How a job runs
Seven steps, and three of them are waiting.
Most of the surprise in a deck job is not the building. It is the paperwork and the pauses that nobody mentioned at the start. So here they are first, with the work fitted around them.
You draw it
On the design page, in your own time, with nobody watching. Print it or send it. If you would rather just talk, that is fine too, but the drawing makes the first conversation twice as useful.
We come and measure
About an hour at your house. We look at the wall the deck will attach to, the ground the posts will sit on, the slope, the property lines, and where the gas, power and vents come out of the house.
The scope and the price
A written scope with the price in parts, what is excluded stated as plainly as what is included, a start date and a finish date. Nothing is ordered until you have signed it.
The permit, and the wait
We apply in our name with the drawings the city asks for. This is the first real pause in the job and it is outside everybody's control.
Holes, footings, and the second wait
Posts go below the frost line. If the footings are concrete, they cure before anything is framed on them. That is the second pause, and rushing it is how a deck ends up out of level in three years.
Frame, boards, railing, stairs
The continuous part, and the shortest part. One crew, same faces, site swept every evening, and one person whose phone answers.
Inspection, snags, handover
The inspector comes when the city schedules it, which is the third pause. Then a walk round together, a snag list, every item fixed, and the paperwork handed over.
The part everybody asks about
Permits, in plain words.
When you need one
In Edmonton, a deck or platform more than 600 mm (23 9/16 in) above the ground needs a building permit. At that height or less, in most yards, it does not.
That line is the same one the building code uses for a guard, which is not a coincidence: above it a fall starts to matter. The designer applies the same rule, and under its height sliders it says which side of the line your deck is on.
A development permit is a separate question and depends on where the deck sits relative to your property lines and what your zoning allows. A deck that stays well inside the yard usually does not need one. A deck that pushes toward a side or rear line might.
Attaching to the house, adding a roof, adding a hot tub, running a new gas line or a new electrical circuit each change the answer, and some of them bring their own permits and their own licensed trades.
What we do about it: we check your specific lot, we tell you what is needed before you sign anything, we apply in our name, and we are the ones who meet the inspector. If a permit turns out not to be needed, we say so, because telling you a permit is required when it is not is an old trick for padding a price.
What the code actually cares about
- The guard. Required where the drop is more than 600 mm (23 9/16 in). At least 900 mm (35 7/16 in) high on a deck less than 1.8 m (5 ft 10 13/16 in) up, and 1.07 m (42 in) from there up.
- The openings in it. Nothing in a guard may let a 100 mm (3 15/16 in) sphere through. That one rule sets the picket spacing, and the designer counts the pickets from it.
- The stairs. Risers all the same height, none over 200 mm (7 13/16 in), treads at least 255 mm (10 in) of run, and a handrail once there are more than 3 risers.
- The ramp. One in twelve is the barrier free standard. One in ten is the steepest the code allows for a house. For a deck 24 in up, that is a 24 ft ramp against a 20 ft one.
- The footings. Below the frost line, sized for what is on them.
- The ledger. How the deck attaches to the house, and how water is kept out of that joint. The code has a lot to say about it and it is the part that fails.
Clause references used by the design tool: National Building Code Part 9, sections 9.8.4 for stairs, 9.8.5 for ramps, 9.8.7 for handrails and 9.8.8 for guards. Alberta issues permits under the Alberta Edition of that code, and you can switch the tool to either basis under Advanced. None of this replaces what your permit officer tells you about your lot.
Time
Where the weeks actually go.
These are typical durations, not promises, and the two long ones are not ours to control. Your written scope carries the real dates for your job, and if either date moves you hear it from us before you hear it from anyone else.
- Drawing and site visit. A few days, mostly waiting for a time that suits you.
- Scope and price back to you. Usually within a week of the visit.
- Permit review. The longest single wait in a deck job, and entirely the city's timetable. Applying early is the only lever anybody has.
- Footings and curing. A day of digging and pouring, then curing time before anything is framed on top. Helical piles skip the cure and cost more; on a tight schedule they are worth pricing.
- Framing, decking, railing and stairs. The visible part, and on a normal deck the shortest part of the calendar.
- Inspection. Booked to the city's schedule, not ours.
- Snags and handover. A day, and then we are out of your yard.
The single biggest thing you can do to shorten a deck job is to decide early. The drawing exists so you can have the arguments about width, boards and railing in March, on a screen, instead of in June, with a crew standing in the yard.
Questions worth asking any deck builder, including us
- Who pulls the permit, and whose name is on it?
- If a builder asks you to pull it as the homeowner, understand what you are taking on: the permit holder is the one the city holds responsible. We pull it in our name.
- What exactly is excluded?
- Ask for the exclusions in writing, not the inclusions. Removal of the old deck, disposal, landscaping repair, gas and electrical work, and stain or sealer are the five that most often turn out not to be in the price.
- What happens if the ground is not what you expected?
- Rock, an old slab, a buried line or a soft spot. Ask what the procedure is and what it costs before it happens. Ours: we stop, we show you, we price the fix, and nothing is touched until you have agreed to it in writing.
- How is the deck attached to the house, and how is water kept out of that joint?
- This is the question that separates people who build decks from people who screw boards to houses. If the answer does not include flashing, ask a second time.
- What is the warranty, and is it written down?
- A verbal warranty is worth what it sounds like. Get the term and what it covers on paper, and keep the permit and the inspection record with it.
- Are the trades licensed, and will you show the paperwork?
- Any electrical or gas work on a deck is a licensed trade with its own permit. It is a fair question and the answer should be immediate.
Start with the drawing. The rest follows it.
It takes about four minutes and it makes every conversation after it shorter.