What Should I Charge for Deck Building? (2026 Contractor Pricing Guide)
Short answer
Most deck builders charge about $22 to $40 per square foot for a pressure-treated deck installed, roughly $32 to $58 per square foot for composite like Trex, and $30 to $53 for cedar, before railings and stairs. Labor is usually a little over half the price; railing runs about $30 to $55 per linear foot and stairs about $70 to $150 per step.
Deck Building unit prices by work item
Enter a ZIP code to adjust every row to local cost levels. Rates start from a national baseline of 1.00 and scale by the published city cost index for that area.
Showing national baseline rates.
| Work item | Unit | Material | Labor | What to charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pressure-treated deck, installed Height off grade, footings, and railing length change the per-foot number. | sq ft | $10.00 | $14.00 | $21.79 to $40.47 |
Composite deck (Trex-style), installed Board line and hidden-fastener systems drive material cost. | sq ft | $22.00 | $13.00 | $32.39 to $57.59 |
Cedar or redwood deck, installed Species, grade, and finish add up; sealing is often a separate line. | sq ft | $18.00 | $14.00 | $29.70 to $52.80 |
Deck railing, wood or composite Baluster style (wood, metal, cable, glass) swings this a lot. | linear ft | $18.00 | $15.00 | $29.80 to $55.34 |
Deck stairs, per step Width, stringers, and landing requirements change the cost per step. | each | $40.00 | $45.00 | $71.50 to $149 |
Tear off and haul existing deck Height, fasteners, and disposal fees drive demo cost. | sq ft | $0.30 | $4.30 | $3.94 to $8.17 |
Material and labor columns are bare cost per unit before markup. The charge column applies +15% materials, +20% labor, then +10% overhead and profit, and shows a realistic range rather than one false-precision number.
How this number is built
There is no proprietary data feed here and nothing is hidden. Every figure above comes from four visible steps, which is exactly how your own price book should work:
- 1Start from bare material and bare labor cost per unit, at a national baseline.
- 2Multiply both by your local cost factor, from the ZIP table below.
- 3Add markup: 15% on materials, 20% on labor. This covers waste, procurement and supervision.
- 4Add 10% overhead and profit on the marked-up subtotal, then show a range rather than one number.
Regional cost factors
A national average is close to useless on its own. The same deck building job prices very differently across markets. These are the multipliers applied above, against a 1.00 national baseline.
| Metro | Factor | Pressure-treated deck, installed (sq ft) |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | 1.38x | $30.07 to $55.85 |
| New York, NY | 1.32x | $28.76 to $53.42 |
| Boston, MA | 1.24x | $27.02 to $50.18 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 1.22x | $26.59 to $49.37 |
| Seattle, WA | 1.20x | $26.15 to $48.56 |
| Chicago, IL | 1.18x | $25.71 to $47.75 |
| Washington, DC | 1.15x | $25.06 to $46.54 |
| Denver, CO | 1.08x | $23.53 to $43.71 |
| Austin, TX | 1.04x | $22.66 to $42.09 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 1.02x | $22.23 to $41.28 |
| Atlanta, GA | 1.00x | $21.79 to $40.47 |
| Houston, TX | 0.98x | $21.36 to $39.66 |
Before you send this number to a client
Worth doing
- Walk the actual site before committing to a fixed price.
- Itemize disposal, permits and prep as their own lines.
- Write down what is excluded, not only what is included.
- Compare these rates against your own last three invoices.
Where bids go wrong
- Using a national average as if it were a local quote.
- Forgetting that overhead is a real cost, not profit.
- Absorbing prep and access problems instead of pricing them.
- Quoting from memory when material prices moved.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge to build a deck per square foot?
A pressure-treated deck usually runs $22 to $40 per square foot installed, composite $32 to $58, and cedar $30 to $53, before railings, stairs, and footings. Height off the ground and footing depth change the labor more than most people expect.
Are railings and stairs included in the per-square-foot price?
Price them separately. Railing is best quoted per linear foot ($30 to $55) and stairs per step ($70 to $150), because their cost has little to do with deck area. Burying them in the square-foot rate makes small decks look overpriced and big ones underpriced.
What makes a deck cost more to build?
Height off grade (more footings and bracing), ground conditions, complex shapes and multiple levels, and premium decking or railing. Permits and inspections are common for attached decks and should be a line item.
Should composite decks be priced higher than wood?
Yes, mostly on material. Composite boards and hidden fasteners cost two to three times pressure-treated, while labor is similar, so the gap you see in the per-foot price is largely material you are passing through.
Other trades
Turn these rates into a sent proposal
A table is a starting point. Describe the job in plain words and Takeoff Convert prices it with cited starting prices (government wage data for labor, live supplier prices for materials where it can find them) that learn your own as you win jobs, then produces an itemized proposal your client can e-sign.
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