Hello All,

We need to replace out 20 year old deck. We would like to have a
resonably priced, low maintenance deck or patio. We are stunned at
the number of alternatives. Ipe/Ironwood, Composite "wood" (sawdust
in a resin matrix), pavers, bricks, concrete, acid etched concrete,
stained concrete, dyed concrete, colored concrete layer on top of
plain concrete base, etc.

The bid on Ipe came in at $25/sq ft. That seemed expensive.

The bid for stained/stamped concrete came it at $18/sq ft. Also
higher than we expected.

Our deck is large (900 sq ft) with about 60 linear feet of railing.

Does anyone have any advice? Do these costs seem in line with
industry norms?

Any and all input greatly appreciated,

John

"John Teller" wrote in message
m...
Hello All,

We need to replace out 20 year old deck. We would like to have a
resonably priced, low maintenance deck or patio. We are stunned at
the number of alternatives. Ipe/Ironwood, Composite "wood" (sawdust
in a resin matrix), pavers, bricks, concrete, acid etched concrete,
stained concrete, dyed concrete, colored concrete layer on top of
plain concrete base, etc.

The bid on Ipe came in at $25/sq ft. That seemed expensive.

The bid for stained/stamped concrete came it at $18/sq ft. Also
higher than we expected.

Our deck is large (900 sq ft) with about 60 linear feet of railing.

Does anyone have any advice? Do these costs seem in line with
industry norms?

Any and all input greatly appreciated,

John

We did our deck with Ipe last year and $25/sq. ft. seems very reasonable.
The best quote I got (for a simple design, no more than 2' off the ground,
invisible fasteners) worked out to around $46/sq. ft. Because of that, I
built it myself at about $12/sq. ft. including the tools I had to buy
(circular saw, 1/2 drill, biscuit joiner, 7 various smaller hand tools,
measuring devices, etc.).

Looking back: #1. I am SO happy with the Ipe. Everyone that visits, makes a
comment on how beautiful it is. #2. I overengineered it so much that it's
the strongest structure on our property. #3 Well worth the money and effort.

(John Teller) babbled and bored us in
m:

Hello All,

We need to replace out 20 year old deck. We would like to have a
resonably priced, low maintenance deck or patio. We are stunned at
the number of alternatives. Ipe/Ironwood, Composite "wood" (sawdust
in a resin matrix), pavers, bricks, concrete, acid etched concrete,
stained concrete, dyed concrete, colored concrete layer on top of
plain concrete base, etc.

The bid on Ipe came in at $25/sq ft. That seemed expensive.

The bid for stained/stamped concrete came it at $18/sq ft. Also
higher than we expected.

Our deck is large (900 sq ft) with about 60 linear feet of railing.

Does anyone have any advice? Do these costs seem in line with
industry norms?

Any and all input greatly appreciated,

John


Composite wood is shit. It's top layer spalls and frays and comes apart like
old solid fiberglass and it looses it's color and turns grey.
Better ones are the solid planks made out of recyled plastic, solid color,
but expensive.

I myself would do one of two things;

1. Bricks. Since the bricks themselves can be had on sale for .25 each if
you wait or go get a business lisence and get the wholesale price, the rest
is labor. A crew of 4 meskins for one day can do the whole patio if you have
all the materials.
a. Have a dump truck bring you a lot of fine sand and gravel, rent a
vibrating machine to tamp it down hard, then have the meskins lay the bricks
and use one course of bricks standing upright as a permanent edge.

2. Poured solid color concete patio, stamped.
a. Or basic concrete with river rock spread on top, let it milk up and
wait 20 minutes, hose off the milk, set, then come back the next day and use
muritic acid and water to polish and clean the last of the concrete milk off.


