Is Your Deck for Entertainment or Investment?
Deck Planning Series Part 2
The Deck Planning Series is a five-part blog series that offers helpful hints about mapping out your deck project.
In our first post in the Deck Planning Series, we gave you some food for thought about whether a traditional deck or a screen porch is the right choice for your project. The next important consideration is what your deck will be used for – and whether your family will be the only one using it.
Many homeowners opt to make improvements and upgrades to their home in preparation for selling the property. If you’re planning to move within the next five years, adding usable exterior space will increase your enjoyment of your home now while also enhancing resale value later. While it’s impossible to predict what any potential future owner may like or dislike about the deck or screen room, you can confidently build by opting for a simplistic, middle-of-the-road design.
To keep your costs down while recouping the most out of your deck investment, we recommend building a pressure-treated deck. This type of deck gives the future owner of your home a relatively blank slate to work with – a pressure-treated deck is the most customizable and railings and stains can easily be changed to suit another owner’s preferences.
If you’re planning to stay in your home for the foreseeable future and this home will probably be your last, we recommend that you choose low-maintenance materials to keep your upkeep costs down as the years go by. PVC and ASA deck products don’t fade, stain, or scratch and they’re available in a wide variety of colors so you can get a unique look. These decking boards also come with a lifetime warranty.
Being certain of your plans for the future gives you the freedom to personalize your deck and construct it exactly the way you want. If your deck or screen porch is solely for your enjoyment and it isn’t being built as an investment, then you should absolutely build this structure to your specifications.
Up next in Part 3 of the Deck Planning Series: Furniture for the present and future.