Guides
Deck and patio startup: site visit, capacity, build order
A deck and patio startup's first rules: a site visit before every quote, bookings capped at crew capacity, and a build order that survives inspection.
What to take away
- Price the first season around the jobs you can finish, not the jobs you can sell, because a deck and patio startup runs on capacity and not on leads. A deck sold in June and framed in September is a callback waiting to happen.
- Book a site visit before you quote. Slope, soil, access and the age of the house decide more of the price than the drawing does.
- Carry the permit file yourself. Homeowners forget it, and an inspector who arrives to an empty folder stops the job.
- Keep two crews' worth of work in the pipeline and no more. Rain, frost and inspection delays eat the third week of every month.
- Write down what you will not build. Cantilevered second-storey decks and anything over a height you have not framed before belong to someone else.
This article covers three operating rules for a new deck and patio contractor: what to check on the site visit, how to cap bookings at crew capacity, and the build order that survives inspection, followed by the staffing, paperwork and safety that support them. It is not structural, engineering or legal advice. Footing depth, beam spans, guardrail loads and ledger attachment are minimums in the International Residential Code, adopted and amended by the local authority having jurisdiction; Canadian projects run the same details through the provincial building codes. The numbers that apply to a specific address come from the municipal building department or a licensed structural engineer.
Start with the site visit, not the quote
A deck quote built from a photograph is a guess with a number on it. The site visit is where the price actually gets made, and it takes ninety minutes on a good day.
Walk the yard before you talk to anyone. Note the slope, the soil you can see at the foundation, where the downspouts discharge, and whether a machine can reach the back. A yard with no lane access changes your labour hours more than any material choice.
Measure the house, not just the opening. Siding type, the height of the door threshold, and the age of the rim board all affect how the deck attaches and how long the flashing takes. Photograph the ledger area and the grade line.
Then ask the questions that decide the job:
- Where does water go now, and where will it go after the deck is built?
- Is there a gas meter, AC unit or basement window in the footprint?
- What is the frost depth for this address, and who confirms it?
- Does the homeowner want a permit pulled, or do they expect you to?
- Who signs the change order when the soil turns out to be fill?
A patio visit adds its own questions:
- Which way does the ground fall, and will the finished surface slope water away from the house?
- What is under the topsoil, and how deep will you dig to reach material that can carry a compacted base?
- Pavers, natural stone or a poured slab, and does the homeowner understand how each one moves and drains?
- Where will the edge sit against lawn, beds or the house, and what holds it in place?
Leave with the answers written down. A quote sent the same evening, built on those notes, closes better than a cheaper one sent blind.
Price the season, not the job
Most new deck and patio contractors price each job in isolation and then wonder why January is thin. Price the season.
Work out your crew's realistic installed output per week. Call it W. Multiply by the number of build weeks in your season, N. That product is your capacity, and it is usually smaller than the pipeline you have already promised.
Count decks and patios separately if the same crew does both, because a patio and a deck rarely take the same number of crew days. Use your own job records for W, not a supplier's estimate.
Now compare it with booked work. If booked work exceeds W × N, you are not busy, you are late. Raise price or refer the overflow out. If booked work sits well under it, you have room to take a lower-margin patio job to fill a gap.
Track four numbers weekly:
| Number | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Quote-to-signed rate | Whether your pricing is landing or your site visits are wrong |
| Days from deposit to start | Whether your scheduling is honest |
| Callback hours per job | Whether your flashing and fastening details hold |
| Gross margin per crew week | Whether the season is actually paying |
None of these need software. A spreadsheet and a Friday half hour will do it.
Run the build in the order that survives inspection
Sequence is where new contractors lose money. The trade order below is the one that keeps the inspector, the homeowner and your crew on the same page.
- Site visit, measurement and signed scope, with exclusions written out.
- Building permit application to the municipal building department, with any engineering letters, submitted before material is ordered.
- Material order and delivery scheduled against the actual start date, not the promised one.
- Demolition and disposal, with the old material gone before the new arrives.
- Excavation and footing work, inspected by the building department before anything is poured or buried.
- Framing, then decking, then railing, with each stage closed out before the next opens.
- Final inspection, punch list, final payment and warranty handover.
A patio runs its own order, with the same logic of closing each stage before the next opens:
- Site visit, layout and signed scope, including where the water goes.
- A check with the municipal building department on whether the patio, any retaining wall or any cover needs a permit.
