A deck is the cheapest square footage you will ever add to a house. No foundation, no roof, no heating – and in Louisville you get about seven months a year out of it. Here is how we plan one, and where the money actually goes.
Wood or composite
Pressure-treated pine is the cheapest way to get a deck on the ground, and it is still what most of our customers choose. It wants cleaning and re-sealing every couple of years, and in this climate a neglected board will cup and split inside a decade.
Composite costs more up front – usually somewhere between half again and double the material cost – and then asks almost nothing of you afterwards. No sealing, no splinters, no annual weekend with a pressure washer. If you plan to stay in the house, composite tends to win on the ten-year number. If you are selling in two years, it usually does not.
Footings are the part you cannot see
Everything that goes wrong with a deck five years later started underground. Kentucky frost depth means footings have to go below the frost line, and a post set in a shallow hole will heave through a cold winter and take the whole frame out of level with it.
We dig and pour proper footings, bracket the posts off the concrete rather than burying them, and flash the ledger where the deck meets the house. That ledger flashing is the single most common thing we find done badly on decks built by somebody else – water gets behind it, the rim joist rots quietly for years, and the repair costs more than the deck did.
Permits and setbacks
Most decks over 30 inches off the ground, and anything attached to the house, need a permit in Jefferson County. Setback rules decide how close you can build to a property line, and they differ between the city and the surrounding counties. We handle the permit as part of the job – it is not an optional extra and it is not a formality you want to skip, because an unpermitted deck becomes your problem at closing when you sell.
What actually moves the price
- Height off the ground. A ground-level deck is framing and boards. Anything that needs stairs, railings and taller posts costs significantly more.
- Stairs. Each flight is framing, treads, risers and railings. Two sets of stairs is not twice the deck, but it is not free either.
- Railings. Often ten to twenty per cent of the whole job. Black metal balusters cost more than wood and almost always look better.
- Shape. Rectangles are cheap. Angles, curves and wrap-arounds mean more cuts, more waste and more labour.
- Access. If we can get a truck near the build, the job goes faster. Carrying material through a narrow side gate adds hours.
When to build
Spring books up first, so people call in March for a deck they want in April and end up waiting. Autumn is the quietest season and the ground is usually easier to dig than it is in a wet spring. If you want a deck for next summer, the cheapest time to ask about it is now.
That pool deck had reached the end of its life: soft boards, rusted fixings, and a frame that was never flashed properly where it met the house. We took it back to the posts and rebuilt. You can see more finished work in our project gallery.
Related services
CAZUN Construction is a family-owned contractor working across Louisville, the surrounding Kentucky counties and Southern Indiana. Licensed, fully insured, and free estimates on every job. Call (502) 996-1474 or send us a message.
