Deck Building

Across the Westside most finished projects run between $15 and $75 per square foot, and the material sets where you land in that band. Pressure treated pine sits at the bottom, redwood and cedar around the middle, capped composite and PVC above them, and ipe or similar dense hardwood at the top. The other big variables are height, footings and access: an elevated deck on a canyon slope with engineered piers and hand-carried material can cost twice what the same square footage costs on a flat Culver City lot. We quote a fixed number after a site visit rather than a range over the phone.

The construction itself is usually one to three weeks. A simple ground-level deck can be framed and surfaced in under a week; a multi-level hillside build with engineered footings takes three or more. The calendar is longer than the labour, because permits, plan check and material lead times run in front of it. Budget five to eight weeks from first call to final inspection on a straightforward flat-lot project, and eight to fourteen on anything engineered or in a hillside review zone.

Late spring through autumn is easiest here, because a dry framing window matters and because stains and sealers need warm, dry boards to cure properly. That said, Santa Monica winters are mild enough that we build year round, and booking in winter often means a shorter wait and an earlier start date. The one thing we do schedule around weather is the finish coat, which we will delay a few days rather than apply to damp lumber.

Usually, yes. In most Westside jurisdictions a detached, ground-level deck under thirty inches above grade needs no permit. Anything attached to the house, anything over thirty inches, anything carrying a guard rail and anything on a hillside lot does. Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City and Beverly Hills each run their own process with their own timelines. We file the drawings, meet the inspector at footing and at final, and hand you the signed-off permit at the end.

Often, yes, and it can save money. If the slab is sound and drains away from the house, we can build a low sleeper system on top of it and lay the surface over that, which avoids digging footings altogether. If the slab is cracked, heaving or holding water against the house, it is better taken out, because building over a drainage problem simply hides it until the framing above pays for it.

An attached deck ties to the house with a ledger board, which is structurally efficient and gives a flush transition at the door. It is also the single most common failure point in the trade, so the flashing and the bolting have to be right. A freestanding deck carries its own load on posts, needs no ledger, avoids penetrating the house envelope entirely, and often falls outside the permit threshold if it is low. On stucco houses and on anything where the wall condition is doubtful, we frequently recommend freestanding.

Yes. Restaurant dining platforms, office courtyards, multi-unit roof terraces, ADA access ramps and slatted trash enclosures are all regular work for us. Commercial projects run to commercial code, which brings different load requirements, slip ratings and accessibility rules, and we coordinate directly with your architect, general contractor or property manager on the permit set.

We tell you, we show you, and we price the fix before doing it. On a rebuild we probe the existing framing at the site visit specifically so this does not happen, but hidden damage at a ledger or behind stucco does occasionally turn up once things are open. What we will not do is board over it and hand you an invoice, because it will come back and it will be worse.