How Much Does It Cost To Build A Deck? Pro Deck Builder Explains All || Dr Decks

Can you help me with the following:

I just purchased a few thousand dollars of decking from a local lumber chain in New England (not from a big box store).

The decking is: Culpeper ⁵⁄₄ x 4 x 12 ft. Southern Yellow Pine Premium Grade Pressure Treated Decking. Premium Grade, Radius Edge, knot free and wane free. Decking exterior grade micronized copper pressure treated southern yellow pine. Our decking is a better quality grade than either premium or No.1. Actual Size:1-1/16" X 3-1/2”

50% of what arrived has a severely damaged edge or no edge at all as it is smaller than dimension.

30% is stained with a black sooty material

20% has knots

50% of it is very heavy and wet, 50% is dry

Questions:

Is the yard trying to pass rejects on to me because I am a home owner and not a contractor or is the quality of lumber just extremely poor right now? (I called, the yard will take the bad stuff back and bring me replacements)

How do I space the boards if 50% are WET and 50% are dry? (I was assuming 1/16” spacing for wet PT boards).

Thank you!

Way too low. What about the railing and stairs?

How much will be the labor if its done by the contractor? The same size plus with railing and lights quoted at 25k

You gave a break-down in material for this deck at give-or-take $22/sq. ft. How about the labor costs / sq.ft. on your example deck (which really is the most expensive part of the deck these days)

$100 per sq ft all day long for a high quality deck. No cheaping out.

That's a little low I think. I'm thinking that number plus the 3k in decking material. Also, the permit cost, any tool rental costs if you DIY. I'd figure 10k is a safe budget number if you DIY high quality manufactured decking, because waste will be up on someone doing it themselves too.

Labor costs are what people need to know. Anyone can tally up material costs.

Last year in California a 10’x14’ and a 15’x40’ redwood cost around 30k all in for me

Hum
I use to do a break down and mental walk through, found a faster way $21 square foot, for single level say 4 ft off the ground with guard rail and one set of steps, and pressure treated or cedar. I use 2 x12 double beans and go one up for,\m IRC they want a say 3x8 i go 2x10 incase and 4x4 post every 6ft on the guardrail with lag bolts 2 per post.
Composite just sucks especially when the homeowner buys the el cheapo from a Walmart like center. boards were cheap the fasteners were horrible break off strip out or wear the driver tip.

Building a 16x16 ft deck pressure treated(wood, accessories, some tools $1000) and trex basic composite($1400 delivered). I think I will end up at $2500 in CA. Thats about $10/sqft . Can you go up ? sure this is DIY cost for first timer.

So expensive nowadays that when it comes time to replace my ground floor deck I've decided to switch to a raised patio with concrete pavers. Less maintenance, no critters/insects/giant spiders under the deck and less worry when wife decides to drag patio furniture/exercise equipment across surface. $126 a board for composite? gtfo, it's all slick marketing, hedging for future warranty claims and probably industry collusion.

Hey Dr, I also use a solid pice for my fascia, when I enclose the bottom and run vertical,, i run the pieces thru my jointer with a helical head and it sets the.. in a 1/8 of an inch..gives a nice look

My deck is 16 x 40ft and I used all of the videos from Dr. Decks to build it. Deck is 10 feet off the ground and I used EPDM pond liner, Trex decking/railing, which I again learned from the Dr.

All in it cost me 13k to build but was a lot of hard work. No leaks and I’m extremely happy with the results as the underneath patio is waterproof. Can’t thank Dr. Decks enough for all the informational videos!

Here in Montreal region of Canada finished a 16’ x 12 deck, using Timbertech capped composite, 3 x screw in type footings, three 2 x 10 laminated for bean and 2” x 10” x 12’ long joists 12” on centre and 4 cascading steps off the corner. Alll in about 13k with me doing all the work (except for screw piles). Thought I would knock it out in 2 weeks. Took me more like 6 weeks. The cascading stairs alone took me a week. Very happy with the result, writing this as I take it easy sitting on it now.
Dr. Decks, love the channel, have learned a lot and just fun to watch with no B.S. to, sort through. Keep up the good work.

That is very cheap, not here in MA. We go 4-500$ a footing and that’s to dig and pour 12”x48” footings. Rough terrain out here and an timbertech azek deck board is about 100$ plus a piece and a 2x10 PT 16 ft joist is 40/50$ a piece. A normal 16x20 can run 40-60 K that’s with all top tier materials but still.

