Front Deck Renovation

So our big renovation was our front deck build! We have had this in mins since we bought our home 2.5 years ago. It was this ugly plain concrete slab.

I bounced around so many ideas. From different styles different wood different railings. But we settled on the white glass panels with LED light additions and composite decking!

I wanted to share why we made these choices. It’s on the more expensive side up front be we figured in the long run more beneficial. I’ll start with the composite decking. I wanted something more low maintenance (meaning I don’t have to stain or paint every so often). Because composite is a wood plastic blend it doesn’t require painting, staining or sealing the way a pressure treated wood does.

I also loved the features: it doesn’t rot, splinter or warp like wood can. It’s a durable and long lasting material. It also comes with a 25 year warranty. So I felt confident that it was a better choice over wood. However the colour you have to be sure on as it’s not something you can change. But it’s also so easy to clean. Dirt just washes and sweeps off super easy! I felt the extra cost of the material was totally worth it for these features. And the durability so far has proven itself! With small kids I was worried about splinters, since they love to take their shoes and socks off! But this gave me some relief.

The railings we chose the big open glass panels on a majority and then the basic rails in the side that’s in the garden because it won’t really be seen much. So we saved a little cash! But I love how the glass panels make it look larger and since it’s only a 8x8 bigger is better! We decided to add in the LED light feature to the railings for two reasons. One it helps with seeing so you can sit out there on summer nights. Two it looks pretty all lite up and make it looks more welcoming at night.

For the frame, the bones of the deck. We used pressure treated wood. So my husband made a solid frame and because we had a giant concrete slab which was too much effort to move we built over top. He crafted the blue prints for the deck. So we basically just did some research! YouTube and google had lots of great resources. Our deck is simple a square. So it was super easy to find some great videos to guide us.

You may noticed we closed the bottom in. I have seen some leave it! And that’s totally fine. But I wanted it closed in to give a more finished look and so it reduced the amount of things that might want to call it home under there. You never know which animals might think under your deck is the new home.

We are planning to in the spring fix up the gardens add some beautiful large planters and some more decor to the deck. I’m changing the light and number sign but for now it stays this way for winter. Funny since we started this in August thinking it would be done in two week. Let’s all laugh together as it’s October as we finished it!

Breaking down costs.

The base and composite decking was a total of $1200 with all screws and materials needed. So it is definitely more expensive than a pressure treated wood. But again based on the benefits we decided the cost was worth it.

Our railings were $1600 in total. This is because we wanted the glass panels and the LED lights. To cut costs we could have done the basic rails and they would have been cheaper. But we wanted the deck to feel more open as it’s only 8x8.

But overall it was $2800 and a little elbow grease. Since we built this project on our own!