Handyman Services in Franklin, Idaho

Franklin's Main Street holds some of Idaho's earliest buildings. Lorenzo Hill Hatch, the town's first mayor, built a stone Greek Revival house there in 1872, across from the city square. The Relic Hall, a log building raised in 1936 and 1937 with timber from the Forest Service and Civilian Conservation Corps labor, stands beside the Franklin Cooperative Mercantile Building. The Idaho State Historical Society looks after the Hatch House and the Relic Hall.

Other firsts followed. Settlers built a sandstone schoolhouse in 1867, and on May 2, 1874 the first train to enter Idaho Territory pulled into Franklin on the Utah and Northern line.

Homes from Franklin's early decades need a gentle hand. Frames move with each winter's frost, so old doors bind at the top corner and stop closing cleanly. Original sills and trim are worth saving where they can be, since a matching new piece often has to be made. A trim repair on an old house starts by matching the profile and the paint.

Franklin issues its own building permits. The application comes from City Hall at 128 East Main, and the permit number is simply the site address. The form covers new construction, repairs, alterations, additions and accessory buildings, and it lists required building setbacks of 30 feet in front, 15 feet on the sides and 30 feet in the rear.

Two parts of the form surprise people. New water and sewer connection fees are due when the permit is bought. And the owner agrees to put back any road, sidewalk, curb, gutter or right-of-way the work disturbs, before occupancy or within six months if the city council agrees.

Statewide and county rules apply as well. Franklin County's building department in Preston publishes the design numbers builders use in the county: a roof snow load of 40 pounds per square foot in the valleys and 50 to 70 in the canyons, and a 30-inch frost line. And before any post hole or footing is dug, Idaho Code 55-2205 calls for notice to the state's one-call locate center between two and ten business days ahead.

Those numbers explain why a pergola or patio cover here is framed for heavy snow and why its posts go below 30 inches. The patio covers and pergolas page walks through the real builds, including a cedar pavilion with a metal roof.

Call or text Seth at (385) 615-5295 or Collin at (208) 240-0698, Monday to Thursday from 8 am to 5 pm, or fill in the quote form with your Franklin address. A photo texted to either of them speeds things up. The quote is free, the full price comes before any work, and the job is set for a specific day and cleaned up after.

If your project needs a city permit, ask City Hall at the start, since the setbacks on the form decide where a shed or addition can go. For repairs that don't need one, measure what you can and note roughly when the house was built; both help the quote.