Mini Project: Deck

The yard demo and remodel ended up being quite a bit more expensive than originally anticipated. Combining that with the decision to go with a white vinyl picket fence over black chain link, and we needed to cut cost somewhere.

Enter my husband, Aric, and my uncle, Lee. They knew they could tackle the back deck. We vacillated between wanting to use real wood to stick with more authentic material for a 119-year-old house and bringing the deck into the 21st century by using composite. The composite material was more costly, but it didn’t have to be stained, painted, and protected every couple of years like a wood deck would be. My dad advised us, from experience with his dock, to go with composite and we did.

Aric designed the deck using software, printed out the plans, and literally mailed them to my uncle. He doesn’t have internet.

The materials costed about $2,500. Do you know how expensive screws are?! Decks and Docks delivered them to the house, and my uncle Lee came down one weekend in November.

Day 1 was dedicated to pouring the concrete and setting the piers. Day 2 was dedicated to the structure, and Day 3 was for installing the actual deck. Those were three very long days, but overall, it was worth it. The deck is very durable, looks great, and didn’t cost us as much as if we’d gone with an outside company to do it.