Tag Archives: Central GA deck builder

Archadeck of Central GA, Converting deck to porch, Deck builder

Transforming A Macon Deck With The Seeds Of Change In Mind

February 15, 2018 admin

When these Macon, GA, homeowners contacted Archadeck of Central GA about refurbishing their backyard deck, they had a pretty good idea of what they had in mind.

Macon Deck extension with integrated tree

With an existing small deck that only extended about 6 ‘ off the rear of their home, they realized they needed a more spacious deck in order to live the outdoor lifestyle they really wanted. Such is the case with many Macon and Warner-Robins residents; a larger deck means more opportunities for outdoor living, more space to entertain, more room to grill, etc.

Here at Archadeck of Central GA, we perform many new deck, redecking and deck extension projects every year — however, this particular project entailed more than the typical deck extension.

This Macon deck included an integrated tree in its original design. The clients did not want to eliminate the tree, so we had to incorporate it into the extension project. Part of this meant we had to frame the new deck with future growth of the tree in mind.

Macon Deck extension with integrated tree

Archadeck of Central GA extended the deck using pressure-treated wax-injected wooden decking which comes presealed giving the deck a longer period between installation to the first sealing. We also added beautiful Fortress metal balusters to compliment the new spacious deck design. The homeowner’s opted to have no entry or stairway from the backyard to the deck as a safety feature. This type of secure deck design is becoming more popular in the local area.

Along with designing the deck with the future growth of the integrated tree in mind, we also structured it in preparation for a future screened porch. We added screen below the decking so it would be ready if and when the homeowners decided to add a roof –another way we prepared the space for the seeds of change.

In addition to the deck upgrades and renovations, our team also ensure the natural gas lines were run and secured for the client’s gas grill and we moved their Egg smoker from the yard to the deck for convenience.

Stephen Denton Archadeck Augusta square lr — Stephen Denton, owner Archadeck of Central GA.

Contact us today to schedule your design consultation and let us show you how we can help you get the outdoor living environment you have in mind!

Call us today at (478) 745 – 2000 or email us at centralgeorgia@archadeck.net.

Archadeck of Central GA, Deck builder, Deck engineer and construction, Outdoor rooms builder/contractor, Porch builder/contractor, Professional outdoor structure builder

Planning a New Outdoor Living Space is A Great Way to Curb The Post Holiday Blues

December 29, 2017 admin

Planning a New Outdoor Living Space is A Great Way to Curb The Post Holiday Blues The holiday season is filled with excitement and fun. It is a time when families and friends come together to celebrate and festive decorations change our homes and landscapes. The days and weeks leading up to the big day are often just as exciting as the day itself. Once the holiday is over, however, the lack of excitement can leave you feeling down.

As the New Year quickly approaches, one way to curb the post-holiday blues is to look beyond the winter doldrums to warmer months ahead. With this in mind, many Central Georgia homeowners may begin planning for the outdoor living season. These plans may involve a new addition to your landscape or outdoor living space. Whether your aspirations include adding a new outdoor structure, or improving or adding to an existing structure, winter is a good time to get the ball rolling before spring arrives.

Macon Open Porch Barrington Hall lr

Because of our mild Georgia climate, construction can begin as soon as your design is finalized and the contract is signed. In fact, the sooner we can start building, the more enjoyment you will get from your new outdoor living space. Once spring has arrived, the demand will increase and building timelines will become longer, this is why we recommend starting the design and building process with us as soon as possible. Using these winter months perfecting the design of your new space, ordering materials, and filing for permits is a perfect use of time.

Macon GA-sceen porch-metal Balusters

In fact, there are quite a few reasons why winter is the best time to begin a new Macon or Warner Robins-area outdoor living space project:

Our custom deck, porch and outdoor room designs require close collaboration with you. This process can take a few rounds of going back and forth, making adjustments and getting the project just right.

Macon open porch design plan Archadeck

Securing building permits can take a long time as we are at the mercy of the building department. Starting this process now, means you don’t have to let the good spring weather pass you by while we are waiting for building permits to come in.

Hot tub-deck-Perry GA-design drawing 750

At Archadeck of Central GA, our spring and summer construction schedule fills fast. In fact, spring is our busiest time of year. If you start the process now, you beat the rush and are on the schedule for construction, or your project may even be completed, when others are just starting their process.

Deck-composite-koi pond-warner robins

Despite the fact that all the pomp and circumstance has ended, all the presents have been opened and loved ones have headed home, Archadeck of Central GA can ensure the weeks ahead are overflowing with excitement and anticipation.

Contact us today to schedule your design consultation to begin making the 2018 outdoor living season the best on record! Call us today at (478) 745 – 2000 or email us at centralgeorgia@archadeck.net.

