Design your deck
It stays in this browser until you press Send.
Start from one of ours
Size
Height
Material
Railing
Steps and ramp the deck is the top landing
Lower level the tier off the front
Upper level
Every ramp
Shape
Extras
Hot tub
Canopy
Gas barbecue
Lighting and comfort
Roof, walls and floor
What it is
Floor
Advanced
This job one deck, or several pieces
Every assumption behind the numbers
What is in the number
The parts most deck companies do not mention
These decide whether you still like the deck in year eight.
Water management under the deck
A trough under the joists catches the rain that falls between the boards and sends it to one downspout. The ground underneath stays dry instead of washing out round the posts.
A slatted canopy
Shade that moves with the sun and lets the heat out, for people who want light, not a roof. A solid roof turns a deck into a room, which is a different permit.
A ramp that hugs the deck
A level platform flush with the deck, a lane tight against the fascia, and a landing at each corner. It keeps a long ramp out of the middle of the yard.
Bi-level, where the tier is the landing
The upper ramp runs along the front of the upper deck and lands on the lower tier, and the tier has its own ramp down to the ground.
A hot tub set into the deck
Sunk so the rim is at seat height, on its own pad under the deck, with a hatch to reach the pump. It needs a 240 volt circuit, and a gas line if it is gas heated: licensed trades, and usually a permit.
How high is the deck, really
What the number is, and what it is not
What it is
- Square foot rates for the structure in the material you chose, plus a line for every part you added.
- A range of plus or minus twelve per cent around that, because two identical decks on two different lots are not the same job.
- Every line visible, and every line removable, so you can see what any single decision is costing you.
- A count of the quantities that fall straight out of the geometry, with the waste factor you chose.
What it is not
- It is not a quote, and it never claims to be one. We accept no responsibility for any of these numbers.
- It knows nothing about your ground: rock, slope, a buried line, a soft spot where the posts go.
- It knows nothing about your house: the siding, the sheathing behind it, or what the ledger will actually bolt to.
- It is not a materials list. It counts what the drawing gives it and stops there, and the takeoff panel says so in plain words.