Websites for deck builders.

Under the Ontario Building Code, a deck more than 24 inches above the ground needs a building permit, and most municipalities also want one for any deck attached to the house regardless of height. Even a low deck has to respect your zoning setbacks and lot coverage. We prepare the drawings and site plan, submit them, and meet the inspector for the footing, framing and final inspections. Unpermitted decks are one of the things a buyer's lawyer catches at resale, so it is worth doing properly.

Pressure-treated is the value choice and lasts well if you seal it every couple of years. Cedar looks the best, resists rot naturally, and weathers to grey unless you oil it. Composite like Trex or TimberTech costs roughly two to three times the material price of treated lumber, but it never needs staining and carries a 25 to 50 year warranty, though the darker colours get hot in full sun. We will price two options side by side rather than push one.

In most of southern Ontario, footings go four feet below grade to get under the frost line, usually poured concrete in cardboard tube forms with a wider base. Helical piles are steel screw piles turned in with a machine, installed with a torque reading and an engineer's letter for the permit file. They go in the same day, involve no digging or concrete, and suit tight yards and soft ground. Either way, footings that stop short of frost depth are why old decks heave and their doors stop closing.

Once the deck surface is more than 24 inches above the ground, the Ontario Building Code requires a guard: 36 inches high for decks up to six feet off the ground and 42 inches above that, with no opening a four inch ball can pass through. Tempered or laminated glass panels are fine and keep the view. Horizontal cable railings are often refused by Ontario building departments because they can be climbed, so ask us before you fall in love with them.

Permit approval runs anywhere from a week to six weeks depending on the municipality and the season. Once we start, a typical backyard deck is one to two weeks of building, longer with a pergola, complicated stairs or glass railings. Spring books up early and composite colours can be on backorder, so the best time to get a quote is late winter if you want to be sitting on it by June.

Often, yes. If the joists, beams and posts are solid when we probe them and the footings have not heaved, new decking and railings on the old frame costs a fraction of a rebuild. If the ledger against the house is rotted, the joists are soft, or the frame was built with undersized lumber, resurfacing just puts new boards on a deck that is going to fail, and we will tell you so plainly.