Decks and patios
New builds, rebuilds on sound frames, and the patios beside them. The board you walk on is the last thing that matters: a deck lives or dies on its footings, its frame and the flashing where it meets your house.
Frame and surface are two different jobs
Every deck is really two builds. The frame is the structure: footings, posts, beams, joists and the connection to the house. The surface is the finish: the boards and railings you actually see. Most of the decisions people agonize over live at the surface, and most of the failures live in the frame. We price and build them as what they are, and a quote from us reads that way.
It also means an old deck is not always a full rebuild. If the frame is sound and the footings are right, new boards and railings on the existing structure is an honest job and a much smaller one. We will tell you which you have after crawling under it, not before.
Footings, frost and the ledger
The frost line in central Ohio sits around 32 inches down, and every footing goes below it. A post set shallow rides up and down with the freeze and thaw each winter, and a deck on shallow footings slowly racks itself apart. This is also the part of the job the county inspects with the holes still open, which suits us fine.
The other place decks kill houses is the ledger, the board that bolts the deck to the house. Done right, it is bolted to the structure and flashed so water runs out and over. Done wrong, it traps water against the rim joist of your house, and rot works on it quietly for years behind the siding. When a deck collapses, the ledger is usually the reason; when a house wall rots behind a deck, the flashing is. It is the least visible detail on the whole build and the one we care about most.
On the surface question: composite costs more up front and asks almost nothing of you afterward. Pressure-treated wood costs less up front and wants cleaning and sealing on a schedule to stay looking like anything. Neither is wrong. It is a question of whether you would rather pay once or maintain forever, and we build both.
How a build runs
- Design, quote and permit Size, height, surface and railing choices, in writing with a drawing. Attached and raised decks need a permit in most central Ohio municipalities, and we pull it.
- Footings dug and inspected Below the frost line, sized for the load, and looked at by the inspector while the holes are still open.
- The frame goes up Posts, beams and joists, with the hardware the span tables ask for. This is the build; everything after it is finish.
- The ledger is flashed Bolted to the structure of the house and flashed so water sheds out over it, not behind it. The detail nobody sees and everything depends on.
- Surface, railings, final inspection Boards down, railings on, and the final sign-off. Anything 30 inches or more off the ground gets a guardrail because code says so, and because gravity does too.
The frame is the build
What people ask before building
Do I need a permit for a deck?
Usually, yes. Attached decks and anything raised generally need one in the municipalities around Columbus, and the footing inspection that comes with it is genuinely on your side. We handle the paperwork and the inspector; you do not have to think about either.
Composite or wood?
Composite costs more up front and then leaves you alone: no sealing, no staining, no splinters. Pressure-treated wood is cheaper up front and wants maintenance every couple of years to stay presentable. Over the life of the deck the gap is narrower than the day-one prices suggest. We quote both so you can see it in numbers.
Can you put new boards on my existing deck?
If the frame deserves them. We check the footings, the joists and above all the ledger before saying yes. New boards on a rotten frame is money thrown at the wrong half of the deck, and we will not sell it to you.
How long does a deck take to build?
The permit is usually the longest wait. Once we start, a typical residential deck is days rather than weeks, with the footing inspection in the middle. You get the sequence in writing before we dig.
Deck or patio?
A flat yard, doors at ground level: a patio is simpler and there is less to maintain. A raised door line or a sloping yard is what decks are for. Plenty of houses end up with a deck at the door stepping down to a patio, and that pairing is often the right answer.
Other things we do
Where we work
Start with a drawing and a number
Tell us about the yard and the door line, and we will come out, measure, and put the whole build in writing: frame, surface, railings and the permit.