Adding A Deck To The House

Adding a deck to our house was an easy decision to make. It's a quick way to add extra space, and it's really nice to be able to just walk out there to grill or eat dinner. Kids like being able to run out on the deck while mom or dad is in the kitchen or whatever. We don't need to go into detail why you might want a deck. I just want to make a quick post about our deck since I'm going to be out of town for a while and I'm not sure if I'll be able to write anything else for a while.

We looked at lots of options when getting ready to build our deck. Did we want wood, synthetic, or something in between? Did we want stairs down to our back yard? Where should we buy the material? These are just the big ones. Of course, when you decide on any of them, there are all sorts of sub-decisions to make.

Ultimately, we decided to go with Trex decking, because we really wanted it to be maintenance free. Even though we like to do things on our own, we're pretty lazy when it comes to upkeep or prevention.

We also decided not to put stairs on the deck. Much of this decision was actually because of our inability to make a decision about how we wanted our stairs to be. We considered a conventional stairway, a two-tier stairway, one that wrapped around the side of the house, etc. Well, we finally decided that we could put stairs on later if we really thought we needed them. It turns out, though, that I really think we made the right decision. Pets and kids can be let out by themselves on the deck without worrying that they might fall or run away. It's rather convenient, and it saved lots of time and money.

So, we had our design down. Yeah, it was real interesting, a rectangle. We had to decide where to buy the material. We wanted to go with a local lumber company, but it turned out that Home Depot was cheaper for a lot of it. Ultimately, we split the purchase and got some from the local guy and the rest from Home Depot.

My parents helped us build it. You can see my dad working in the above photograph. Our neighbor even pitched in for a while. It was actually a rather fun project. A deck really goes up quickly. It's not like finishing a basement (which we'll get to some other day). With the maintenance-free decking, you just put up the deck structure and then put the Trex decking on it. It's all cutting and nailing/screwing. There's no taping, carpeting, painting, filling, etc. to deal with. You just put it up and it's functional.

I don't know what else to say for now. Please let me know if you have any questions about adding a deck.