Anyone recommend a deck builder in the Ankeny area that could do some additions to an existing deck? Thoughts on price, quality, etc
TIA
TIA
Deck Addition
- Thread starter larrysarmy
- Start date
If you pay to have it done you can expect to pay $40-$70 per sq/ft depending on how elaborate you want it.
One of my buddies from high school and college does a lot of this type of stuff. He just started a company called Cutler Construction about a year ago. I'm sure he would do it for less than some big companies. PM me if you want more details.
Miller Construction just finished my deck last week. Ours is almost 6 ft off the ground 22 ft wide and 12 ft out from the house. Here is a photo:
Is that Miller Construction, or Gene Miller Construction out of Newton?
If decks are made near ground level, they are fairly simple to do. Take the time to go to Menards and plan/build your deck on one of their computers. If it is an elevated deck like shown above, it will probably be easier to have some hired to do it if you don't know what's going on.
If you build it yourself, it's going to take a little more time but you will be proud of what you have done and will take great pride in doing so. You can do it how you want, the quality you want, and even have lots of beers in doing so. If you have someone else do it, their expectations may not be the same as yours and you may get a sub-par quality deck that you will be questioning for the duration of having that deck. Their thinking is to get in there and get it done as fast as possible to make the most money.
Make sure you plan out which furniture, grill, hot-tub, etc. that you are going to be putting on the deck to make damn sure it isn't too small for what you want to accomplish.
Be creative! Decks can turn out amazing or they can be dull like a square deck that is 12x12 where the grill is fighting room with the deck furniture.
You may want to be careful there. I had a buddy who built his own deck a couple years back and used screws on the joist hangers instead of nails. The inspector made him take the whole thing apart and redo it, using nails! He wasn't even allowed to replace the screws with nails because the nails would't be adequate after the screws ad already created the holes in the wood.
So, make sure you know the local code requirements before you build, if you decide to do it yourself!
This doesn't suprise me at all. We always used nails when building the frame and main structure of the deck. Only time we used screws was when we put on the deck boards, rails and spindles.
Have you ever built a deck? Screws lack the shear and moment strength of nails, which is why you don't use them in joist hangers. ALWAYS use nails in joist hangers. Screws only out-perform nails when it comes to pull-out strength.
Use screws for your deckboards and stair treads, use nails for attaching your joists to your stringers, and use anchor bolts to attach your stringers to your posts.
