Sources: hardware store guy took one look at the deck, said 'protection issue,' didn't elaborate, rang me up like a doctor who already knows and isn't telling you the diagnosis is bad. First call — flashing behind the ledger board, rotted, he was right. Second call, three weeks later, different symptom, same guy, same four words, 'protection issue,' and it's the joist hangers this time. Two for two. I've covered front offices for thirty years, sat across from GMs who couldn't diagnose their own roster with a scouting department and a laptop, and this man reads a deck like it filed a report with him directly. Not calling him a source. He IS the source. Timeline on the actual repair remains fluid.