Colours and Composite are growing trends in deck design!
Like other backyard trends that extend living space – indoor/outdoor rugs, furniture, lighting and even outdoor kitchens – the deck is the focal point for outdoor living and a much desired space for entertaining, cooking, eating or just lounging with a book.
It’s not easy-going from vision to reality when creating a spot to enjoy the fine weather of our brief summers. Should you replace an existing deck using the same foundation, spend thousands for a maintenance free deck of your dreams or buy a more modest DIY wooden deck kit from the local big-box store? Only your budget, tastes and time will tell, but all are viable options and readily available.
Deck packages area available at The Home Depot, where designers sit with customers and talk through all the elements of the deck – size and height, number of boards, railings, fasteners, even renting a post-hole auger. After a product list is created, good are quickly gathered up and brought to the till.
“It’s deck season, where we can do five to 10 deck designs in a day,” said St. Albert The Home Depot store manager Sotirie Togias.
“You have three options for materials – pressure-treated wood, cedar wood or composite.”
If the budget allows, consumers are choosing composite, a PVC-wood blend board that is maintenance free and comes in a host of designer colours.
“Grey is now the most popular. A top seller for house decor, it’s now the hot colour for decks too,” Togias said. “The price is coming down for composite, so I think it’ll eventually be the standard for decks.”
At The Deck Store in Edmonton a mecca for all things deck-related, composite has been growing in popularity for some 10 years, thanks to improvements in stain-resistance and expand/contract issues.
Store owner Jim Slater said composite products can still be several times the price of wood, but when customers realize that framing and labour costs remain the same whether wood or composite, they often go with new technology.
“There’s no painting or staining to do, no knot holes, and no cracking. You only need to shovel the snow off in the winter,” Slater said, adding the decks can cost $50,000 and beyond, with most averaging about $10,000.
While 80 percent of his business is tear-out replacement decks, Slater said buyers are looking for touches like rock skirting and privacy screens, flooring made of tile or interlocking rubber pavers, patio heaters and – the hottest trend – a patterned deck floor.
“Most customers pick at least two colours for composite deck boards, from our choice of 65. They want to match it to deck cushions or the home’s vinyl siding – there’s not as much call for the old green lumber anymore,” he said.
For anything beyond replacing a few floorboards, St. Albert residents need to check with the city regarding building a deck on their front or back property, even if deconstructing and reconstructing on the exact same space.
In these cases, the city wants to insure the previous deck was done to code before the rebuild, said Chelsea Thompson, development officer with the city’s department of planning and development.
If a deck is in your future this summer, plan ahead (especially if permits are needed), and enjoy that outdoor space.
St. Albert Gazette, At Home, All Decked Out, Saturday June 14, 2014, By Lucy Haines, Staff writer, lhaines@stalbert.greatwest.ca
About Don Cholak