The advantage of pouring concrete is that your imagination has no bounds on
forming and shaping walks, steps, bends, flower boxes, circles in the middle
to plant a large tree etc.


hth

mapi

"charliekilo" babbled and bored us in
om:

"John Teller" wrote in message
m...
Hello All,

We need to replace out 20 year old deck. We would like to have a
resonably priced, low maintenance deck or patio. We are stunned at
the number of alternatives. Ipe/Ironwood, Composite "wood" (sawdust
in a resin matrix), pavers, bricks, concrete, acid etched concrete,
stained concrete, dyed concrete, colored concrete layer on top of
plain concrete base, etc.

The bid on Ipe came in at $25/sq ft. That seemed expensive.

The bid for stained/stamped concrete came it at $18/sq ft. Also
higher than we expected.

Our deck is large (900 sq ft) with about 60 linear feet of railing.

Does anyone have any advice? Do these costs seem in line with
industry norms?

Any and all input greatly appreciated,

John

We did our deck with Ipe last year and $25/sq. ft. seems very
reasonable. The best quote I got (for a simple design, no more than 2'
off the ground, invisible fasteners) worked out to around $46/sq. ft.
Because of that, I built it myself at about $12/sq. ft. including the
tools I had to buy (circular saw, 1/2 drill, biscuit joiner, 7 various
smaller hand tools, measuring devices, etc.).

Looking back: #1. I am SO happy with the Ipe. Everyone that visits,
makes a comment on how beautiful it is. #2. I overengineered it so much
that it's the strongest structure on our property. #3 Well worth the
money and effort.




There is a Chernan99 guy on aus4sale selling most of the tools you need.

mapi

--
When we go to war over religion, we're basically killing each other to
see who's got the better imaginary friend.

"Mapanari" stunningly gives constructive and
helpful advice...

Composite wood is shit. It's top layer spalls and frays and comes apart
like
old solid fiberglass and it looses it's color and turns grey.
Better ones are the solid planks made out of recyled plastic, solid color,
but expensive.

I myself would do one of two things;

1. Bricks. Since the bricks themselves can be had on sale for .25 each
if
you wait or go get a business lisence and get the wholesale price, the
rest
is labor. A crew of 4 meskins for one day can do the whole patio if you
have
all the materials.
a. Have a dump truck bring you a lot of fine sand and gravel, rent a
vibrating machine to tamp it down hard, then have the meskins lay the
bricks
and use one course of bricks standing upright as a permanent edge.

2. Poured solid color concete patio, stamped.
a. Or basic concrete with river rock spread on top, let it milk up and
wait 20 minutes, hose off the milk, set, then come back the next day and
use
muritic acid and water to polish and clean the last of the concrete milk
off.


The advantage of pouring concrete is that your imagination has no bounds
on
forming and shaping walks, steps, bends, flower boxes, circles in the
middle
to plant a large tree etc.


hth

mapi


--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts *falls off her chair in disbelief*..... ;-)
http://www.tudortarts.com/

Howdy folks,
I've found a lot of good information on building costs, and folks
to use in Travis county by doing advanced google searches on "Groups"
using keywords ex: "metal roofing travis austin"
Most of the searches take me to the austin.general group which has a
lot of archived postings by people building in Travis county.

From my experience in construction, be wary of the rock bottom
bidders who 1) may be underbidding because they don't know what they
are doing and might bail out midway through the job when they realize
they are losing money .
2) Underbid on the expectation they can finagle 'change
order' charges or some other dubious fee.

Most times if you use a reputable contractor you get what you pay
for but if you don't use a good contractor you won't even get that.

We are off topic as far as gardening goes, but given some of
the other threads and the fact it's too darn hot to be gardening I'll
also mention that HGTV on cable is running a series in the afternoons
called "Dream House" which happened to have been filmed in Austin two
years ago about the time of the Labor Day Weekend Heatwave that hit
112 degrees. The show is a an excellent cautionary tale on what not
to do when planning a construction project. The series is in the
middle of it's run and the cliff hanger yesterday was the folks
building this huge place on Lake Travis just discovered that a giant
condo was being planned blocking their view between their windows and
the Lake. The homeowners were under the assumption that since the
land between them and the Lake was in the flood plain and had flooded
twice in the nineties no one would build there. But what the hay,with
Federal Flood insurance you can get the tax payers to rebuild your
structure every ten years so why not put condos in the flood plain?
I've been setting my VCR to record each day , the show is like the
suspense show "24" for do it yourselfers.

take care,
Steve Coyle

"Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts" babbled and
bored us in :


--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts *falls off her chair in disbelief*..... ;-)
http://www.tudortarts.com/




Why do you walk around with flattened gerbil all day long on the back of your
dress? New fashion by Susan Dell?


