Getting a deck built - materials and price input wanted

[Gunslinger08]

We've decided to have a deck built and I want to be sure we're not making the wrong decision on materials or paying too much. I'm thinking about doing 24' wide by 16' out. I have a walkout basement, so the deck will be about 8 to 9 feet off of the ground.

I'm thinking that we'll get composite decking material (Trex) for low maintenance and no splinters. I've heard from several people that composite railing is really expensive, so I think we'll probably get pressure treated railing with composite top rail. Anybody have input on this?

I'm really not sure what type of prices to expect. I'm getting several quotes. The first one is a little over $10k, but I'm not sure how that compares to the standard.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Will you have stairs from the ground level? If not, $10k sounds pretty high.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Will you have stairs from the ground level? If not, $10k sounds pretty high.

Sorry, forgot that. Yes, stairs straight down (no landings).

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Sorry, forgot that. Yes, stairs straight down (no landings).

That may be in the ballpark albeit at the high end then.

 

[Zebo]

Trex is nasty. Maybe no splinters but too flexible, get slippery when wet, looks like shit and costs 3x as much. I can buy a lot of linseed oil with that...like a couple lifetimes worth with labor to spray it on every 5 years.

I did whole area around house with trex and tore it out for wood which was around pool areas on second phase.

 

[MotF Bane]

1) Build it yourself, and save a fortune.
2) Synthetic decking materials look like shit.

 

[DrPizza]

Perfect do-it-yourself project. Most of it is time; labor is pretty simple. Not too difficult to research how to do the job right. Wild guess - 50% of the quoted cost is in labor.

edit: Tip: spend an hour or two watching how-to videos on youtube. You can decide for yourself if you can handle the job or not.

 

[MotF Bane]

Perfect do-it-yourself project. Most of it is time; labor is pretty simple. Not too difficult to research how to do the job right. Wild guess - 50% of the quoted cost is in labor.

edit: Tip: spend an hour or two watching how-to videos on youtube. You can decide for yourself if you can handle the job or not.

Looks like a good guess. The Trex alone is going to be around a quarter of that figure. Then the banisters, railings, staircase, concrete, supports, joists... yeah, 50% for labor sounds like a very good estimate to me.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Perfect do-it-yourself project. Most of it is time; labor is pretty simple. Not too difficult to research how to do the job right. Wild guess - 50% of the quoted cost is in labor.

edit: Tip: spend an hour or two watching how-to videos on youtube. You can decide for yourself if you can handle the job or not.

Yeah, I said that about 6 months ago. I'm sure I could do it with the help of my friends and family. My brother built one with his friend over the summer. I think I've just realized I'm never going to get motivated to do it myself. I'd rather spend the money and have the 50-100 hours of research, prep, construction, and cleanup time to do other things when I'm off from work.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I built a patio cover on the back of my house about 10 years ago. It is about 12' x 10' and 10' off the ground. It took me a month to complete from start to finish working on it after work and weekends. I designed it and built it all from plans in my head, primed and painted it all myself. Cost was probably around $1000 in materials...no stairs though and no railing or walking on the top of it. The top is just 2" x 2" x 12' spaced 2" apart with a sun screen beneath it to give us more natural and even shade in the afternoon.

I just repainted it last summer for the first time...it needed it but it is still in great shape and no termites!!! Knock wood.

 

[MotF Bane]

Yeah, I said that about 6 months ago. I'm sure I could do it with the help of my friends and family. My brother built one with his friend over the summer. I think I've just realized I'm never going to get motivated to do it myself. I'd rather spend the money and have the 50-100 hours of research, prep, construction, and cleanup time to do other things when I'm off from work.

Do it next summer (you don't want to be trying concrete in winter), maybe around Memorial Day, take four days vacation from work, end up giving yourself nine days, and build the deck. It shouldn't take any longer than that.

If you insist on having it built, $10000 does not seem entirely unreasonable. About half of that goes to materials, half to labor - and figure you're paying two to four guys for their time and expertise to build the deck.

 

[Moonbeam]

I don't need a deck any more. Windows has solitaire.

 

[DrPizza]

Yeah, I said that about 6 months ago. I'm sure I could do it with the help of my friends and family. My brother built one with his friend over the summer. I think I've just realized I'm never going to get motivated to do it myself. I'd rather spend the money and have the 50-100 hours of research, prep, construction, and cleanup time to do other things when I'm off from work.

