deck prices

[4extreme]

Anyone on here just get a backyard deck built? Nothing to fancy just a 13`x 12`deck with railing and steps, just enough room for a bbq and a small table. I was quoted a price and can`t believe how much. What did you guys pay for your deck?

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by 4extreme

Anyone on here just get a backyard deck built? Nothing to fancy just a 13`x 12`deck with railing and steps, just enough room for a bbq and a small table. I was quoted a price and can`t believe how much. What did you guys pay for your deck?

What were you quoted, around $4k? I just built a deck for a guy, 516sqft and used brown treated wood, it came out to $8700 all in. I think most guys are charging in the $25-$35 per sqft range though.

[bessiedog]

Holy!!!

I used to build 12x14 basic decks w/railings for $100 profit. Customer provides materials..... but that was the early '90s..... no stairs..... stairs were extra.. and I'd cut the steps in and everything.... none of them crap prebuilt steps.. yech!


I been out of the business for a while..... but if you lived close to me... I'd do it for alot cheaper than that... you gotta source the materials and have them on hand.

and provide beerz

[Ken07AOVette]

Go to Rona on Wednesdays, get yourself a contractor card, and you are the contractor because you are doing the work.

I built a 28x12 deck last year with composite decking and 1" oc spacing.

Do it yourself, lots of video's on youtube and tons of online information on how to do it.

[EZM]

Building a deck is likely one of the easiest do it yourself projects you can do. A deck this size should take a couple days to do and you are likely to get all your materials for 25% of the cost of your quote.

The only thing I might hire out is having a guy come on and drill some holes for the posts - that would be about it. The rest of it can be done over a weekend or two and you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

If you don't have the time, skill set or willingness to do it yourself then, unfortunately, you will be paying quite a bit to get it built.

[250mark1]

just built a 20x12 deck just above ground level
all in material was just under $1200.00 all brown pressure treated
no railings or stairs

[4extreme]

Originally Posted by EZM

Building a deck is likely one of the easiest do it yourself projects you can do. A deck this size should take a couple days to do and you are likely to get all your materials for 25% of the cost of your quote.

The only thing I might hire out is having a guy come on and drill some holes for the posts - that would be about it. The rest of it can be done over a weekend or two and you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

If you don't have the time, skill set or willingness to do it yourself then, unfortunately, you will be paying quite a bit to get it built.

i can do it but was thinking of having someone else do it. I didnt realize prices were that high for decks. Well its off to the lumber yard.

[Dean2]

Check around for other quotes. Material is $1500 at the outside. Two men for two days should cost about $1600 at the outside. I just had quotes on some work in the house, exact same job, same material, ranged from $19,000 to $3,500, all fully licensed, WCB covered and insured contractors. Guy we ended up using was $4,800, did an absolutely super job and this was after upgrading to higher quality materials than we originally specified. The variation in quotes is truly amazing.

If you want to do it yourself you can probably higher a Journeyman carpenter to help you for $35 an hour cash without nay problems. I know a few tradesman doing that kind of work because regular jobs are so scarce.

[HunterDave]

I built 3 ground level decks last week 24'9" x 12' pressure treated using only screws (no nails).........$2K each. Materials was less than $1K so I think that my profit was pretty good for one day of work. Avoid contractors and find a handyman that's out of work or retired to build it.

[Ken07AOVette]

If you do end up doing it yourself and want a wood deck use shadow track or similar units that go in from underneath, not a single nail hole in the wood. Doubles or more the life of the deck.
Better yet, go with composite.

[Cement Bench]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

I built 3 ground level decks last week 24'9" x 12' pressure treated using only screws (no nails).........$2K each. Materials was less than $1K so I think that my profit was pretty good for one day of work. Avoid contractors and find a handyman that's out of work or retired to build it.

you are going to get a lot of work my friend

and the discount for AO members is .......

if you travel 2 hours away you will be busy

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Cement Bench

you are going to get a lot of work my friend

Not to mention, he's a stand-up guy, too!

[jungleboy]

Had a guy do a 8 x 24 ground level deck with steps and landing on the front of our house last yr including a concrete sidewalk about 18’ cost me $5000. And that was a friend price. Two guys 4 days including prep work and waiting for footings to set, if I remember correctly.

[ZJHoban]

I'm a framer by trade, I do mostly townhouses, with few single family and duplexes thrown in to fill voids in work.
I'm not sure on material costs, since we typically only supply labour and fasteners.
Deck framing on its own, with 5/4 or 2x6 treated screwed down with tested screws would be around $6/sq ft. Railings and stairs additional. Lots of variables in railing cost.

