Deck Building Process in Maryland & Virginia
Planning a deck requires careful steps before construction begins. Design Builders guides Montgomery County, MD and Fairfax County, VA homeowners through site assessment, design approval, permits, and material selection. Each phase ensures your outdoor living space meets local codes, matches your vision, and builds to last. Understanding this process helps you prepare timelines and expectations for your dream deck project.
Taking Care of Details
Once your building project design has been created and agreed upon, a contract between builder and homeowner must be signed.
At the contract signing, the on-site measure is scheduled. While we already have your property plat or site plan in hand, it’s necessary for us to take our own detailed measurements of the area where construction will take place. You can expect the designer, project manager, and plan engineer to all meet on the job site to conduct this calculation.
The Importance of Planning
The preliminary plan review meeting is a scheduled, online meeting that typically takes place about two weeks after the site measurement is carried out. At this point, the client’s home is drawn to scale as is the proposed project. No notes or details have been added to the plan at this point – the project is in its most basic form.
The project designer, manager, plan engineer, and client all review the preliminary plan which consists of layouts containing dimensions and a bird’s eye view, as well as front and side elevation views.
The main goal of this review meeting is to go over the sizes, elevations, and layouts of posts, railings, doors, and other elements of your structure. It’s important to realize what scenery and ground your structure may obstruct, interrupt, or alter.
This is also the time to make any changes to construction – this stage is the easiest time to alter a project, be it a major or minor change. If you are having second thoughts about any piece of your design, speak up now – it is always better to get it right the first time than to attempt a large change in the middle of a project, or be told that the change cannot occur at all.
Finalizing the Design
The final plan review meeting is the last step before construction begins. This is also a scheduled, online meeting. Before the talk takes place, the homeowner will receive a set of plans to review. The plan now contains detailed notes and drawings. And at this point, the scope of the work has been included in the notes for the project as well.
There is still time to make small adjustments to your project – decking color, railing style, door or window choices, if applicable, etc. But major changes cannot be made at this point. After the plan is complete, finalized, and agreed upon, it is incorporated into the contract and Design Builders then applies for a permit. Then it’s only a brief period of time before construction begins and your exciting addition to your home is underway.
Learn more about the design process by speaking with a Design Builders representative. Contact us today for more information.