Just do it evenings and weekends during the spring. A couple hours here & a couple hours there & you'll have it done in no time.

 

[Greenman]

Trex isn't a good choice. My favorite of the month is Evergrain. Reasonable cost, tough as nails. Dreamdex is another material that looks promising.
For rails I've been using powder coated steel with a wood cap. Low cost, easy to install and very nice looking. Think about using hidden fasteners, they add around $1.50 a foot to material cost, but the look can't be beat.

 

[DrPizza]

I've seen a couple of decks with the hidden fasteners... If I had to build another deck, that's the way I'd go. (My back door is too low for a deck; had to go with a patio.)

 

[MotF Bane]

I've seen a couple of decks with the hidden fasteners... If I had to build another deck, that's the way I'd go. (My back door is too low for a deck; had to go with a patio.)

Have one of those, about a 300 sq. ft. deck. Not impressed with the fasteners, they felt gimmicky, only getting two specially shaped drill bits was annoying, and then the decking looks terrible at the end. Give me a properly built wooden deck any day.

 

[ric0chet06]

Another one here against trex, looks like shit after the first year and is generally a really lousy product. I'd recommend some redwood decking, I think Home Depot carries some for around 99 cents a foot every once in a while. That's what we used in this small version of our deck design:

 

[Greenman]

Have one of those, about a 300 sq. ft. deck. Not impressed with the fasteners, they felt gimmicky, only getting two specially shaped drill bits was annoying, and then the decking looks terrible at the end. Give me a properly built wooden deck any day.

Sounds like you used the wrong fasteners. There are several different verity's on the market, selecting the proper fastener for your application is very important. Instillation of hidden fasteners can also be challenging if you've never done it before. They add cost and labor to a deck, but the finished product is far more attractive than looking at rows of nails.

 

[Greenman]

Another one here against trex, looks like shit after the first year and is generally a really lousy product. I'd recommend some redwood decking, I think Home Depot carries some for around 99 cents a foot every once in a while. That's what we used in this small version of our deck design:

99 cent redwood is construction common grade. I've never used it on a deck and doubt I ever will. It's an inferior material and looks it, large lose knots, sap wood, splits and slash grain are all allowed in con common. It doesn't make any sense to use the poorest materials available.

 

[herm0016]

you could use the vinyl railing systems. they hold up very well.

 

[MotF Bane]

Sounds like you used the wrong fasteners. There are several different verity's on the market, selecting the proper fastener for your application is very important. Instillation of hidden fasteners can also be challenging if you've never done it before. They add cost and labor to a deck, but the finished product is far more attractive than looking at rows of nails.

The fasteners came with the boards, so they were definitely the right type for those ones. The finished product looks far worse than rows of nails, because of how crappy the synthetic decking looks.

 

[Greenman]

The fasteners came with the boards, so they were definitely the right type for those ones. The finished product looks far worse than rows of nails, because of how crappy the synthetic decking looks.

That's a shame. I never even imply to my clients that synthetic decking will look like wood. The entire point of using them is that they aren't wood, and aren't subject to some of the problems wood is prone too. That's the first decision in building a deck, if it has to look like wood, then wood is what you use. I've found a lot of people like the composite materials once they get over the idea that it needs to look like wood.

 

[MotF Bane]

That's a shame. I never even imply to my clients that synthetic decking will look like wood. The entire point of using them is that they aren't wood, and aren't subject to some of the problems wood is prone too. That's the first decision in building a deck, if it has to look like wood, then wood is what you use. I've found a lot of people like the composite materials once they get over the idea that it needs to look like wood.

Yeah, I suppose a lot of it is an opinion on the appearance of it. I want it to look like wood. Given the application though - an uncovered deck on a New Hampshire vacation house - the material did make sense.

 

[alkemyst]

composites are still the way to go. most that bash them really can't afford them or install them incorrectly.

 

[Greenman]

The price of most composites is very competitive with Redwood. I've used Trex (I don't like it all), two different kinds of Timbertech, EverGrain, and one other I can't remember the name of, all were in the same price range. I've used a lot of "deck grade" Redwood. It's generally heart B selected for one good surface. A yard around here sells clear Red Ceder, it's beautiful, but almost to fragile for a deck.