How do I Compare Composite Deck Costs with Stone Pavers?

Outdoor living space gives you a calming place to relax.

Building an outdoor living space adds both lifestyle and monetary value to any home. Patios and decks provide a space to entertain and enjoy the outdoors. Composite decking boards, a blend of synthetics and wood, are lower-maintenance alternatives to natural wood. Similarly, stone patio pavers are lower-maintenance than concrete. Deciding between the two often comes down to understanding the life-cycle cost of each project. This means taking the installation process, the material costs and the maintenance costs into account. With a bit of research, coming up with an accurate figure is not hard.

Instructions

1. Calculate the square footage of your project. Measure the length and width of the area you wish to cover and multiply the two numbers to get the total area. If your project has curved or angled edges, measure out a rectangle that will cover the whole area. This gives you a margin for error or bad materials. Similarly, if you are building a simple straight-sided project, you should add about 10 percent to the figure you get to allow for waste in the building process.

2. Call local building suppliers and get prices for enough stone and wood to cover the area you calculated. Check if your composite decking requires any special hangers or other hardware and include this in your estimate of costs.

3. Get prices for the wood needed to frame your deck (most composite decks are framed with wood). A wooden deck needs 2-by-8 boards around the perimeter and 2-by-6 joists spaced 16 inches apart to support the decking. You will also need four 6-by-6 posts to support the deck. For example, an 8-by-8 foot deck would need 32 feet of 2-by-8 board, and six 2-by-8 joists, along with the 6-by-6 posts at each corner.

4. Add the price for other deck-building supplies. You will need two joist hangers for each joist, a box of deck screws and a bag of premixed concrete to fill the hole around each post.

5. Price out the other supplies for a stone paving job. You will need to build up a base of gravel at least six inches thick underneath the pavers, so divide your square footage by half to give you a figure for the cubic footage of gravel you will need. You can then contact a gravel pit for prices. You will also need enough coarse sand to cover the patio area to a depth of one inch and a bag of polymeric locking sand for every 150 square feet of area.

6. Price your tools. Any tools you do not have you will need to buy or rent from a home improvement store. To build a deck, you will need a shovel to dig the postholes, a circular saw to cut the boards to size, a drill to attach them to each other and a bubble level to check that your deck is flat. Building a stone paver patio needs a few more tools. You will need a gasoline-powered plate tamper to compress the gravel and a gasoline-powered stone saw to cut the blocks to size. You will also need a long bubble level to help level out the sand before laying the brick and a stiff broom to sweep in the polymeric locking sand with. A good shovel is also essential to dig out the foundation for a patio.

7. Allow for labor. Although you don't pay directly for labor if you are doing the work yourself, time taken working on your project may be time that could be used for other work. You may want to figure this cost into your estimate. Of the two options, building a stone patio is far more labor-intensive and will use more of your time.

8. Talk to a sales representative about maintenance on your new deck or patio. Most composite decking products need little care while stone pavers may need a coat of sealant when installed and at regular intervals after that. Include the cost of these products in your cost estimate.

9. Add together the numbers you have estimated. To find the price of your deck, add the price of enough decking to cover the project area to the price of the framing wood to support it, the concrete to fill post-holes and the other hardware necessary to hang boards. To this, add any purchases or rentals, future maintenance costs and an estimate of how much your labor is worth. To calculate the comparison price for stone pavers, add the cost of the pavers themselves, the gravel filler, coarse sand, sweeping sand, tool rental, maintenance products and labor costs. With those two figures written down, you can make an informed choice about what type of patio to install.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are building a big stone patio project, you may save time by hiring someone to dig it out for you with an excavator as this is a quick job with a machine. Similarly, if time is an issue, rent a motorized post-hole auger to dig the holes for your deck posts.

• Remember to wear safety boots, gloves and goggles when working with power tools. If you don't have them, add them into your cost estimates.

References

• Grounds Maintenance Magazine: How to Install Concrete Pavers
• Bob Vila: Planning and Building an Outdoor Deck