Decks · Charlotte, NC
The best room
in the house is
outside.
Designed, footed in concrete and built to code. Pressure-treated or composite — with a ledger that’s bolted and flashed, because that’s the part that decides whether a deck is safe in fifteen years.
What we build
New, rebuilt,
or rescued.
Not every deck needs to come down. Plenty of the ones we see have perfectly sound framing under a surface that’s twenty years past it — and plenty of gorgeous-looking decks are hanging off a ledger nailed to sheathing. We’ll open it up and tell you which one you’ve got.
New builds
Ground-up design and construction. Layout, footings, framing, decking, rail and stairs — built to code and signed off.
Resurface & rebuild
Sound frame, tired surface. Strip and replace boards and rail in composite or fresh timber for a fraction of a full rebuild.
Structural repair
Failed ledgers, rotten posts, sagging joists, wobbling rail. The unglamorous work that stops a deck becoming a news story.
Stairs & railings
Code-compliant rise and run, graspable handrail, baluster spacing under 4″. Wood, composite, aluminium or cable.
Pergolas & covers
Shade structures, roofed porches and screened rooms — so the deck is usable in July and in a Carolina downpour.
Clean, sand & stain
Wash, sand, replace failed boards and re-stain. The maintenance visit that adds a decade to a timber deck.
Materials
Three ways to build
the same deck.
The frame underneath is pressure-treated in all three cases. What changes is what you walk on and what you touch — and that’s where the money and the maintenance live.
Pressure-treated pine
$The workhorse. Cheapest way to get a solid, code-compliant deck. It will check and cup a little as it dries — that’s the material, not the build.
- Lifespan 10–15 yrs
- Upkeep Wash & re-stain every 2–3 years
Composite
$$$Wood flour and polymer, capped on the wear faces. No staining, no splinters, holds colour. Gets hot in full August sun and costs roughly double up front.
- Lifespan 25–30 yrs
- Upkeep Wash twice a year
PVC / cellular
$$$$No wood in it at all, so nothing to rot. Lightest, coolest underfoot of the synthetics, best around pools and screened porches. The premium option.
- Lifespan 30+ yrs
- Upkeep Wash twice a year
What’s under there
A deck is a
structure, not
a patio.
It carries people, furniture and sometimes a hot tub, several feet in the air, bolted to your house. Nearly every deck failure traces back to one of the seven things in this drawing.
- 1. Decking — gapped for drainage, fastened hidden or face-screwed square
- 2. Ledger — through-bolted to the rim joist and flashed. Never nailed to sheathing
- 3. Joists — sized and spaced for the span, in galvanised structural hangers
- 4. Beam — carrying the joists back to the posts, properly lapped and fastened
- 5. Posts — mechanically connected top and bottom, never just sitting there
- 6. Footings — concrete, below frost line, sized for the load above them
- 7. Rail — 36″ minimum residential, balusters under 4″ apart, posts blocked
How a deck gets built
Six stages.
Design & measure
We look at the door heights, the grade, the sun, where you actually want to sit, and how you’ll get from the kitchen to the grill. Then we draw it.
Layout & footings
String lines, batter boards, holes dug below frost line, concrete poured and left to cure before anything is built on top of it.
Ledger & frame
Siding opened, ledger through-bolted to the rim joist and properly flashed, beam set, joists hung in galvanised hangers, everything checked square and level.
Decking & stairs
Boards laid with consistent gapping, cuts aligned, stair stringers cut to code rise and run, treads fixed down solid with no bounce.
Rail & detail
Posts blocked and bolted, rail set at height, balusters spaced under 4″, fascia and skirt fitted, edges eased so nobody gets a splinter.
Handover
Site cleared, offcuts and screws swept out of the grass, and we walk it with you. Stain visit booked for when the timber’s dry.
Deck questions
Asked and answered.
Do I need a permit for a deck in Mecklenburg County?
Almost certainly yes. In North Carolina, decks attached to the house, decks over a certain height above grade, and anything with a roof over it require a building permit and inspections. Freestanding, low, small platforms sometimes don’t — but ‘sometimes’ is not something to gamble a house sale on.
The permit is pulled by the homeowner. We’ll prepare the drawings you need for the application and build to what gets approved, and we’ll work around the inspection schedule. An unpermitted deck becomes your problem at closing, five years later, when a buyer’s attorney finds it.
How much does a deck cost?
Every deck is quoted individually, because the things that move the number are all site-specific: square footage, how high it sits above grade, stairs, rail style, decking material, benches, lighting and screening.
We come out, measure, look at the grade and the ledger, and put a fixed number on paper before anything starts — itemised, so you can see what drives it.
Can you rebuild the deck I already have?
Often, and it can save you a lot. If the footings, posts and framing are sound, we can strip and replace just the decking and rail — a ‘resurface’. That gets you a composite surface for a fraction of a full rebuild.
What we won’t do is put a beautiful new surface on a frame that’s failing. We’ll open it up, show you the ledger and the joist hangers, and give you both numbers honestly.
How long does it take?
Permit turnaround in Mecklenburg is typically one to three weeks once you’ve applied. Once we’re on site, a standard deck is 4–8 working days: a day for layout and footings, an inspection wait, then framing, decking, rail and stairs. Screened porches and roofed structures run two to four weeks.
What’s the most common thing you find wrong with existing decks?
The ledger — the board bolting the deck to the house. Nailed instead of bolted, no flashing behind it, and water running down the back of it for fifteen years. It is the single most common cause of deck collapse, and it is invisible until somebody looks.
Second most common: joist hangers fixed with roofing nails or drywall screws instead of proper structural fasteners.
When can I stain a new pressure-treated deck?
Not immediately. New PT lumber is wet from the treatment process and needs to dry out — typically 3 to 6 months in our climate. Sprinkle water on it: if it beads, it’s not ready. We build it in, come back when it’s ready and stain it properly, and that visit gets scheduled at the time of the build.
Free estimates · Fully insured
Let’s draw
your deck.
Send a photo of the back of your house and rough dimensions. We’ll come out, talk through materials, and put a real number on it.