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Custom Deck Builders Serving Charlotte NC
Our Charlotte NC deck builders have offered the highest quality of expert craftsmanship and exceptional customer service for over 15 years. Our expertly-skilled deck contractors select only the best decking materials including pressure-treated lumber, composite decking from Trex and Azek building products, and a large variety of custom finishes like built-in benches and vinyl handrails.
Deck Ideas are Endless!
Popular special function rooms. Gathering spaces for family meals, parties, and leisure time. It could be an extension of the kitchen, dining and family rooms by incorporating:
Heating Elements
Accent Colors and Texture
Two-Tone Decks
Mixing Wood and Stone Elements
Incorporate Stone Fire-pits and Fireplaces
Accent Lighting
A Few Ways to Personalize your Deck!
Just a sampling of ways you can create the deck of your dreams further include:
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Built-In Benches
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English Lattice to hide underneath your deck
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Unique stairs for added flair
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Built-In Pergolas for some sun protection and character
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Deck and Post Lighting for nighttime ambiance.
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We will work with you from the very beginning to understand your needs and help walk you through different choices and options to bring them to life.
We will explain the benefits and trade-offs of different decking materials, choices of railings, and if any additional features would work well for you!
Planning for Your New Deck
When planning an outdoor deck, perhaps the biggest decision you face is which material to use for the decking. While most decks use pressure-treated wood lumber for the understructure (posts, beams, joists, etc.), the decking can be a completely different material — or not.
The three most commonly used materials for decking:
Composite Decking in Charlotte NC
Composite decking is a mixture of high-density polyethylene and wood particles, along with preservatives and binders.
Wood-composite can be (but is not always) eco-friendly when it is made with leftover sawdust from furniture manufacturing and plastics recycled from milk jugs and detergent bottles.
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Composite decking is designed to withstand the elements and not break down. It is costly but will outlast natural competitors and negates the costly and annoying upkeep such as cleaning and staining or fading and bowing.
COST:
Composites are roughly twice the price of pressure-treated wood.
PROS:
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Choose wood-composite decking when you want a low-maintenance material.
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Some composites can also resemble exotic wood species, giving you the best of both worlds.
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If you have children or just like walking barefoot, wood-composite ensures that you will avoid splinters.
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But the best benefit of wood-composite decking is that it is guaranteed not to rot or split, and it never needs a stain or other protective finish.
CONS:
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Composite decking may look somewhat like wood at a distance, but up close it looks like something else, and it feels like its primary ingredient: plastic.
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Composite decking is more expensive (roughly 2x the price) than wood and comes in a limited range of colors.
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Many composite products require joists that are spaced no more than 16 inches apart; if your joists have 24-inch spacing, you'll need to add more joists for composite decking.
All-Plastic (PVC) Decking Builders Near Me
Also called plastic or synthetic decking, this is made of cellular polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the same material that is used for plastic fencing.
It is lightweight and has the same density as white pine, a softwood.
Some PVC decking is "capped," meaning that a protective shell is added to the surface that also gives it a wood-like look.
COST:
Composites are roughly twice the price of pressure-treated wood.
PROS:
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You may wish to purchase PVC decking if you want a lighter-weight material that is easier to handle than wood-composite.
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Like wood-composite, PVC decking does not rot and never needs to be finished.
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Some homeowners simply like the look of PVC more than with the other materials.
CONS:
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PVC decking tends to look the least like wood, when compared to natural wood and wood-composite deck boards.
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In addition, it comes with all of the same drawbacks as wood-composite.
COST:
PVC deck materials typically are 10 to 15 percent higher than wood-composite.
Wood Decking Contractor in Charlotte
The classic and still the most popular deck material, wood decking is usually pressure-treated softwood, such as hemlock, fir, or pine.
More expensive wood decking types include redwood and exotic hardwoods, such as teak or ipe.
These premium woods typically are not pressure-treated but must be finished (as does pressure-treated wood) to keep it from weathering to a dull gray color.
COST:
Pressure-treated wood is hands-down the cheapest way to floor your deck. Redwood decking can be comparable to wood-composite materials, and exotic hardwoods can be much more expensive. Pressure-treated wood is also the cheapest material for the non-decking components, such as stairs, guards, and rails.
PROS:
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Natural wood is your best bet when you want to save on costs, you don't want anything complicated, and you wish to install the decking yourself.
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Standard wood decking is sold at local lumberyards and home improvement centers, while exotic woods (and sometimes redwood) must be ordered through specialty lumber dealers.
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Real wood decking also has a natural look and feel that the other materials lack.
CONS:
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You should avoid natural wood decking if you're not willing to regularly maintain your deck by scrubbing or power-washing and restaining it every two or three years.
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Also, be aware of the cost of refinishing over the life of the decking. The long-term cost of maintenance on a wood deck should be factored in with the initial cost of the material.
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Wood decking also is likely to need replacement sooner than the other decking materials because it is prone to decay and rot over time.