Archadeck of Central GA, Deck builder, Deck engineer and construction, Decks

Central Georgia deck designs can boggle the mind. Let us help you navigate the choices!

August 30, 2017 admin

Fiberon-Fort Valley-GA railing-lighting Looking for great ideas in deck designs? What’s new? What are the current trends? Here at Archadeck of Central Georgia, we keep up with innovations in deck design. We want to show our clients in the Macon and Warner Robins area the most attractive and well-constructed deck ideas. Clients are often amazed by the number of options available for decks today.

When you first start thinking about adding a deck onto your home, or replacing an older deck, you may think a deck is a deck is a deck. Seen one, seen them all? That’s certainly not true anymore. Among the variety of decks being built these days are different sizes, shapes, colors, materials, railing styles, stairway designs and more. By the time you complete your selections within each of these options, you will have designed a deck that reflects your personal style like no other.

Hawkinsville-GA round deck Archadeck

Archadeck of Central Georgia will not leave you to make these decisions on your own. During our design consultation, we can talk about trends and show you pictures of past projects we have completed. More important though, are your personal preferences. In the end, your own preferences will determine the look of your deck.

The 3 most popular deck design features today in the Macon and Warner Robins, GA, area:

Archadeck Deck-for-future-porch-in-St.-Croix-Macon-GA

Diagonal decking

Decking boards laid in a diagonal pattern serve two purposes. This design not only looks good, it creates a stronger deck.

Visually, diagonal decking adds a distinct character to your deck and can be directed intentionally to emphasize a specific view or to affect how people move through the space. The visual appeal of the diagonal pattern is more noticeable on a lower deck.

Fiberon Protect-Deck-Warner Robins 750

Technically, in terms of physics, the diagonal pattern creates triangles (which are stronger) as opposed to squares (which are weaker). Triangles help to brace the structure, so diagonal decking increases the strength of the frame by making the entire deck more rigid. This is especially desirable on taller decks.

Parting boards

If you’re looking for a deck design with even more visual interest, you’ll want to see some designs that incorporate parting boards. A parting board separates sections of a deck where the decking boards are running in different directions. We most often use this device when a deck is large enough to be sectioned off into different functional areas. Perhaps you want to have a lounge area on one part of the deck and a dining area on another section. The best way to visually define these different sections is to change the direction of the decking boards. A parting board serves as a meeting point for the two sections.

Metal pickets on railings

There was a time when all deck railings looked alike. If the deck was made of wood, the railings were, too. Wooden deck railings and pickets were somewhat thick and could easily block the view. Today we have a variety of materials available to use for deck railings and pickets. Most of the newer designs are thinner and made of metal. These new railings and pickets, or balusters, are much more stylish and almost seem to disappear when you look through them. Archadeck of Central Georgia uses Fortress™ Railing Products. The black square baluster design is the most popular with our clients, while second in popularity is the basket design (pictured).

Additional design features for today’s decks

There are many, many more elements that make up the infinite array of deck designs. Briefly, here are some of the other choices we will guide you through in the design process:

Colors and materials

Do you like bold colors, contrasts, or understated tones? Do you want to build with natural wood or composite decking materials? Wooden decks can be stained or painted, and a lot of the newer composite decking boards come in a variety of colors. If you are willing to perform — or pay for — annual deck maintenance, you can consider building with wood. However, if regular maintenance chores do not fit into your lifestyle, you will probably want to select one of the composite decking options. These new materials are evolving to look more and more like natural wood.

Shapes and levels

Composite deck in Warner Robins

Do you want a simple deck that follows the horizontal line of your home? Maybe you’re thinking about an octagonal deck or one that starts at the house and ventures out into the yard. A multi-level deck has a certain “wow” factor, but it’s not the right choice for everyone. What if you’re not really going to use more than one main level? Finally, if your deck is high off the ground, will you want to use the space under it as a covered patio or as a storage area?

Bottom line: the design decisions are your own

Fiberon ProTect deck in Warner Robins, GA.

You may think it will be hard to choose from all of the available designs, materials and accessories, but you’d be surprised. Once you start looking at the many options, certain elements will resonate with you pretty quickly. As you look at examples and sketches, your own preferences will solidify in your mind.

Let Archadeck of Central Georgia walk you through the design options for a new or replacement deck at your Macon or Warner Robins area home. Contact us to schedule a design consultation by phone at (478) 745 – 2000 or via email at centralgeorgia@archadeck.net.

Deck builder, Deck engineer and construction, Decks

Reinforcing art at the cabin in the woods

March 23, 2016 admin

Before we begin telling this story, we have to show you the finished project.