At $6/sqft that is a bare house with no siding reno or waterproofing aside from house wrap behind ledger.

Good luck on the search
You can pm me if you have any questions

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by 4extreme

i can do it but was thinking of having someone else do it. I didnt realize prices were that high for decks. Well its off to the lumber yard.

You in Calgary? I quoted out my deck and ended up going with Maverick Decks and it has been a very good deck. They even had it inspected and the city inspector require additional pilings at no cost even though the old deck was built with less.

Used engineered decking. Great stuff with zero maintenance.

[Outbound]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

I built 3 ground level decks last week 24'9" x 12' pressure treated using only screws (no nails).........$2K each. Materials was less than $1K so I think that my profit was pretty good for one day of work. Avoid contractors and find a handyman that's out of work or retired to build it.

I've been planning a deck build. I can't do it myself for $2K. Right now I'm budgeting about $4K - $5K to do it myself including railings, stairs and screw piles since it's not ground level.

[Bonescreek]

I have a treated wood deck I built myself about 25' x 25' material
cost was about 2500.00 including fancy post caps at 10.00 each.
This was over 12 years ago.
But after installing Trex decking for other people I found a big difference
between the Trex and the wood. Materials not installation cost.
About 6 years after I built my wood deck I was working for a contractor
and we installed several Trex decks for customers.
Turns out the Trex is made of compressed recycled trash bags so the
cost is below min. for raw mateirals to make them then they change
2.5 times the cost of wood to sell them based upon the reason ..
'You never need to repaint or replace them unlike wood."
And they are right about that.
What they don't tell you is they warp and melt and sag and most
important will burn the skin right off your feet if you step on them
when exposed to direct sun light.

If the makers of Trex suggested or required a roof to be installed
to shade the deck boards for safety and warrenty then they would
have been ahead of the curve. But they didn't

So be aware Trex sounds good as a deck option but has side effects.

If you need to replace a single deck board Trex 12 or 16' long the
man will ask you for 40.00 bill. Mighty expensive recycled garbage
bags right there.

That's not how it's supposed to work I support recycling but just
like I posted above goes on same as the batteries, and solar power
etc.

People are muck quicker to abuse it than try to make it work.

[HVA7mm]

I rebuilt my mother-in-law's front/rear deck on her bungalow style condo about 4 years ago. Not big around 300 sq ft total. Tore out rotten old original spruce structure/decking, rebuilt structure with pressure treated and put down 5/4x6 cedar decking. All decking screwed down, aluminum railing and stringers, and low voltage deck lighting. (Existing railing was like new so I re-used it), and total material was under $2k, and 3 or so days of work. I think she was quoted between $7 and $8k for composite.

She now decided she would rather have composite decking, so some re-decking coming up, at least the structure is almost new.

Plus I'll have some nice cedar decking for the wife's planters that she wants me to build.

[Bonescreek]

When I rebuilt my deck I used what I could of the old deck boards to
frame in my chicken run to the hen house.



I put chicken wire on the inside and dog wire on the outside.

Still it was not cheep.

Here's the deck..

[4extreme]

Originally Posted by ZJHoban

I'm a framer by trade, I do mostly townhouses, with few single family and duplexes thrown in to fill voids in work.
I'm not sure on material costs, since we typically only supply labour and fasteners.
Deck framing on its own, with 5/4 or 2x6 treated screwed down with tested screws would be around $6/sq ft. Railings and stairs additional. Lots of variables in railing cost.

At $6/sqft that is a bare house with no siding reno or waterproofing aside from house wrap behind ledger.

Good luck on the search
You can pm me if you have any questions

Thanks for the info

[-JR-]

guy next door build a wood deck , next following year most of the boards split.
All came from home depo

Stay away from wood.

[Bonescreek]

2nd on that. Don't buy lumber from HomeDepot or Lowes get it hand
picked yourself from a local lumber yard that's what I did.
My deck is 16 years old and am looking to get another 3 to 5 years out
of it without problems.

[Bonescreek]

Just thought about this if you want quality and be cost efficient at the
same time.

You pick and buy the materials yourself to know the quality is there
then call and get estimates from contractors to build/install it.

Then the contractors could offer up an best guest install price that
might sound really good compared to you digging the holes to set
the posts etc.

Wood or plastic has nothing to do with the above.

But the above is a major cost in building a deck.

[260 Rem]

Just finished a cedar deck and have 50pcs of tight knot 2 X 4 X 12’ surplus to my needs. Sell for what I paid $18.00 ea. Edmonton / Tofield