Decks

What we build

• New decks. Designed around the way you actually use the back of the house, not around what fits the catalogue.
• Rebuilds. Taking an old deck off and starting again, usually because the frame has gone rather than the boards.
• Repairs and board replacement. Soft boards, popped fasteners, rot at the ledger, stairs that flex.
• Railings and stairs. New, or fitted to a deck that is otherwise sound.
• Pergolas and covers over an existing deck — see pergolas and covered structures.

Designed around how you will use it

Most decks are built to a shape that suits the house rather than the life happening on it. Before anything gets drawn we want the ordinary details: how many people sit out there, whether there is a grill, whether the door you actually use is the kitchen slider or the one off the living room, and which corner catches the four o’clock sun in July.

Those answers move the footprint more than any photo will. A deck two feet wider in the right place beats one six feet wider in the wrong one.

Pressure-treated pine or composite?

This is the decision that moves the price most, and the honest answer depends on how much maintenance you will realistically do.

We build in both. If you are leaning composite, brands like Trex and TimberTech are what most people are comparing — we will talk through the actual line you are looking at rather than the brand in general.

Repair, or replace?

Not every tired deck needs replacing, and we will tell you plainly which one you are looking at — including when replacing is the better use of your money.

• Repair when the frame is solid and the trouble is on the surface: boards, railings, fasteners, stairs.
• Replace when the framing or the ledger is compromised, or when you would spend half the cost of a new deck to buy two more seasons out of an old one.

If it is the second one, we would rather say so at the estimate than halfway through.

The parts nobody photographs

The difference between a deck that still looks right in ten years and one that goes spongy in three is almost entirely in what you cannot see once it is finished.

• Footings. Dug and poured properly, because everything above depends on them.
• The ledger. Where the deck meets the house, flashed so water runs off the building rather than into the band board. An unflashed ledger is the commonest reason an otherwise fine deck has to come off early.
• Framing. Beam and joist spacing, and blocking that stops the bounce.
• Railing posts. Anchored to the frame, not face-screwed to the rim. It feels solid either way on day one; only one of them still does in three years.

Georgia is hard on a deck

Heat, humidity and afternoon storms are what age one here. Pine left unsealed greys and checks; boards laid too tight will not shed water. Those are the details worth paying attention to in this climate — and the reason sealing is the cheapest thing you can do to protect what you have paid for.

Common questions