Guide To Building An Outdoor Deck

Building a deck to decorate your house is a great thing to do. The planning phase is absolutely important as you must decide on the design, size, the location, etc. Many people, especially the one that own a house with a big garden, like to build wood outdoor deck because aside from making your house looks even more fantastic, the building process of an outdoor deck is not complicated.

The reason why building a deck is not so difficult because once you get the design, you can make the structure right away. Unlike building other parts of the house, you do not need to think about electricity installment, plumbing system, etc. Of course it does not mean that you can collect the wood and start building right way. You still need to think about the design and how you would want to finish it.

The first thing you need to do is decide the size of the outdoor deck. The most efficient way to do it is definitely by taking measurements at the exact location of where you want the deck to be. Afterwards, you can make a simple drawing plan of the deck. Price would also be one of the main factors in building a deck. Unless you have an unlimited budget, you need to realize that the bigger deck you build, the more it will cost you. If you want to save both time and money, you could choose to make the deck size that would not require you to cut the woods and waste the rest. It means that you must calculate carefully the size of the material to build the deck. Furthermore, you also need to thing about the necessary tools for the building process. Remember that sometimes less is more. So don’t spend your money on unnecessary materials just because you want to, but you only need to get things that are important for the deck.

Aside from the size and price planning of the deck, you also need to consider about its placement. Where would be the most convenient location? Maybe you would like to put the deck in the location that is reachable by the sunlight, or some people like to put their deck outside the kitchen or dining room.

While sitting in the sun is very comfortable, during an extreme hot weather it will be relaxing to sit on a cool place. Therefore it is necessary to analyze your home location and find a spot where you can enjoy the sunlight and the shade at different times during the day so you can choose the perfect time to sit on your deck.


As a part of the house, your deck must match the style of the house too. Otherwise it will stand out and would not look suitable to stand there. When you are planning on the design and the materials, you need to think of ways to make it similar or seem as one unity with the house. If your house has a classic style, then you can arrange your deck to have a classic style as well; and if your house is very contemporary, it would not be so hard to create a contemporary deck.

Besides the style, you can also make the deck to have a similar color with the house. It does not have to be completely the same, but some details that would resemble to the main color of the house would do.

If you are planning to make a deck for a spa or hot tub, you might want to add some additional features like a fence, overshadowing trees, or something like that because you would not want the neighbors to have access to watch whatever your activities there. The purpose of the fencing is to protect your privacy. But if you have a very big garden far away from the neighbor, or no neighbor at all, you do not have to spend time on doing that.