You’ve decided to hire a decking contractor.

Congratulations! Enlisting a seasoned professional is the first step towards finding someone who you can partner with to help bring your dream deck into fruition.

Things get get messy however when you're deciding on who to actually employ. After all, not only will this person be charged with creating an important addition to your home, they’ll be spending a lot of time on your property and working with you to give updates and receive feedback as needed.

How to frame a cathedral ceiling in Maryland, Virginia, or the District of Columbia

The following is the general process by which a cathedral ceiling is constructed. You may want to read our gabled roofing vocabulary cheat sheet before exploring this article.

The Scenario

Bill and Eileen are two of many Virginians who call Great Falls their home. They purchased their 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom house in 2002 and have since grown to a family of five with three young daughters. With the amount of room the property has, the couple will be living there for the foreseeable future and has already completed several renovations to its interior.

With a reinvigorated kitchen, a basement-turned-bar and game room, and an expanded master bedroom, the couple's attention has turned to their deteriorating 25-year-old deck that is showing signs of its age. As Bill and Eileen come from large families, they are looking for an outdoor makeover to support the scale of holiday gatherings they are accustomed to as well as birthday parties, play dates, and other events year-round. With their current set-up not meeting these needs, it's time to makeover their outdoor living space.

Sunroom Addition in a Historic Bethesda, Maryland Neighborhood

In the Carderock Springs neighborhood of Bethesda, Maryland is a home with a recently completed sun room expansion. While this may not seem extraordinary at first, consider how residential planner Edmund Bennett's execution of this 1960's-era community earned it an official spot  on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places.

Consequently, homeowners looking to modify their houses here are forced to abide by strict standards enforced by various covenants and an Architectural Review Committee (ARC). These regulatory bodies are legally required to maintain Carderock's architectural aesthetic, making contracting more of a challenge.

Your Contractor, The International Residential Code (IRC), and You

The world around us is evolving, from the technology we use to the clothes we wear to the fads we follow. It makes sense, then, that the construction industry around us is changing as well. Ten years ago, the “correct” ways to build a house, deck, or screened-in porch were completely different from the approved methods of today.

So how does a contractor keep up-to-date with constantly changing building standards, rules, and techniques? To do so, a reputable and trustworthy contractor must be intimately familiar with every page in the latest edition of the IRC.