Deck repair cost sanity check

July 4, 2018 6:37 AM

I feel like I'm losing my mind. I've collected several bids to repair my deck and the estimates are all over the place. I'd really appreciate some crowdsourced insight into what a reasonable price to pay is.

I have a 400 sq ft cedar deck attached to the back of my house. It's essentially a square platform about 30" off the ground with stairs rising another five feet to my back door. The basic structure is sound, but the decking, fascia, and railings are all rotting due to age and poor design. I'm trying to hire someone to strip all of this off and reclad the entire structure in new material so I can have a fresh start.

Last summer, I got two quotes to do this with pressure-treated pine and cedar that were in the $5k to $7k range - I ended up not hiring either person to do it because I didn't feel comfortable with what reviews I found online. This summer, I've had a few people out to make estimates to do the job with PT wood, cedar, or high-quality composite (Azek), and the prices have been all over the place: $15k for PT, $20K for Azek, $20K for a total rebuild using PT, $30k for a rebuild with Azek. So far, I've had more "professional" (for lack of a better word) guys come out this year, and it may be that they'll always charge a premium over the handyman types (but 3x as much?). If you did a project like this recently, what'd it run you? I'm in Chicagoland, USA (Oak Park, which matters, as several builders have said they just don't bother with our fair village and its regulations anymore.)

Any insight would be appreciated (and if you have contractors you recommend, please send me a note)!

posted by ndg to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Does this work require a permit? In Chicago it does. If the more professional types are planning to get a permit then that can be a lengthy and expensive process.
posted by mai at 6:48 AM on July 4, 2018

Response by poster: I've discussed permitting with everyone. The "rebuild" guys would definitely need one; the "repair" guys might depending on your reading of the rules, but they're all willing to do it if I want. Some have adjusted their estimates to reflect that but it's on the order of +/- $400, which doesn't explain much of the range.
posted by ndg at 6:52 AM on July 4, 2018

Can't speak to the specifics of your deck situation but none of those numbers seem that weird to me, and I used to prepare quotes for deck jobs professionally. Azek is way more expensive than PT; a difference of several thousand dollars on a 400 sqft deck sounds normal. Personally I think it's stupid to pay $$$ extra to have an ugly plastic deck (Azek is PVC, not composite, not that it matters) but a lot of people seem to like that look and are into the whole "no maintenance, lasts forever" thing, which by the way is a classic salesman's lie. It only lasts forever as trash in a landfill.

But anyway. The overall pricing seems reasonable to me as well, but I live in eastern Massachusetts where construction prices are quite high. It varies a lot by region and by the specific challenges of your deck situation, so I can't really be firm about that but the prices you're getting don't sound crazy.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:54 AM on July 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

I was getting a similar range of estimates for a similar job. Some contractors are desperate for work and will gladly underbid whatever you tell them is the low bid. Some contractors know they'd have to put other jobs on hold, or hire more workers, in order to do your job.

In my case, I needed work on my front porch done as well, so I asked for estimates to do both. That meant one trip to get the permit for both, and a big enough job overall to be in the ballpark of other work the contractor would had to postpone to fit mine in.
posted by Former Congressional Representative Lenny Lemming at 7:03 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I can think of a couple possible ways to shave costs, by the way. One, get some quotes from specialist deck companies if you haven't already—they will be more efficient at deck-building than general contractors, so maybe cheaper. Two, go for a cheaper railing option on the Azek deck (i.e. a third-party vinyl railing like RDI Titan rather than Azek's own). Three, go for a cheaper/less labor-intensive fastener option, such as stainless steel nails instead of screw-and-plug. You might be able to knock the price down a bit while still getting essentially the deck that you want.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:08 AM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Have you asked for a breakdown of the bids? How much of the difference is material? Are there stylistic differences between the bids that are driving cost? How much is labor? What else is included in the detailed bids? It's hard to compare unless you know the details.
posted by macfly at 7:18 AM on July 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

Oh and if you're getting quotes that include lattice or soldiering, you could ask them to omit that. It's optional, and not everyone even prefers the look.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:21 AM on July 4, 2018

I’d also get estimates from one of the two original folks. They may be asking for 10k now, and that’s not so far from your 15k lower bound, given a difference in proffesionalism and workmanship.
This is a market like any other, and market forces change over time.

Seconding the suggestion for deck specialists: I know lots of people who could build decks but prefer not to, some of them arrange that by charging extra high prices for deck work.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:38 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

We hired a pro, albeit a small business which had done work for friends, who were very happy with the work. Do you have friends or neighbors you could ask? We had two decks to replace - they were cheap pressure treated wood 10 years old and both decks were rotting in spots, discolored and warped all over. Given the price to rebuild, we chose Trex. It was quite a bit more expensive on the front end, but they are 8 years old and look and function like the day they were built.

Any builders price would be way out of date, but I would suggest you consider replacing the entire deck - have you thought into the future when the new lumber is still good but the older ceder deck has weathered and deteriorated?
posted by citygirl at 8:08 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

A thousand years ago I lived in Chicago, and knew some excellent framers who stick-built houses for my brother, who was a builder. On Saturdays, a couple of them would go to a garage, knock it down, slam up a new one, cart off all the material. Because it was Saturday there was almost no risk of getting popped for building without a permit, and part of that savings went off the price of the garage. Again, this is a long time ago, might be a totally different animal by now, but I saw it a lot in the 70s.

As far as who to choose, I'd try to check references, especially if you can see work that they've done, and not just photos but actually to see a deck or two that they've banged together. Prices are literally all over the map for any number of reasons; one of my best friends *continually* shortchanges himself, he under-values his excellence, and he consistently bids way, way too low. He does a lot of commercial work, and he is even low-balling bids there, but there's so much money in commercial contracting that he's doing well. I mostly won't work with him any longer, because there's rarely enough in it to get me to be willing to go out and work and not make much money. I told you that to tell you that Jim always does excellent work, even though it's damn near free compared to what any sane contractor would bid.
posted by dancestoblue at 10:49 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm in OP and just had this done, similar size, 20×10. We eventually went with a handyman guy who did a great job, used treated pine. $8500 for a rebuild, where he kept the basic supports but rebuilt everything else, wider stairs and a simple lattice privacy wall on one side. No permits as it was considered repairing existing deck. He rebuilt to code though. Memail if you want more info.
posted by j810c at 2:52 PM on July 5, 2018