Upgrading a Deck to Avoid Headaches and Bump Up Home Value

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By Paul Sullivan

AT its most basic, a deck is an extension of your house. You open your door, walk outside and there you are in what feels like an outdoor room.

But let's be real: Some decks have become much more than that — a manifestation of the homeowner's aesthetic taste, desire and ego laid out over vast expanses of wood (or products meant to look like wood), stone and lighting. Some decks could be mistaken for helipads if helipads had pergolas and open-air kitchens.

Any deck that aspires to be more than something that leads into your yard does not come cheap. Even the most basic wooden deck — one now seen as passé — can cost about $10,000. At the upper ends, decks can cost well beyond $100,000.

Pete Ciaraldi, a deck contractor outside Boston, said he recently installed a multilevel, well-lighted deck that cost $148,000 in Wilbraham, Mass., a modest suburb of Springfield. What surprised him wasn't the price of the deck — he puts in lots of expensive decks — but that the house it is attached to is worth only $485,000.

"They want to make it like an outdoor extension of their home," he said.

And it had better be, since the deck is now a quarter of the value of the entire home.

While decks are becoming grander and more expensive, what are people getting for their money? And if you’re like me, with an old wooden deck that needs to be repainted every couple of years, how and why should you think about upgrading?

"There are three aspects to any deck," said Vic Araco, an owner of Decks Only, which serves Long Island and New York City. "One, it's got to look good. Two, it's got to be functional. Three, we have to build it to your budget."

Aesthetics first. Pretty much any deck is going to look good when it is first built. But a lot happens in the first five years.

If you listen to deck builders, at least in the Northeast, the only people putting in decks made out of pressure-treated lumber are contractors trying to make some quick and easy money. The decks are comparatively inexpensive and look great for the first couple of years.

But then, the maintenance starts. Paint chips and fades, wood warps, and mold and mildew discolor the boards.

Marion Timberlake, a 63-year-old retired Air Force fighter pilot who lives in Fredericksburg, Va., had a wood deck on a previous home. "We had to clean it, stain it and reseal it," he said. "We were on a two-year cycle with the weathering and everything we were getting. With the seasons we have here, wood does its normal thing and bows and warps."

Yet he had the time to do it himself.

When he and his wife moved to their current home, it didn't have a deck. They added a composite deck.

The leading makers of these decks are Trex and TimberTech, and they create the boards out of a combination of recycled materials, including wood and plastics. And while they have different product grades, they come with warranties against fading and warping that can last several decades.

The benefit of these decks is that they are largely maintenance-free. No painting or staining needed; they just have to be washed free of mold and mildew. But they are two to three times the cost of a wood deck, said Dave Toht, an expert who has written several books on decks.

Deck builders said the added cost of the composite options would be made up in five to 10 years, largely in reduced upkeep expenses.

"A deck takes more sunlight than any other part of your house," said Kevin Shevlin, a carpenter in Oxford, Conn., who installs only composite decks. "Most of our customers are older people who have had a deck before. They want maintenance-free. They understand it costs more."

The manufacturers of these decks also argue that their decks are durable. Nick Mitropoulos, who travels considerably for his job at a life-sciences company, had a two-story deck on his home outside Boston that had started to rot. It was his second wood deck since he owned the home.

He decided to tear it down and pay for the top-of-the-line Trex Transcend. (All the composite manufacturers have products at different prices.) Mr. Ciaraldi installed it with a gutter system so the first-floor deck stayed dry in the rain.

But Mr. Mitropoulos said what also impressed him was how solid the deck and railings were and how easily Mr. Ciaraldi could make adjustments to ensure the railings were secure.

The look of a composite deck isn't for some homeowners, though. It's fake, after all, and some homeowners want real wood. The high-end option is hardwood, like mahogany or ipe, a Brazilian wood.

"Basically, you get the longevity of the composite with a hardwood, and it's gorgeous when stained and maintained properly," said Mark DeMarco, general manager for Decks Unique in Commack, N.Y.

That elegance costs twice as much as composite decks, Mr. Toht said. And at that price, chances are you’re going to pay someone to maintain it.

And that's just for the basic deck. "There are so many options you can put on the deck — outdoor kitchen, a pergola, hundreds of different railing options," Mr. DeMarco said, options that "can take a price of a deck from $10,000 or $12,000 to $40,000."

Mr. Araco, who said his company recently installed a several-thousand-square-foot deck, said many features were more expensive than people would imagine.

He said an outdoor kitchen — with a 15-foot granite top, stone backing, stainless steel grill and wine and beer coolers — could top $20,000. A 12-by-14 foot pergola giving shade over the top could be another $20,000. And if someone wanted actual shades to pull down when the sun was shining, that could be $3,000 to $4,000 more.

One defense of such spending, at least by the people selling these decks, is that it increases the value of the house.

It's hard to say if the value of that home in Wilbraham, Mass., has increased to $633,000 because it now has a super deck. But some in the decking business say a well-crafted deck can add about 80 percent of its cost to the resale value of your home.

Whether homeowners expect to sell their home and profit from the deck, they can run into trouble with over-the-top design elements or add-ons that they grow tired of. Mr. Toht said that one of the big regrets was installing a spa, which can cost from $2,000 to $10,000.

"People use outdoor spas a lot for the first two to three weeks and then it becomes a maintenance headache," he said. "Limiting the bells and whistles is a good idea."

Another miscalculation is lighting. "If you’re in a buggy area, these lights are going to attract all the bugs," he said. "If you have a buggy season, maybe you want an enclosed porch with a proper roof to enjoy meals out of doors."

Still, no matter how fancy the deck, it is an outdoor space. And when constructing one, Mr. Toht tells people: "Bear in mind what we don't like about the outdoors — intense sun, bugs and darkness."

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