Custom Decks
Cleveland's outdoor season runs roughly May through October on a good year. That's not a complaint, it's a design constraint. When you have five or six months of genuinely usable outdoor weather, the space you build needs to earn every square foot. A deck that's too small, awkwardly positioned relative to the house, or designed without thought for how you actually spend time outside is a missed opportunity that you'll notice every summer.
We build custom decks throughout Cleveland and the surrounding suburbs, and the design work starts with how the space will be used before it starts with what it will look like. An Ohio City bungalow with a narrow lot behind it has different possibilities than a Solon colonial with a half-acre yard. A Lakewood home where the only outdoor access is through the kitchen is a different conversation than a Chagrin Falls property that steps down to a stream. We work with the site as it actually exists.
Deck installation in Northeast Ohio gets engineered for what the region throws at it. Snow load from lake-effect events is heavier here than most Ohio markets, and Cleveland's frost line runs to 36 inches, which means footings need to go deeper than builders in milder climates are used to. We pull permits, set footings correctly, and build framing connections that don't loosen up after a few winters of freeze-thaw cycling.
The design process for a custom deck build covers the full picture before any material gets ordered: the footprint and how it relates to interior spaces, grade changes and how stairs address them, where privacy matters and what the railing design does about it, whether covered sections make sense, and what built-in features would make the space work better on a daily basis. Deck and patio integration, where a deck structure transitions to a lower patio level, is one of the more common design elements on Cleveland-area properties with grade changes.
If you've been thinking about what your backyard could be, start with a conversation. Call us to walk the property.