. Add hillside runoff coming off the slopes behind the houses and you get wood that stays damp long after the weather clears.
Getting to the job
Town lots in Logan are tight and often sit right on the street, so material gets carried rather than backed in. Up the hollows off Island Creek and Mud Fork the roads narrow and the driveways get steep, which limits trailer size and means longer carries. None of that changes the price of the carpentry — it changes how long the day takes, and we allow for it in the quote rather than discovering it on arrival.
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