r/Decks

First time hiring a contractor to re-do our deck. Moved from Florida to DMV area last year, so I have very little experience with decks. $18k and 5 day job. Last deck was 30 years old and falling apart. This was a safety concern.

12/14x18 area, semi transparent stain. My only concerns (let me know if this is typical or within the normal range) are: the concrete for both middle posts. We had to move the stairs so the posts were moved a bit and are no longer centered on the concrete. Also, both middle posts look very slightly off (see level). My OCD picked it up but it’s likely that this is considered normal. Also, the floor area has a dark piece of wood. While I know wood can be normally darker, I was a bit confused they would pick it for the surface, and the sealer didn’t cover it. Lastly, my contractor said that it only needed a few hours to dry. On day 4 it rained and on day 6 it was stained. Day 7 it rained again, it didn’t have more than a day to dry. Contractor said he’s never had issues.

Looking at the pics, is anything worth bringing up to my contractor? We have the final walk through this week.

I am overall happy with it, just making sure I get a different set of eyes.

Thanks for any help!

We have an existing 324 sq ft deck that would be torn down and replaced with a larger 648 sq ft deck made with TimberTech. We got an estimate of 65k in 2024 and had them re quote as of today and the quote went from 65k to 71k.

We are in NC not a high cost of living area.

The deck gable already exist and will not be changed.

The first rendered image is of the new deck which would be TimberTech

The second rendered image is of the original deck which is all wood

Had a client request this decking pattern on their flat roof. Wasn't super into the idea of it because typically I hate butt joints but it definitely grew on me.

Front porch tongue and groove is warping this spring. Thinking of adding some kerfs to alleviate this uplift. Wondering how often to place them and how to eliminate this trip hazard?

Was quoted 10k for a deck an decided to give it a try, never built anything before or poured concrete so 2200$ and 3 weekends later it’s done! Added a concrete patio for grilling as well!

We just bought our first house back in October and haven't spent much time outside until recently. The owners before us built a nice, partially covered deck with Trex, which looks to be about 20 years old, according to the permits.

At this point, the deck needs some work. Overall, the Trex is still in good shape, but there is some splitting happening on the lower part of the handrails. Our biggest concerns are that the stringers for the stairs are beginning to sag and split, and that the beam and posts holding up the awning weren't done so correctly.

We have gotten a couple of quotes so far.

One company came out and quoted us almost $30k to replace all the Trex boards and railing with a new Trex Select product, along with replacing the four 4x4 posts holding up the awning with two 6x6 posts. They would also add some railing around our pool area, not pictured.

A second company came out and more or less just wanted to repair what we have. They said they could probably rebuild the stairs and reuse the existing Trex boards and railing. Instead of replacing the existing posts and beam holding up the awning, they would add saddle brackets to the existing posts. They would also add some railing around our pool area, again, not pictured. Their quote came in closer to $5k.

Given all of this, I'm a little lost at the moment. Neither company seemed to be concerned with the structural part of the deck. The joists, beams, and posts all supposedly look great. Is it worth it to "refresh" a 20 year old deck structure with new Trex?

For pricing, we are located in northern Virginia, if that is of any help. I am pretty tempted to try and make the repairs on my own at this point, but doing the posts and beam for the awning might be a little outside of my comfort zone.

So I’ll just make a few things clear.

I am a total amateur DIYer and I’ve never built a deck before but the old one was beyond rotten and needed attention so I had a crack at rebuilding…

But I need some help. If I may :)

Some of my joists do not sit flush between the two bearers, maybe 1 or 2 creating a high point. Can I use shims to fix the gap or should I correct them?

Also I’ve noticed despite me setting the same length on all my joists. The last 6 (of 16) do not come out as far past the bearer on the outside of the house. My oversight for not checking the measurements but how can I correct this? I could make these longer but then my deck boards would not sit straight? I would like to be able to attach a facia board some how..

Another question is does my door step have to sit on top of my deck boards? Or can sit same level?

Thank you. I’m boarder-line just going to get chippy in to finish the job but can’t blame a man for trying haha.

Hello people! I am new here however I needed help with my deck. I bought this house couple months this ago and I have been waiting for springtime to work on this deck. What's the best way to get rid of this paint and make it look better?

hey you guys! I've been lurking here for about a month, and I'm curious what you guys think of this. We are finally financially in a position to update our dilapidated deck after inheriting some money. I used Sketchup to make a very rough, not at all build accurate idea of what we had in mind. but the three people I've contacted to try to get a quote have not returned my calls or shown up when they promised they would. I just need an idea of a ballpark so I know if I need to scale back or what we're even looking at spending.

We want to do a screened-in section, and then extend the deck to the edge of the house so we can have some storage underneath.

I just want an idea... am I looking at $20K? $30K? more? I legit have no idea how much they are going for these days, but I know lumbar is way more than when I worked in the building industry 15 years ago.

Thank you so much! y'all have some truly gorgeous decks!

Picture doesn’t do justice but where I circled where the stairs are going, it really drops off there it’s really steep slope. I basically want to do pavers from the front door to right before the bushes and transition to stairs going right out to the sidewalk.

I was planning on using stringers here but not sure how I should go about doing it. Usually you have like a ledger board or something to attach the stringers too, like a deck. But this is basically going to be floating and coming right off of the pavers. I can’t really anchor the stringers to the pavers, and I really don’t want to pour a little concrete landing pad just for this I want to go from pavers right into the stairs. How should I properly anchor this? Maybe just stakes and attach the stringers to the stakes? I don’t know why I can’t find more information on this online, everywhere just has people building these boxes and using “gravel” as the stair treads.

Around $17k in CA, Bay Area. Pushed the fence out to create a deck area. The overhang is actually sloped toward the back fence. It looks different in the pic. I’ve always wanted a Trex deck. Forgot to take a pic of the actual deck construction. :/

Hello,

Looking to get insight if I can put lag bolts against this white board?

The guardrail on the 4x4 is a little loose and I was thinking of either putting L brackets to secure it or bolt through the board. There seems to be a 2x4 behind the white board before touching the 4x4.

The 4x4 doesn’t go all the way to the ground as shown in the photo.

Any help is appreciated.

I want to add sonotubes with 4x4 chunks attached to the mounting brackets and have 2x6s running horizontally. But I won’t have the clearance whatsoever. I’m running the deck on the retaining wall you see and at that angle. I’ll be adding mounting brackets across that with 4x4 chucks and have 2 2x8s doubled up running across the top it

This deck is built off of a second-story room above my detached garage. My guess is it’s about 20-25 years old. I’ve done some work reinforcing posts and sistering joists (especially to support the ski lift chair swing). The thing about this deck that makes me most nervous is the corner brace that angles back to the house. Obviously the safer option is to put a post there instead, but it would be a really weird impedance, and I don’t want that. How would one go about designing a deck that would look and function similarly, but with proper structural support? Next question: does this look to be in decent condition? I think the railing needs to be replaced, but I don’t want to do that yet if the whole structure needs major work. Thanks!