- Utility locates, then excavation to the depth the base design calls for.
- Base material placed and compacted in layers, with the slope set away from the house.
- Edge restraint installed before the surface goes down.
- Pavers, stone or slab, then jointing or sealing.
- Final walk, punch list, final payment and care instructions.
Two rules protect the deck sequence. First, never order material before the permit is issued; a rejected application leaves you holding a non-returnable order. Second, never bury footing work before the inspection sign-off, because a failed inspection means digging it out again at your cost.
Freeze-thaw and chinook swings matter here. In prairie markets, a winter with repeated thaw cycles moves soil that a single cold snap would not. That is a design and detailing question for your engineer, not a rule of thumb, but it is why the footing inspection stage is worth slowing down for.
Staff the opening season
Your first season needs three kinds of people, and they are not interchangeable.
A lead carpenter who can read a drawing, set the framing and talk to an inspector without you present. Pay them hourly with a completion bonus tied to callbacks, not to speed.
One or two general labourers for demolition, carrying and site cleanup. Hourly, with overtime budgeted rather than discovered.
A designer or estimator, part-time at first, who can turn a site visit into a scope document the crew can build from. This is the role most new owners try to do themselves and then drop in July.
Subcontracting the railing or the patio hardscape is normal in the first year. It removes capital cost and adds a scheduling dependency you have to manage. Price that dependency into the quote.
Pay structures vary by market. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes occupation and wage estimates by state and metropolitan area at Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Tables, which is a reasonable starting input when you set your own numbers.
Keep the paperwork ahead of the crew
A deck business fails on paperwork more often than on carpentry.
A state contractor license or registration comes before most of the rest. Many states require a license or registration before you can advertise, bid or contract for deck and patio work, and the state board sets the classification, the qualifying exam and the bond; California's Contractors State License Board is the best-known example, and your own state board's website is the first place to check. Working without the license your state requires can cost you your insurance cover and, in several states, the right to collect on the job.
Register the business and get the tax accounts right before the first invoice. The IRS explains what records a business should keep, which is the habit to set before the first invoice. In Canada, GST/HST registration thresholds and CRA filing positions are set by the Canada Revenue Agency, and a bookkeeper or accountant should confirm where you sit.
Carry liability insurance that names your actual scope. A policy written for general carpentry may not cover a raised deck or a hardscape install. Workers' compensation coverage is a legal requirement in most states, and the state workers' compensation agency — California's Division of Workers' Compensation, for example — sets the rules, not your insurer's sales rep.
Get the contract reviewed once, by a lawyer in your province or state, before you use it on twenty jobs. Lien rights, deposit limits and cancellation rules differ enough that a template from another jurisdiction is a liability.
The SBA's Business Guide covers planning, launch, management and growth in general terms, and is a fair starting point for the parts of this that are not trade-specific.
Safety and the first inspection
Falls are the hazard that ends deck companies. OSHA's residential construction guidance at Fall Protection in Residential Construction sets out the methods employers are expected to use, and makes clear the employer carries the duty.
That means a written fall-protection plan, the right equipment on site, and someone trained to check it. Your state safety and health agency — Cal/OSHA in California, for example, or federal OSHA in the states that follow the federal plan — or a qualified safety professional confirms what applies to your crew and your heights.
The same logic runs through permits. The building permit comes from the municipal building department, and it carries the inspection stages with it: footing before backfill, framing, and final sign-off. Confirm the frost line, footing depth, guard height and ledger attachment for the address with that department or a licensed structural engineer. Do not take a competitor's drawing as the standard.
Common questions
How many jobs should a first-season deck contractor book?
Book to your crew's installed output, not to your lead volume. If your capacity is W jobs a week across N build weeks, that product is your ceiling. Overflow referred to another contractor builds a referral relationship you will want next season.
Should a new deck business pull permits for the homeowner?
Usually yes, and price the time into the quote. Homeowners frequently assume the contractor handles it, and an inspector who finds no permit on file stops work. Confirm the local process with the municipal permit office before you promise anything.
What is the fastest way to lose money on a deck job?
Burying footing work before inspection, ordering material before the permit is issued, and quoting from a photograph. Each one turns a profitable job into a rework job, and rework is unpaid.
When should a new owner hire a lead carpenter?
Before the first season starts, if the owner is also estimating and selling. A job site without a decision-maker on it stalls, and stalled days are the ones that push a June deck into September.
