How much should a deck cost?

[balloney]

I want to gat a deck on my home. I had a builder extimate the cost at $12,500. That's rediculous. I dont think it should cost more than $1000. How much do YOU think a deck should cost?

[Rob Mills]

[PhotoMan]

About a buck one ten.

[Larry Caldwell]

Somewhere between $15 and $50 per square foot, depending on how it is built and what it is built out of. Anything over 30 inches off the ground requires safety rails and a building permit. If you use maintenance free composite decking, that will add quite a bit of cost, as will stairways and handrails.

If you don't like your bids, you can always build it yourself.

[Donald Gares]

Hey, some go as high as a dollar three ninety eight! :-)

Don

[SteveB]

Could you please give us a hint? Dimensions? Materials? Height above ground?

Anything will help..............

Steve

[nicksanspam]

Stick-built on site? Prefab might help, eg

4'x8' panels that bolt to a frame system.

Can we walk on a 4' roll of 10 cent/f^2 2"x4" welded-wire fence stretched fairly tight on 4' centers, with another layer of fence beneath? Maybe something like this, not to scale...

fence

------------ \\ || / \\ || / fence ||

2x4

Nick

[Edwin Pawlowski]

School is out. Going to the 6th grade next year? Soon you will be old enough to m*******te. That will be more fun than trolling newsgroups.

[Larry Caldwell]

ROFL! Maybe you could roost on it, if you had feathers....

[nicksanspam]

If that's out, for psychological reasons, we might screw 1x3 and 2x4 spacers to 1/2" 4'x8' plywood, lay the fence over that, screw perimeter 1x3s over it, turn the panel over, and screw it to 4'x8' framing.

If each 0.081" wire can support 250 pounds, a 4'x8' piece with 24 wires and a 180 degree fold in the middle can support 2x24x250 = 12K pounds. A panel that's 3.5" deep in the center might support 12Kx3.5/48 = 875 pounds.

Nick

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sun 26 Jun 2005 09:39:10p, wrote in alt.home.repair:

Won't cost you a thing. There are plenty of us here that will gladly deck you for nothing!

[bambam]

Ken

[Dr. Hardcrab]

Around these here parts, the go fer a buck fitty.....

[balloney]

OK, I should have mentioned that.

I want it coming off the side of my house at gutter level, which is 18 feet above the ground, and attached to the gable end of the house. The present attic window will become the door. I plan to do the window to door conversion myself. The house is 26 feet wide so the deck will also be 26 feet wide. The deck will extend 60 feet away from the house. At which point, (because of the hill in back), the end of the deck will be 42 feet above ground level and will cross over my driveway. It will be built of all treated lumber and posts, with a railing on all sides except by the house gable, and a stairway will go down to the roof of my garage, then to the ground. The stairs will turn on the garage roof, allowing for an 8 foot square sub deck on that roof. It appears there will be a total of 29 to 32 steps. They told me the longest posts on the end need to be 48 feet long. $12,000 is rediculous !!!!

[SteveB]

1. Get other bids.
2. If you know so much, do it yourself.

Steve

[Mike Lewis]

Well, I'll bite, even if your pulling my leg. The volume of material for a deck that size is probably 7-8K alone ... let alone the labor cost.

48 feet above the ground!!!! What are you crossing ... a moat?

Mike

[kzinNOSPAM99]

based on his email address , and that whacky description of a deck that seems to be above the house I'd say this guy is just trolling.

If not, OP should present his plans to the local planning inspectors. Do it early on a Monday morning when they can really use a laugh.

ml

[Edwin Pawlowski]

The first time I saw you post I thought you were just a school kid trolling. If you think something like this can be built for $1000, I'm sure of it now.

[Mark]

Chances are if a builder quoted you that much, about 40-50% of it is materials.

Price it out yourself and then decide if the labor costs are worth it to you or just do it yourself.

[Stormin Mormon]

Should cost about $25, including the materials.

You feel better, now?