home before deck design

You want to build a deck, but, how big? What Shape should it be?

It can be any shape you want, but, will it fit the home?  Will it blow up your budget? 

To determine what the perfect deck is we need a little bit of information first

  • What is the budget?  This will give us options for size and type of materials. If the homeowner has a budget of 50k, a big PVC Azek deck just isn’t in the cards. These folks opted to use Pressure Treated Decking for a bigger footprint at a smaller budget. 
  • The direction of the home– will it be in the shade most of the day?  Will it be windy? That all depends on what is surrounding the home and the direction of the wind. Generally in North America, we have a prevailing easterly wind. 
  • We need to know a little about the person, their tastes, and style. A quick walk through the inside of the home and the designer can pick up on that person’s style. 
  • Are there features that the clients want to include, even if it needs to be staged? These need to be planned for. If they want to add a hot tub at some point, the placement needs planning so that that section of the deck has a higher weight capacity.  If they regularly host large parties, then, they will obviously need more space for more furniture. 

Having a real representation of the home during the design is of utmost importance. This is what the home looks like– You will see in the renderings that we modeled it pretty much to scale. 

deck design before

This deck was designed for a contractor that we work with in Connecticut and we rely on him to help us get a sense of expectations from the customer. 

They suggested a big deck with a spot designated for a future hot tub. 

This was such a grand home with interesting features and detailing that we wanted to show them what was possible. 

For the first design, we worked in the future hot tub as well as a simple outdoor kitchen. We kept the rail simple and showed them what the lattice skirting would look like. 

The second design shows them a more interesting shape with the tub in the same place while adding a retractable canopy pergola. The staircase turns into a feature with an interesting cascading shape. We used glass rails to add interest to the unique shape suggesting gardens in the nooks. 

The third features a deluxe outdoor kitchen with an awning to make grill days more often. Cook in the hot sun, rain, and snow– any time you like. The step-in hot tub design negates the need for stepping up into the tub while allowing servicing from below.  In this version, we used aluminum baluster-type railings.

Which version would you choose? 

If you are planning a deck in Connecticut or Southern Ontario this year, please get in touch!

416 951 9998