How Much Does a Wood Deck Cost?

Building or replacing a common attached wood deck in the US — pressure-treated framing and decking, something like 250 to 400 square feet, a simple stair and code railings — often clusters around $10,000–$18,000. The wider national spread, about $6,000–$28,000, covers a small ground-level platform at the low end and a larger or more elevated wood deck at the high end. Composite decking and second-story structures can clear that spread. This is a planning range, not a quote.

Square-foot rules of thumb are easy to misuse. A 200-square-foot deck is not half the price of a 400-square-foot deck, because footings, a ledger, a stair, and railings do not shrink in half. Price the project you can draw, not a rate you saw on a forum.

What the range includes

The typical band assumes pressure-treated posts, beams, joists, and decking; concrete footings to the local frost depth; a ledger bolted and flashed to the house where an attached deck is allowed; ordinary railings and one straight stair; and a permit. It assumes the yard is reachable by a truck and the soil will take a standard footing.

It does not include composite or PVC boards, glass or cable railings, built-in benches, lighting circuits, a roof over the deck, removal of a large existing structure that needs a dumpster of its own, or engineering stamps some cities require for a deck above a certain height. Those should be line items.

As a cross-check, not a bid: ground-level wood platforms are often discussed around $4,000–$10,000 when they are truly simple, and composite on a comparable frame is often discussed from the high teens into $40,000 once size and height grow. Ask for wood and composite as two proposals if you are deciding between them.

What moves the price

Driver	How it changes the bid
Size and shape	More surface is more lumber. Corners, picture-frame borders, and breaks for a tree add labor faster than area.
Height	A deck a story up needs more bracing, longer posts, and railings that are doing real work. Footings get more serious.
Ledger and flashing	Attaching to the house is where decks fail. Proper flashing and the right fasteners are not the place to save.
Railings and stairs	A required guardrail on three sides can cost as much as a noticeable share of the decking.
Material	Pressure-treated is the typical band. Cedar costs more. Composite costs more and still needs a sound frame.
Site	Slopes, poor access, and rocky soil turn a one-day footing job into something else.

If the deck will have a hot tub, say so at the start. The structure is designed for it or it is not. That is an engineering question, not a board upgrade.

DIY or hire

A low deck with a simple rectangle is a realistic project for someone who has framed before, can set footings to the depth the inspector wants, and will follow the current prescriptive deck guide their city uses. The ledger connection and the flashing against the house siding are the parts that cause rot in the wall. If you are unsure, hire at least that connection and the footings, and do the decking yourself.

Hire the whole job if the deck is more than a step off the ground, if it needs a beam you cannot size, or if you have not pulled a permit before. Railings are not trim. They are the safety system. A wobbly DIY railing is not a savings.

Replacing a few surface boards is ordinary DIY when the joists under them are dry and solid. Use the same thickness, leave the gaps the material requires, and do not bury a soft joist under a new board.

Repair or replace

Repair the surface when the frame is sound: replace cupped or splintered boards, tighten or replace fasteners, and reset a loose railing post if the post base is still good. Clean and recoat when the wood is intact and the water is beading poorly. That maintenance is cheaper than any of the bands on this page.

Rebuild when posts are soft at the ground, a beam is cracked or rotting, the ledger is separating from the house, joists are notched in ways that worry you, or the deck was built on blocks sitting on the soil in a climate that freezes. Covering a bad frame with new composite boards is a way to buy an expensive surface for a structure that still needs to come out.

If you did not build the deck, look underneath before you price decking. The frame is the project or it is not. A flashlight and a screwdriver into a post base will tell you more than the color of the stain.

How to use this number

Ask for bids that state the footprint, the height, the footing type, the species and size of the framing, the decking material, the railing style, and whether removal of the old deck is included. Compare wood bids with the typical band. Compare composite bids with a higher expectation, and make the contractor show the difference as an option so you can see the material versus the structure.

A very low bid on an elevated deck is a reason to ask about footing depth and ledger flashing, not a reason to celebrate. A high bid should point at height, access, railings, or composite. Two or three local bids on the same drawing are the number that matters. How this site sets the band is explained on the methodology page.