Frenchtown is a twenty-minute run west on I-90 from our Missoula shop, so it gets the same no-travel-charge, early-start scheduling as a job in town.
Frenchtown grew up around the pulp mill, and for fifty years the houses followed the paychecks: modest 1950s through 1970s homes near the old town center and the school, built for mill families who wanted a yard and a garage. The mill closed in 2010, and the town has since turned into a bedroom community for Missoula, twenty minutes east on I-90. Subdivisions from the 2000s and 2010s now fill the flats along Mullan Road and the frontage road, with newer phases still going in toward Huson. That gives us two kinds of work: bringing the older mill-era houses up to what a modern family expects, and fixing or finishing the newer ones where the original builder cut corners.
The Clark Fork runs right past town and the flats around Frenchtown Pond stay wet into summer, which tells you something about the ground. Flats near the river have a high water table and silty soil, so decks and additions there get footings that go below the 42-inch frost line and wide enough to spread the load. Up on the benches toward Six Mile and Nine Mile the ground is drier and rockier, and lots run on wells and septic. Decks are the most requested project in the newer subdivisions because a lot of those houses were sold with a sliding door and a drop to the dirt. Garages with a finished bonus room are a close second.
Twenty minutes on the interstate puts Frenchtown inside our everyday range, so there is no travel charge and the crew can be on site at seven with material from the Missoula yards. We also handle a lot of handyman-scale work out here, since new subdivisions produce a steady list of doors that do not latch and railings that were never anchored. The building season for exterior work runs roughly April to October, and wildfire smoke in August can shut down painting and staining for a week at a time, so we plan around it. Call (406) 207-2524 for a fixed-scope quote.
Working near Frenchtown Pond State Park, Clark Fork River, Frenchtown School, Mullan Road, Nine Mile and throughout the Frenchtown area.
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The 1950s to 1970s homes around the old town core are small and short on bathrooms. We open kitchens into living rooms with properly sized beams and add a second bath where the floor plan allows. Original single-pane windows and siding usually get replaced in the same job. Many still have a detached garage the owner wants to finish.
Houses built in the 2000s and 2010s on the flats came with small decks or none at all, and a lot of them were framed fast. We see missing ledger flashing and railings screwed into siding more often than we should. Rebuilding a deck to code and correcting the ledger is the most common job we do out here.
Acreage above town runs on wells and septic and sits closer to timber, so wildfire exposure is real. When we build or re-side out there we lean toward fiber cement or metal and keep decks off the ground on steel or wrapped posts. Rocky ground makes footings slower to dig, and we quote for it.
Composite and cedar decks framed to carry Missoula snow loads, with flashed ledgers, footings below frost and railings that pass inspection the first time. One crew handles design, permits and construction.
Custom Decks in Frenchtown →Bedroom additions, second stories, primary suites and mudroom bump-outs for growing Missoula families, built on frost-depth footings, tied into the existing structure correctly and finished so the seam between old and new disappears.
Home Additions in Frenchtown →Detached ADUs, garages with living space above and workshop garages built on Missoula lots under the new state and city rules, framed for snow load and finished so they appraise well and pass inspection without drama.
ADUs & Garages in Frenchtown →The repairs that keep a Missoula house working: sticking doors, drywall patches, rotted trim, loose railings, roof leaks, gutter clearing and the rest of the list, handled by carpenters who show up when they say they will.
Handyman & Home Repairs in Frenchtown →Based in Missoula. One crew and one standard of work from Frenchtown to Hamilton, up the Blackfoot and over to Seeley Lake.
Free site visit, a fixed-scope quote in writing, and a crew that shows up when it says it will.
Send us a few photos and a rough idea of the project. You will get a real number from a real carpenter, usually within one business day.
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