Custom deck plans for your builder and your permit office.

Most deck designs you can buy online are pictures. A deck is a structure: footings below frost, beams and joists sized for the span, stairs that pass code, and a plan for the water coming off the roof. Groundwork Design Co. is the design studio of Muthler Landscaping & Construction, a Pennsylvania crew that builds decks, porches and pavilions. We draw custom deck plans so your deck can be priced and built.

How big should your deck be? Deck layout sizes

Most deck regrets are about size. Chairs need room to push back, and people need a clear path from the door to the stairs. These are the planning sizes we start from:

Rule of thumb: leave about 3 feet behind every chair and keep the path from the door to the stairs clear. A hot tub changes the structure completely, so plan it first.

What our deck building plans include

• A scaled layout with the deck height set from your door threshold, so the step out of the house is right.
• Stairs drawn with equal risers and deep enough treads, landing on something solid.
• Railing where the deck is more than 30 in. above grade, which is where most codes require guards, plus handrails on stairs with four or more risers.
• With the framing sheet add-on: post and footing layout, beam and joist sizes and spacing, cantilevers, blocking and the hardware to hold it together.
• Where the water goes: downspouts carried past the deck, and stone over fabric underneath instead of mud.
• A material list: decking, framing lumber, concrete, hardware and railing sections.

Attached or freestanding?

An attached deck hangs one side on a ledger bolted to the house. It's the most common way to build and it lasts when it's done right, but the ledger has to be flashed and bolted into the house framing. Poorly attached or unflashed ledgers are a leading cause of deck failures. A freestanding deck adds a second beam line and its own posts instead, so nothing is bolted to the house. It costs a little more in posts and footings, keeps the siding closed, and is the better call when the wall can't take a ledger, like brick veneer or a cantilevered floor.

Composite or pressure-treated?

Pressure-treated pine is the lowest cost up front and needs stain or sealer every few years. Composite costs more but doesn't need staining, and with hidden fasteners and a picture-frame border it looks finished. Composite usually needs closer joists, often 12 in. on center depending on the board and the angle, so the framing plan has to know which decking you're using. Either way, joist tape on top of the framing helps it last.

Deck mistakes we fix on job sites

1. Footings above the frost line. They heave in winter and the deck racks. Footings go below your local frost depth.
2. A ledger with no flashing, or nailed instead of bolted.
3. Uneven stair risers. The one step that's taller than the rest is the one people trip on.
4. Joists too far apart for composite, which makes a bouncy, wavy deck.
5. Downspouts dumping under the deck, which turns the space underneath into a mud pit.
6. No landing at the bottom of the stairs.

Porches, pavilions and pergolas

The same thinking applies to covered structures: where the posts land, how deep the footings go, and where the roof water goes. We lay out pavilions and pergolas for shade and views, show the post and footing locations, and note what the truss or kit supplier should engineer.

Permits and engineering

Our framing sheet is a starting point for your builder and building department, not a stamped drawing. Many towns accept a deck built from standard span tables. Some want their own details or an engineer, especially for tall decks, roof loads or hot tubs. We flag those items on the plan so you know before you bid it out. Call 811 before anyone digs.

How online deck design works

1. Pick a package. A deck alone fits Single Space. Add the framing sheet if you want the structure drawn.
2. Send your site. Photos, a short walk-around video, and the door threshold height. We send a guide.
3. Get your draft. A scaled PDF in 10 business days. Mark it up and we revise.
4. Build it. Hand the final set to a builder, bring it to your building department, or build it yourself.

What online deck design costs

A deck on its own is our Single Space package, $349. Add the deck, porch or pavilion framing sheet for $350. A deck as part of a whole backyard plan is Full Yard, $895. See how that compares in our guide to online landscape design costs.

Free planning guides

Planning it yourself first? These guides come from the crews who build this work: real sizes, heights and drainage details, with our sample plans as examples.

• Freestanding deck plans: beam lines, footings, bracing and permits, with a real framing plan.
• Deck span calculator: joist, beam, post and footing sizes from the 2021 IRC deck tables.
• Backyard layout: zones, path widths and zone sizes in seven steps.
• Sloped backyard ideas: 15 ways to use a hill, sorted by steepness.