Deck Design in 3D
This is a deck we drew, and you can turn it, Drag it around, get underneath it, zoom in, and strip it back to the framing to see what is holding it up. When we draw yours, it does all the same things. Most of what decides how long a deck lasts is the part you stop being able to see on the day it is finished.
Drag the deck to turn it. Use the buttons to strip it back through the stages it gets built in, and tap a numbered marker to read what it is pointing at.
Build it your way
Every one of these is a real option on a real quote.What is in this deck, and why
Every numbered marker on the model, written out. Tap a number up there to find it on the build.
G-Tape on every joist
Butyl tape caps the top of every joist, beam and rim before a board goes down, so water cannot sit on the end grain and rot the frame from the inside. You never see it again after decking day. Strip the model back to G-Tape and it is the whole layer.
Stringers cut from one board
A stringer is one 2x12, cut. Sawtooth on top, a single straight diagonal underneath and a level foot where it sits on the landing, with about 6" of throat left at every notch. Cheaper stairs step the bottom of the board instead, which is the cut you can see under a flight once you know to look for it.
Piles belled at the base
The pile is 8" or 10" depending on what it carries. Either way the base is belled, and that is the part doing the work: a straight 10" shaft bears on about 0.55 sqft, belled out to 20" it is about 2.18. It goes below the frost line regardless, so the bell is what puts the load inside what the soil will carry rather than on top of it.
Concrete piles below the frost line
Every post lands on a poured pile that goes below the frost line, so the deck stays put when the ground moves.
Simpson Strong-Tie post bases
The post stands off the concrete on a steel base, so water never sits against the end grain. Black where the understructure is open to the yard like this one, and galvanized where a skirt hides it, because the galvanized part does the same job for a fraction of the money and we are not going to charge you for a finish nobody will see.
A T-strap at every post-to-beam joint
The beam does not just sit on the post. A flat T-strap ties the two together, a bar across the beam and a stem down the post, on both faces the joint presents. It is the connection that stops a beam walking off its post over twenty winters, and it is the one most easily left out because nobody can see it from the yard.
Drop-framed beams
The beam hangs under the joists instead of sitting flush with them, which is why a 2x8 joist deck runs a deeper 2x10 beam.
Joists at 16" OC
16" OC the whole way across. Tighter than a lot of decks get, and it is what keeps a composite surface from feeling springy underfoot.
Staggered blocking
Blocking between the joists is staggered rather than run in a straight line, so it can be fastened from both sides and the joists cannot twist.
Double rim, blocked for the railing
Two rim boards right around the perimeter, with 7-1/2" blocks cut from the same 2x8 laid in between them and spaced along the run, so every railing post has solid timber to bolt through instead of a hollow gap. The angled corner is built to the same detail as every straight edge, mitred at 22.5 where the two rims meet.
Every joist hangs in a hanger
Where a joist meets the ledger it sits in its own galvanized Simpson hanger, and at the far end (where it bears on the beam) it is tied down as well.
Railing height is set by the drop
This deck sits 6' above the ground (past the point where a 36" railing is allowed), so the railing is built at 42".
Picture framed, with a divider
A border wraps the whole edge so no cut end shows, and a divider board breaks the field so nothing has to run the full span in one piece.
What you can change on it
The buttons above the list, and what each one is actually offering you.
Five railing systems, and every glass one is a 42" part
Aluminum pickets, 6" glass strips, full glass panels, tinted glass, or topless glass standing on base clamps with nothing crossing the view. Glass is only made as a 42" system, the panel itself being 35-7/8" high, so it suits a deck at this height and not a low one. How the glass is sized depends on the system, and both are real. In a FRAMED system the panel is a catalogue part in 3" steps up to 66" wide, so the glass decides where the posts go. In a FRAMELESS one it is cut to your run, and what limits it is structure instead: about 54" on a 42" exterior railing with no top rail, and thicker glass beyond that. The stair pane is made to measure, raked, with its ends plumb where they meet the newels, so it is a parallelogram and not a leaning rectangle. Topless is the exception: it stops at the deck, because a flight of more than three risers needs a graspable handrail and a frameless pane is not one.
A privacy wall is the railing, not something standing behind it
Swap a run of railing for cedar, composite, louvred, PT or laser-cut aluminum. The aluminum assemblies are tested for use as guardrails under the Alberta Building Code and come with a test document for your inspector, so there is no railing behind one. We frame the timber walls to carry the same loads. It is worth asking about, because a quote that prices a railing and a screen separately is paying twice for one job.
Lighting goes in while the frame is open
Post cap lights and a light on every stair riser. Switch them on here to see where they land. The wiring is pulled while the framing is still open, so it is a decision that belongs at the design stage and costs a great deal more once the boards are down.
Yours would be drawn the same way, before anything is bought or built.
Book a Free Design ConsultationA drawing settles the arguments early
A deck that gets drawn first is a deck where the awkward questions come up in front of a screen instead of in front of a half-built frame. Where the stairs land, how the angle at the corner works, whether the beam wants another pile under it, what the picture frame does when it meets the jog in the house. All of that is cheap to change in a model and expensive to change once the lumber is on site.
It also means the number we give you is priced off something real (and not estimated off a sketch and a hope).
How it works, and what it costs
We walk your yard, take the measurements, and talk through what you want the space to do. Then we build the model, pick the materials with you, and put a firm price against it. You see the design before you commit to a build.
The design is a paid step, and the fee is credited in full toward your project when you sign. What it costs depends on how much there is to draw, so the tiers are set out on our pricing page. Not every project needs one, and we are happy to tell you honestly if yours does not.
Questions we get about what is under a deck
How deep do deck footings go in Central Alberta?
Below the frost line, which around here means about 4'-0". The pile itself is 8" or 10" depending on what it carries: how much deck sits on it, and how far apart the piles are. We bell the base either way, which is the part that does the work. A straight 10" shaft bears on roughly 0.55 sqft; belled out to 20" it is about 2.18 sqft, and an 8" pile belled to 16" is about 1.4. Depth is what stops a deck heaving in spring, and it is the part nobody can see once the job is done.
What is joist tape, and does it matter?
It is a butyl tape capped over the top of every joist, beam and rim before a single board goes down, so water cannot sit on the cut end grain and rot the frame from the inside. It is invisible the moment the decking is on. You can see the whole layer on this page by stripping the model back to the G-Tape stage.
How far apart should deck joists be?
We run 16" OC the whole way across. That is tighter than a lot of decks get, and on a composite surface it is what keeps the boards from feeling springy underfoot.
How tall does a deck railing have to be?
It depends on the drop. Once the walking surface is more than about 6' above grade the railing has to be 42" rather than 36", and no opening in it may pass a 4" sphere. The deck on this page sits 6' up, which is why its railing is built at 42".
Do you draw every deck in 3D?
Not every one. The design phase is its own piece of work and it is priced on our pricing page, so it does carry a cost. Where it earns that back is when you are not sure yet what you want to build: you would like to see two or three options beside each other, you are weighing a wraparound against a second tier, you cannot quite picture how high the deck will sit off the back door, or there are two of you deciding and you are each picturing something different. While it is still a drawing, moving a stair, changing a board colour or widening a tier costs nothing. And the fee is credited in full toward your project when you sign, so on a build you go ahead with it is not an extra cost at all. On a straightforward deck where you already know what you want, we are happy to skip it and get building.
Wondering if yours is worth drawing?
Tell us about the project and we will say whether a 3D design would earn its keep on it.