Deck Builders in Redmond

Part of it, in nearly every case, and the reason is that the two areas do different jobs. A covered section gives you somewhere to sit in the rain, keep furniture dry and use a heater or a grill through the shoulder months. An open section gives you the sun when it appears, which in this climate people want more of rather than less. Covering everything also darkens the rooms behind it, because the structure sits directly outside the windows on that elevation. A covered zone at one end with open deck beside it costs less than a full cover and is the arrangement people report using most.

Sometimes, and it depends on what is underneath rather than on the deck surface. A roof adds significant permanent load plus wind uplift, and that load has to travel through posts into footings sized to take it — so the question is whether the existing footings and framing were built with any of that in mind, which on a deck framed as a deck they usually were not. Where they were not, the practical answer is often independent posts for the cover carried on their own footings, passing through or beside the deck rather than bearing on it. That is a real job but a considerably smaller one than rebuilding.

Something that keeps the rain off without turning the space behind it dark, which usually means a solid or louvred roof rather than an open-slat pergola. An open pergola is designed for sun control and this region does not have a sun problem for most of the year — it will look good and buy you very little. A solid roof is the most effective and the most enclosing; a louvred system costs more and lets you have both, opening for the summer weeks and closing for everything else. Where a solid roof would darken a room behind it, translucent panels in part of the structure are a reasonable compromise.

Frequently, and considerably more often than for the deck itself. A covered structure has height and a roofline, which is exactly what architectural committees on the newer Redmond plats tend to concern themselves with — where a low deck might pass without comment, a roofed structure visible above a fence line usually needs submission. Because a covered build is also the more expensive half of the project, finding out after design is a costly way to learn. We ask about association requirements at the first visit and, where they apply, put the submission together before anything is ordered.