Deck Building Cost Estimator

Understanding Deck Building Costs

Building a deck is one of the highest-return home improvement projects you can undertake. A well-built deck typically returns 60–80% of its cost in added home value, and it provides years of outdoor living enjoyment. Costs vary significantly based on the wood species, the complexity of the design, your local labor market, and permit fees.

Decking Board Coverage

Standard decking boards are sold in linear feet and are typically 5/4 x 6 inches, which finishes to about 5.5 inches wide. Laid with a 1/8-inch gap for drainage and expansion, each board occupies 5.625 inches of deck, so a linear foot of board covers 5.625 ÷ 12 = 0.469 square feet. To cover a given area, divide the total square footage by 0.469, then add 10 to 15 percent for end cuts, waste, and boards discarded for knots or defects. The calculator below uses exactly that figure, so you can check its arithmetic against your own.

Wood Type Comparison

All the price ranges below are approximate US figures for 2026, materials only, and they move with the lumber market. Enter your own quoted price in the calculator, which is what it actually uses.

Pressure-treated pine is the most affordable option at roughly 2 to 4 per linear foot. It must be stained or sealed every two or three years to prevent splitting. Cedar is naturally rot-resistant with a good colour, at 3 to 6 per linear foot. It is softer than most woods, so it dents in high-traffic areas. Composite decking (Trex, TimberTech and similar) runs 4 to 8 per linear foot and needs almost no maintenance, lasting 25 to 30 years. Hardwood ipe, sometimes sold as Brazilian ironwood, is extremely dense and naturally resistant to rot and insects, at 8 to 15 per linear foot. It blunts ordinary blades and needs pre-drilling and stainless fasteners, so budget for tooling as well as boards.

Labour Rates

Professional deck installation typically runs 15 to 35 per square foot of labour, depending on complexity and region. A simple ground-level deck sits at the low end; an elevated deck with stairs, railings and built-in benches at the high end.

Note that this is not the same as an hourly wage multiplied by hours. A contractor’s rate carries overhead, insurance, tools, transport and profit on top of the hours worked, so a quote will always come in above the raw labour arithmetic. The calculator above shows both figures precisely so you can see the gap rather than being surprised by it.

For reference on the hours themselves: a two-person crew builds a simple ground-level deck at roughly a quarter of an hour per square foot of finished surface, so a 240 sq ft deck is about four days for two people. Doing it yourself saves 40 to 60% of the total project cost and costs you those hours instead.

Permit and Hidden Costs

Always budget for a building permit, 100 to 500 in most US areas, plus concrete for footings, joist hangers, screws and post anchors. These hidden materials typically add 15 to 25 percent to the lumber cost, and the calculator uses 20 percent as the middle of that.

What this does not price

The number below is the surface you walk on. The frame underneath it is a separate order: joists, beams, posts, a ledger board and the hardware that ties them together. On a ground-level deck that frame is maybe half the cost of the decking. On a raised deck with posts and beams it can match the decking outright.

Stairs and railings are separate again, and railings are the expensive part per foot, particularly in composite or with cable infill. If you are budgeting a full project rather than a resurface, treat the figure below as somewhere between a half and a third of the total.