Deck Pricing In MD

chardscapes

??? I want to start building them.

Bob Kovacs

Hmmm....nothing like being specific........a little more detail would help.

- Where in MD?
- Low-buck PT decks, or high-end mulit-levels?
- Are we talking material and labor, or just labor?
- What are your productivity rates?

Bob

Greg Di

Bob,

You are too nice.

That was the dopiest post I've seen on this board yet. Chardscapes, have you ever read any of the posts on this board? Doesn't sound like it. If you want help, we can try to help you, but man-o-man, you have to help yourself a little.

Actually, Bob and I will just come down and build the deck for you.

DecksEtc

Hmmm, let's see... would it help if I gave you a range?

I'd say somewhere between $1.00 and $100,000.00

Does that help?

chardscapes

I meant do you guys have a specific price per square foot for a lumber deck ?

Mike Finley

Chard - what everybody is trying to tell you is please define "Lumber Deck". The more you define it the better people will be able to help you.

If a homeowner asked you "How much will it cost to build a deck in my back yard?" would you be able to give them a price without asking any other questions?

chardscapes

No I wouldn't off hand. I do retaining walls, patios, walkways now. Next year I want to get into decks. I wanted to narrow down a labor cost or an all together cost or building a deck. I have a square footage number for my walls and fences. just wanted to know a number for decks. I want to see the profit margin to see if its worth my time. I have a 35% profit margin on the other kinds of work I'm doing. I know composite decking is sometimes 3x lumber.

keithguts

you got that right

bob the builder

To know what your profit margin will be you need to know how long a deck will take you to build, materials, overhead to start crunching profit numbers. My guess is that your profit will not be what a regular deckbuilders would be until you got up to speed on how to build them. To me a per sq. ft. price is useless unless it is a simple design....

Bob

kowdecks

Ant deck builder can perice per sq ft because thats what they do. I do about 150 decks per year and can tellyou how long it will take my crew and how much the material will be within $200

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Hi I'm Norm From Knock On Wood custom decks. I have specialized in decks for 12 years now. I have 5 full time employees that built 160 decks last year. I have been reading your site for sometime now and you guys have alot of good advice. Hopefully I can contribute to this site

bob the builder

Yeah, some decks just take longer and you need to know how to bid that. I don't believe in the per sq. ft. price alone, my spread sheet does play a role. I'm pretty sure if 5 of your employees did 150 decks last year that they are good workers and are cranking through the jobs or you do alot of little decks.

Bob

chardscapes

Thanks for the help LOL I know alot of contractors don't price anything by the foot. I have walls down to a suare ft price and make money everytime. I just thought I could price my first deck that way to get my feet wet. What program to design do you guys use ?

--Josh

XXL Hardscaper

I woul be curious to know if your 35% profit is gross or net, cuz here in MD I find it very hard to belive that is your net. I have been doin this a long time and something smells a little off.

dproc

avg deck size - 200 - 300 sf

All ACQ deck - $ 26.00 sf
Composite - $ 38.00 sf

based on 200 decks a yr.

chardscapes

thx dproc

zoso

Just make sure they are permitted and beyond safe as can be. A deck falls over and your segway from your core competency just let down the coup de gras. I stay away from them like the plague: permitting, inspections, labour issues. F that.

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AtcoJack

Hey chardscapes, thats easy, everybody here will back me up on
this, all decks, regardless of size, or material used are flat priced
at $12.00 complete in MD. Thats right, just 12 dollars for any size,
style, or material deck in MD, as a matter of fact, I think it is
the law there...good luck Jack

John Hyatt

My idea with biding is to figure out how much money the Wallet has to spend,and get every dime of it. Most of the time in 15 min I already know what I can do the job for to make a normal pay day, then comes the Art Of Biding.

To make this Art work I have to know the going rate in my area,have some really good back up>>> angies list,some very fancy stuff on my site and in my bid book, Wallets for the potential to talk to that rave about me and a couple where something went wrong and I fixed it way over what I had to do, have a way of building the frame that is fast,cheep,and really strong<<

The rest is up to me. I have found it good to settle on one kind of material that is the total upsale,for me its Ipe, but it could be most anykind of quality material. Know everything about it and keep diging until you get a price for it that no one can touch. John

firemike

Most states also require you to be licensed to build decks. Does yours, and more importantly, are you? Also, do you have liability insurance for decks?

All it takes is one accident and your business could be history. I'm sure you have read about the rash of deck collapses over the last few years. There are certain codes decks have to be built by. As others have said, you open yourself up to all sorts of liabilities by circumventing licensing and permit requirements.

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-Mike-

BreyerConstruct

John,

I know this is slightly off topic, but would you be comfortable expounding on any of these points?

~Matt
(currently in the role of Young grasshopper)

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