Custom Woodwork

What this covers

Most of this work starts as a sentence like “could you also do something about…” at the end of a deck job. It is the built-in, made-to-measure end of carpentry — the things you cannot buy off a shelf because the space is not a standard size.

• Built-in seating. Benches worked into a deck edge or a corner. They seat more people than furniture in the same space, and nothing blows over.
• Planters. Freestanding or built into the deck frame, sized so the soil volume actually suits what you want to grow.
• Privacy screens. Slatted panels that block a specific sightline — a neighbour’s window, a road — without walling the whole space in.
• Gates and arbours. Side-yard gates that still shut properly in five years, and arbours that frame an entrance.
• Skirting and trim. Closing in the gap under a raised deck. It changes how finished the whole structure looks more than almost anything else.
• Storage. Deck boxes and benches with lids, for cushions and tools.
• Serving counters and bars. A fixed surface near the grill, at a height that works standing up.

Made to fit, not adapted to fit

The reason built-in work looks better is not craftsmanship for its own sake — it is that the dimensions can be wrong on purpose. A bench can be 19 inches deep instead of a standard 24 because that is what leaves a walking lane. A planter can be exactly as long as the railing section it sits under. Shop-bought pieces cannot do that, and the gap always shows.

Wood choice matters more here

Small pieces have far more exposed end grain per square foot than a deck surface does, and end grain is where water gets in. So the details that are easy to skip — sealing cut ends, sloping the top surfaces so water runs off, keeping timber up off the deck rather than sitting in a puddle — decide whether a planter lasts three years or twelve.

We build these in pressure-treated pine and in composite, and will say plainly which suits a given piece. Composite is excellent for bench tops and cap rails you touch often. It is a poor choice where a piece is structural.

Doing it alongside a deck

If you are already having deck work done, this is much cheaper to add then than later. Built-in seating and planters want to be tied into the frame, which means deciding before the decking goes down. Retrofitting afterwards means lifting boards.

Common questions