Fascia boards are really expensive. I use a cut down 4.5" pine deck board at the top, with a strip of Hardiplank cement siding underneath, painted any color you need. I used black semi-solid stain on the pine deck board and semi-gloss black paint on the Hardi. Nice contrast. If the run is more than 12', I use rough cedar dividers. I round over all the exposed wood edges with a router and rabbet the backsides to hide the Hardi transitions.

thanks for this break down - well done. For my deck I just built myself, heres the breakdown.
28'x19' with 15 footings and 6x6 posts that sit on post brackets on top of concrete. The grade drops from right to left, varying in height from the deck from ~3' to up to 6'
grade prep, footings, concrete, etc was about $1.5k (concrete, sonotube, auger rental, landscaping fabric, 9 tons of gravel)
lumber was about $3k (100 or so 2x10s, 8 or so 4x4s and 8 or so 6x6s - plus a box or two of hurricane ties, joist hangers, post bases, beam-to-post connectors)
decking alone was about $3k (envision 'black walnut' decking w fascia boards)
railing was approx $3k (all black trex railing from lowes - 15 posts, 13 railing spans)
fasteners were really expensive imo, approx $1k i think...includes hidden fasteners for decking, fascia screws, joist hanger screws, hurricane tie screws, ledger board screws, screws for post connections, beams connections, blocking, hand rail connections and its blocking AND, most surprisingly, drill bits. I was SHOCKED to learn how poorly these T-15, T-20, T-25 bits can be. We chewed through several packs)
i think, all in, im about 13k down for it...this includes a few additional tools i picked up to help get the job done easier. Doesnt include the free labor i got from sone friends and the steaks theyll get in return or the beers/sodas they had while workin with me, the tools THEY brought, the furniture we still need to get for it, and the grills and grill accessories we got to place on the deck.
For me, $13k was well within budget as I had quotes of $48k and $39k from local (Nashville, TN area) contractors.

How much would you charge for labor? What would be your estimated total that you would give a customer for this 12x20 deck?

I’ve made it real simple. I do very small decks, 8-0 x 8-0 or under, with stairs and railings usually under 4-0 high. Double the cost of materials.

I am a little confused. I think you are in Washington State. I have the latest building codes for decks from Washington State. These building codes require 60psf live load and 10 psi dead load. I have no idea how you came up with only 3 posts. I assume the 20' length is against the house and that you are running 12' joists with a 2' cantilever. This would make the joist length to the center of the beam 10'. Under Washington State codes you could use 2 x 8 s for your joists if you run them 14"OC( borderline) or 12"OC. So far so good. However, since you said that the length is 20' with 2' cantilever on each side. This would make the beam span 16'. The max beam span length for a 4 x 8 beam is 5' 3" for a joist span of 10'. You would need 4 posts not 3. With only 3 posts that would make the beam span 8' which would require 6 x 10 beams, not 4 x 8. T. Please correct me if am wrong. I have spent a lot of time reviewing these codes.

Did you not mention your labor costs or were you quoting from a DIY perspective?

Seems like you never have enough screws and nails! Truss screws, galvanized nails, composite screws at $55 a box, you use that $800 number, and people will think you're crazy! Unfortunately, that's probably even a conservative guesstimate.

That $5000 is just on materials alone correct? No labour?

I just finished building a 12x14 deck with stairs. Cheaper composite boards, some cladding on the outer edge, and PVC + steel railing kits and it was about 10k doing it all myself and I already had the tools. 3 posts and also supported by the house. Initial estimated material costs were about $8,000 from Menards and with hardware and such as I went I assume another 1-2k

Picked up 2 6x6 x8 foot posts today
S4S western red cedar, clear grade
$1127.92
Bay Area california

I just wrapped up replacing the deck I built 25 years ago. It was a 16’x20’ with stairs down to a 12’x12’ with 75’ of walkways. I had to cut it into pieces and carry it to my dump trailer in the front of the house due to access. I replaced it all including the flashing with a 12’x16’ with stairs going down to a paver stone patio. It took me about 8 months of spare time including the patio. My wife told me she thought I would tear it all down in one weekend and have the new deck built by the next weekend. 😂

Tools are a cost for most DIY folks too

Damn can I just pay u in iou😂😂😂😂

Where are you that you have a hoodie and jacket on?

Ha ha. That number is comical. I am writing this as a home owner. I wish it were that cheap. I would hire you right away if you were in MA.

Custom deck projects are closer to $100 a square foot.

When did you speak on the labor cost? Seems like the $5000 was just materials based on the way you broke it down.

Brother , You Don't know how much grief you have saved me in "SPLAINING" this to the CUSTOMER!!!.........🤣😂🤣😂🤣

First comment hey big deck sir hello I love your big deck energy. Nice video captain big deck