If the charming look of this countryside cabin isn’t enough, the story that goes behind it is even better. Before this was a cabin in Central GA, it was a barn in Ohio. The family reclaimed the barn wood to make this beautiful cabin. It is used as an art studio not only for the owners but also for other local area artists.

Now, here’s the before picture. We typically like to build up to the after picture but you’ll see why when you see the before picture below.

The entire art cottage is so charming that you may not have noticed the prominence of the front porch or the state of disrepair facing both the front porch and the steps. The owner was adamant about one thing. She did not want to lose any of the rustic character.

For the front porch flooring, while pressure-treated wood is a natural material, you can tell by its color and cut that it has been cleaned and treated and is therefore a few steps removed from the aged and storied quality of untreated or heartier wood. For the decking boards we sourced 2″ thick by 8″ wide cypress beams. We kept the under-structure for the front deck but replaced the rotted decking boards with the cypress boards. To make sure that the cypress beams did the job we were looking for, we took extra effort to use toenail screws from the sides of the boards so you couldn’t see them from the top.

On to the posts. The porch roof is held up by old tree trunks that were from the family’s property. The owner wanted to preserve them but they had some rotting at the bottom. We took them off, cut of the rotted areas and then increased the sizes of the header a little since the posts were then shorter. We stained the underside of the deck boards before construction to further protect the lumber. The owners are going to distress and seal the boards in the coming weeks.

As you can see, there is a bit of difference in the 2 sets of stairs. While the old set did the job, they were a little tough to navigation and were not up to code. Re replaced the stairs with a new set that were up to code.

Our goal is to build your outdoor space for how you want to live outside. We know that aesthetics are a huge part. Whether you are hoping to make your space rustic or authentic or shiny and new, we will work with you to determine the best materials and design to suit your own personal needs.

If you are ready to learn more about how we can enhance your outdoor living experience and stay within your budget, contact Archadeck of Central GA today (478) 745 – 2000
centralgeorgia@archadeck.net

AZEK, Composite deck builder

Just because you’ve been waiting a long time for the right time to build, you don’t have to wait a long time for it to be built with Archadeck of Central GA

June 9, 2014 admin

Perhaps you have been thinking about adding a new outdoor living space for a while– maybe a really long while, but when you decide you want to get started you don’t want to wait. We have some clients who had been thinking about adding a deck to their home for 10 years, since they purchased the property in ‘04. They had the perfect spot for it: the house has three exterior doors that are at the same height. They had even taken out some trees to make way for the project. It took us just a little over a week to build it. The deck was completed so quickly they may still be surprised when they look out their window and see it.

The house was built in 1997 and has the look of a farmhouse; it’s in a very rural area between South Macon and Warner Robins, GA. Two of the exterior doors led to a patio and one was oriented to the garage. We built a very small roof, similar to a portico, to provide protection from the rain when using the door to the garage. The owners like the look of angled boards so we created a traditional Archadeck angled deck. Angled decks have superior stability and provide subtle visual cues between changes in elevation. They chose AZEK PVC decking in the Redland Rose color. AZEK is impervious to moisture and insects and has terrific durability.

The owners selected wooden rail posts with white metal pickets in Fortress Iron and AZEK decking for the rail caps. In the past, iron railings were often custom made in local shops, were expensive and took time to fabricate to order. Fortress offers the look of custom railings at a fraction of the cost. They are extremely durable and allow a superior view to the yard beyond. This will be especially desirable if the owners decide to add the pool they are considering in the future. The AZEK rail caps visually integrate the railing to the deck flooring.

The house also has a balcony above the deck. We built around the balcony supports; they remain undisturbed. Since the deck is low to the ground, we decided not to use skirting on this project. There are nice wide steps on the front which can be used for benches to enjoy the view. We are proud to be the Macon deck builder chosen to create this great area where this family can sit, entertain and eat outside. Instead of taking three steps from their home onto the ground, our clients now exit to a lovely outdoor living space designed to their specifications.

If you are considering creating a great new outdoor living space for your Macon/Warner Robins area back yard, or if you want to give a fresh new look to your existing backyard space, give us a call for a free consultation. We are the composite deck builder which will identify the best structures and materials to create the perfect outdoor living space just for you.

Call: (478) 745 – 2000

Email: centralgeorgia@archadeck.net

Visit the pool deck photo gallery on our website for more great design ideas and inspiration

Deck builder, Decks, TimberTech composite decks

A deck that could have belonged to southern rock royalty

June 9, 2014 admin

Families grow and change over time. The good news is that your outdoor living spaces can do the same. We recently had the opportunity to do a makeover on a multi-level deck which we originally built in 1992. We remembered working on this home because it was previously owned by the Allman Brothers. The framing was still in good shape, but the floor and railings had weathered over the last 22 years and the needs of the family had changed so we came over to consult on an upgrade/makeover.