-- mapi
When we go to war over religion, we're basically killing each other to
see who's got the better imaginary friend.

(Steve Coyle) babbled and bored us in
m:

Howdy folks,
I've found a lot of good information on building costs, and folks
to use in Travis county by doing advanced google searches on "Groups"
using keywords ex: "metal roofing travis austin"
Most of the searches take me to the austin.general group which has a
lot of archived postings by people building in Travis county.

From my experience in construction, be wary of the rock bottom
bidders who 1) may be underbidding because they don't know what they
are doing and might bail out midway through the job when they realize
they are losing money .
2) Underbid on the expectation they can finagle 'change
order' charges or some other dubious fee.

Most times if you use a reputable contractor you get what you pay
for but if you don't use a good contractor you won't even get that.

We are off topic as far as gardening goes, but given some of
the other threads and the fact it's too darn hot to be gardening I'll
also mention that HGTV on cable is running a series in the afternoons
called "Dream House" which happened to have been filmed in Austin two
years ago about the time of the Labor Day Weekend Heatwave that hit
112 degrees. The show is a an excellent cautionary tale on what not
to do when planning a construction project. The series is in the
middle of it's run and the cliff hanger yesterday was the folks
building this huge place on Lake Travis just discovered that a giant
condo was being planned blocking their view between their windows and
the Lake. The homeowners were under the assumption that since the
land between them and the Lake was in the flood plain and had flooded
twice in the nineties no one would build there. But what the hay,with
Federal Flood insurance you can get the tax payers to rebuild your
structure every ten years so why not put condos in the flood plain?
I've been setting my VCR to record each day , the show is like the
suspense show "24" for do it yourselfers.

take care,
Steve Coyle


You would be ever so appreciated if you ripped it to VCD and posted it all
weekly on alt.binaries.vcd !!!

See: www.vcdhelp.com for details..it's easy.


mapi

--
When we go to war over religion, we're basically killing each other to
see who's got the better imaginary friend.

"Mapanari" wrote in message
news
Why do you walk around with flattened gerbil all day long on the back of
your
dress? New fashion by Susan Dell?


-- mapi
When we go to war over religion, we're basically killing each other to
see who's got the better imaginary friend.


*grin*...I rest my case....

"Mapanari" stunningly gives constructive and
helpful advice...

Composite wood is shit. It's top layer spalls and frays and comes apart
like
old solid fiberglass and it looses it's color and turns grey.
Better ones are the solid planks made out of recyled plastic, solid color,
but expensive.

I myself would do one of two things;

1. Bricks. Since the bricks themselves can be had on sale for .25 each
if
you wait or go get a business lisence and get the wholesale price, the
rest
is labor. A crew of 4 meskins for one day can do the whole patio if you
have
all the materials.
a. Have a dump truck bring you a lot of fine sand and gravel, rent a
vibrating machine to tamp it down hard, then have the meskins lay the
bricks
and use one course of bricks standing upright as a permanent edge.

2. Poured solid color concete patio, stamped.
a. Or basic concrete with river rock spread on top, let it milk up and
wait 20 minutes, hose off the milk, set, then come back the next day and
use
muritic acid and water to polish and clean the last of the concrete milk
off.


The advantage of pouring concrete is that your imagination has no bounds
on
forming and shaping walks, steps, bends, flower boxes, circles in the
middle
to plant a large tree etc.


hth

mapi


--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts *falls off her chair in disbelief*..... ;-)
http://www.tudortarts.com/

Howdy folks,
I've found a lot of good information on building costs, and folks
to use in Travis county by doing advanced google searches on "Groups"
using keywords ex: "metal roofing travis austin"
Most of the searches take me to the austin.general group which has a
lot of archived postings by people building in Travis county.

