Decks and patios
Build your deck before we build your deck.
Pick the shape, the boards, the railing and the extras. The drawing updates as you go, the price range follows, and one button sends the whole thing to us for a walkthrough.
Start from one of ours
This order (one piece or several)
What it isan open deck, a porch under a roof, or a boot room with walls and a second door
Boot room walls
Where it sits (off the main floor, or a second-storey door)
Up to 7½ in below the door needs no step. Lower than that gets a landing at the door with steps down — and, when the deck has ramps, a ramp up to the door along the house wall; a lower deck means a shorter ramp from the ground.
Shape
Material
Colour
Size
Floor
Board pattern
Railing
Steps and ramp (the deck is the top landing, the grass the bottom one)
Experiment: the stairs & ramps designer — configurations with counts and preferences instead of these toggles.
Steps style (a landing lets long stairs fold back or turn the corner)
Ramp style
Leaves from
Runs
Lower level (the tier off the front)
Ramp style
Leaves from
Runs
Upper level
Steps style
Ramp style
Leaves from
Runs
Ramp settings (for every ramp on this deck)
Slope (1:12 is the barrier-free standard; steeper is shorter)
Gap between the ramp and the deck
Canopy
Upgrades
110 V receptacles (every deck gets the ones on the house wall; these are extra, on the railing posts)
Hot tub
Size
Where (any corner, or the wrap-around; a ramp that needs that corner moves the tub to the next free one)
Elevation (rim against the deck surface)
Foundation
Access panel (to reach the pump and heater)
Power
Heat
Water
Enclosure
Gas BBQ (supply and preferred spot)
Preferred location
What’s in the number
The extras worth knowing about
The parts most deck companies don’t mention.
We build houses for a living, so we think about water, weight and weather before we think about board colour. These decide whether you still love the deck in year eight.
Under-deck water management
A trough under the boards catches the rain and sends it to one downspout. The ground underneath stays dry instead of washing away, and the space below stays usable.
Slatted canopy
Shade that moves with the sun and lets the heat out. For people who want light, not a roof.
Clear roof
Polycarbonate panels: dry in a downpour, bright on a grey day. Snow slides, light doesn’t.
A ramp that hugs the deck
The default. A level platform flush with the deck, a lane running down tight against the fascia, a landing at each corner no wider than the ramp itself, and on along the next edge to grade. If the edges run out before the ramp does, it folds back one lane further out. Set the slope (1:12 unless you say otherwise) and any gap you want between the ramp and the deck.
Folded beside the deck
Two lanes and a landing folded against one side of the deck. The smallest footprint for a full-height ramp; pick it on purpose under Ramp style.
Folded off the front
Leaves the front edge, turns at a landing, and comes back to grade beside itself. Where a ramp lands on the stairs’ spot, the stairs move to the next free edge — the ramp is never the one that gives way.
Bi-level: the tier is the landing
On a two-height deck the upper level’s ramp is a mini ramp on the lower tier, running along the front of the upper deck; the tier is its landing and the tier’s own ramp hugs the tier down to grade. The tier widens, or the mini ramp folds once, to make it fit. Pick Bi-level above and tick a ramp.
Hot tub set into the deck
Sunk so the rim is seat height, on its own pad under the deck, with a hatch or a skirt door to reach the pump. The tub needs a 240 V circuit and, if it’s gas-heated, a gas line — licensed trades, permit likely; we arrange both.
Hot tub beside the deck
On a stone or concrete pad off the edge, reached from a platform at deck height. Cheaper than a cut-out, easier to service, and you can put a roof over just the tub.
Gas line to the BBQ
A quick-connect outlet where you actually cook, fed from the house. No more propane runs. If there’s a line already, we build around it.
A boot room on the house
The same deck framing, with a roof off the house wall and walls around it — screened for summer, or insulated and finished with a sealed floor for a real second door on the winter side. Pick Boot room under What it is. Put one at the front door and an open deck at the back in the same order.
A porch
A roof on posts over the whole deck, draining away from the house, open on every side. Dry chairs, dry firewood, and the same stairs and railing as any deck.
A deck off the second storey
Tall posts and engineered beams off a second-floor door, with stairs that fold back on a landing, run along the side of the deck and round its corners, or turn in a 5½ ft spiral at the edge — so they don’t march across the yard. A ramp to a second storey needs about 120 ft of run, so ask us about a lift instead.
How high is the deck, really?
Most decks sit a couple of feet up, a few inches below the door pan — two steps to the grass, and a ramp of 15–20 ft, not 36. Set the door’s height and how far below it the deck sits under Where it sits. If the door is high, set the deck lower: a short ramp up to the door on the deck beats a long one across the yard.
Bring the drawing. We’ll bring the tape.
Walkthroughs are free and take about an hour.