The original deck had several levels that stylishly connected the home to the swimming pool. The kids were young the first go-around and getting them to and from the pool and having a good view of the water were the top design concerns at the time. This year the clients wanted to create a more relaxed, living room-type space looking out at the pool and surrounding woods. The house has log cabin construction that fits very naturally with the lot and we aimed to keep the refurbished deck consistent with that look. To that end, we will stain the wood areas to match the home.

We built the lowest level up to match the height of the largest existing section. This allows for plenty of space for eating and entertaining. There are now two eating areas with great flow between them for mingling or just moving about. Multiple deck levels are ideal for allowing either for multiple use or for breaking groups into different clusters: think teens at one table and adults at another.

The decks are surrounded by new, solid skirting with doors underneath, garnering the family ample, secure outdoor storage. Composite materials have come a long way in recent years. For this update the family selected TimberTech decking to build the floors and rail caps. The railings are stained wood with black pickets and provide the necessary safety without compromising the view to the water and trees.

Rumor has it the Cher once stayed at this home. We think she would love the new deck! When you are considering deck builders in Juliet, GA, we hope you will give Archadeck a call for a free consultation. We’d love to talk with you about new construction or a refresh project like this one.

Call: (478) 745 – 2000
Email: centralgeorgia@archadeck.net
Visit the composite and PVC deck picture and photo gallery on our website for more great design ideas and inspiration

Composite, Deck builder, Synthetic decks

Archadeck of Central Georgia urges buyers beware and don’t fall prey to decks gone bad

November 14, 2012 admin

bad composite decking — This photo is a good example of GeoDeck composite decking that has gone bad.

The term “decks gone bad” sounds like one of those crazy videos that you see advertised late at night when everyone but you is already asleep. Sadly, being in the business of outdoor living we can attest to the truth behind the term. Shoddy workmanship and inferior products can cause any well-meant deck to go bad. This is even true when it comes to composite decking. Many homeowners think that just because they are getting a composite deck that nothing can go awry. Unfortunately all composites are not created equal.

Manufacturing defects composite decking — In this photo the manufacturer defects and inconsistencies are evident in this piece of composite decking.

Composite decking materials have been evolving since their introduction onto the scene. Since their inception, every few years another composite product will come out that looks better, requires less maintenance, and holds up longer than the last. However, all composites aren’t the same. Composites as a whole are a manufactured product and there have been issues where the product was not made properly. In some cases the formulation for the composite was composed incorrectly. We have seen this happen with the recycled products in particular. In each instance where we have dealt with a composite deck that has gone bad, it was attributed to incorrect manufacturing and production issues. Although it is easy to identify bad product as soon as it begins to be used in the field, it is difficult to track down the people that have purchased and used the product in order to communicate the problems with the product to the customer.

crumbling composite decking — The GeoDeck composite used on this deck is crumbling.

When material is ordered it is not improbable to receive material coming from different lots. When this happens sometimes just a few boards out of a particular order can be deemed bad. When this happens it can become a nightmare. The good thing about working with Archadeck of Central Georgia is if the unfortunate happens, we not only warranty our product, we are going to replace it. Although the manufacturer will not reimburse the contractor for the labor involved in replacement, we will always make things right. A good contractor will always stand behind their products and their work and will make whatever goes wrong on your project right as rain at all costs.

defective synthetic decking — This photo illustrates defective Epoch synthetic decking by Tamco.

The vast majority of inferior composite materials come from smaller, lesser known and new composite companies. A good rule of thumb is to talk with your contractor about which companies he/she has found to be the most reputable from their experience. We have worked with many composite companies and will only do business with those that have a long track record of positive results. Archadeck also has a good relationship with all the reputable composite companies which is very important in delivering peace of mind to our customers through the products we offer.

Stephen Denton, owner of Archadeck of Central GA

If you are planning a new composite deck addition, or maybe you are thinking of refurbishing an existing deck, contact Archadeck of Central Georgia. We can ensure a quality composite and the quality ethics and workmanship that go beyond your everyday contractor. We go the extra mile, for your safety, satisfaction and to protect your outdoor living investment. Call us today for a free consultation (478) 745 – 2000
centralgeorgia@archadeck.net

Visit our composite and PVC deck gallery located on our website to see examples of quality composite paired with quality design and workmanship.

Macon Warner Robins Decks, Patios, Porches, Pergolas, Gazebos and more