From my experience in construction, be wary of the rock bottom
bidders who 1) may be underbidding because they don't know what they
are doing and might bail out midway through the job when they realize
they are losing money .
2) Underbid on the expectation they can finagle 'change
order' charges or some other dubious fee.

Most times if you use a reputable contractor you get what you pay
for but if you don't use a good contractor you won't even get that.

We are off topic as far as gardening goes, but given some of
the other threads and the fact it's too darn hot to be gardening I'll
also mention that HGTV on cable is running a series in the afternoons
called "Dream House" which happened to have been filmed in Austin two
years ago about the time of the Labor Day Weekend Heatwave that hit
112 degrees. The show is a an excellent cautionary tale on what not
to do when planning a construction project. The series is in the
middle of it's run and the cliff hanger yesterday was the folks
building this huge place on Lake Travis just discovered that a giant
condo was being planned blocking their view between their windows and
the Lake. The homeowners were under the assumption that since the
land between them and the Lake was in the flood plain and had flooded
twice in the nineties no one would build there. But what the hay,with
Federal Flood insurance you can get the tax payers to rebuild your
structure every ten years so why not put condos in the flood plain?
I've been setting my VCR to record each day , the show is like the
suspense show "24" for do it yourselfers.

take care,
Steve Coyle

"Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts" babbled and
bored us in :


--
Elizabeth of the Tudor Tarts *falls off her chair in disbelief*..... ;-)
http://www.tudortarts.com/




Why do you walk around with flattened gerbil all day long on the back of your
dress? New fashion by Susan Dell?


-- mapi
When we go to war over religion, we're basically killing each other to
see who's got the better imaginary friend.

(Steve Coyle) babbled and bored us in
m:

Howdy folks,
I've found a lot of good information on building costs, and folks
to use in Travis county by doing advanced google searches on "Groups"
using keywords ex: "metal roofing travis austin"
Most of the searches take me to the austin.general group which has a
lot of archived postings by people building in Travis county.

From my experience in construction, be wary of the rock bottom
bidders who 1) may be underbidding because they don't know what they
are doing and might bail out midway through the job when they realize
they are losing money .
2) Underbid on the expectation they can finagle 'change
order' charges or some other dubious fee.

Most times if you use a reputable contractor you get what you pay
for but if you don't use a good contractor you won't even get that.

We are off topic as far as gardening goes, but given some of
the other threads and the fact it's too darn hot to be gardening I'll
also mention that HGTV on cable is running a series in the afternoons
called "Dream House" which happened to have been filmed in Austin two
years ago about the time of the Labor Day Weekend Heatwave that hit
112 degrees. The show is a an excellent cautionary tale on what not
to do when planning a construction project. The series is in the
middle of it's run and the cliff hanger yesterday was the folks
building this huge place on Lake Travis just discovered that a giant
condo was being planned blocking their view between their windows and
the Lake. The homeowners were under the assumption that since the
land between them and the Lake was in the flood plain and had flooded
twice in the nineties no one would build there. But what the hay,with
Federal Flood insurance you can get the tax payers to rebuild your
structure every ten years so why not put condos in the flood plain?
I've been setting my VCR to record each day , the show is like the
suspense show "24" for do it yourselfers.

take care,
Steve Coyle


You would be ever so appreciated if you ripped it to VCD and posted it all
weekly on alt.binaries.vcd !!!

See: www.vcdhelp.com for details..it's easy.


mapi

--
When we go to war over religion, we're basically killing each other to
see who's got the better imaginary friend.

"Mapanari" wrote in message
news
Why do you walk around with flattened gerbil all day long on the back of
your
dress? New fashion by Susan Dell?


-- mapi
When we go to war over religion, we're basically killing each other to
see who's got the better imaginary friend.


*grin*...I rest my case....