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How to Choose a Deck Contractor
To help answer this question, we try to put ourselves in your shoes.
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The home owners expectations:
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Project completed yesterday
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The deck builder is also a great architect and designer
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You will be able to enjoy not only a beautiful deck, but know that you paid a very reasonable price for it
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The contractor has already completed tons of similar projects and yours will go very smoothly
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The contractor will work evenings and weekends and in bad weather to make sure project gets done on time.
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You will have the best deck, at the lowest possible price and should an issue arise in the future, the contractor will be there to fix it.
![](https://deltadecks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/contractor_jpg_webp.jpg)
The reality of our deck building industry.
- Many start up companies creating beautiful websites with other peoples pictures and making false statements
- A deck builder is not a great architect or a designer. Most have no special training or education
- Many contractors overcharge and take advantage of unsuspecting home owners, especially during a busy season
- Yours could be one of their first projects or your deck could be subcontracted to an inexperienced subcontractor.
- Deck builders have lives too. Don’t expect more than 10 hours per day and 5 days a week.
- It is best you work with a company with a good reputation (see Homestars reviews or Google reviews) – then you can know they will come back to fix a problem if it arises.
So here is our suggested pathway to selecting a deck contractor:
![](https://deltadecks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/no-image-jpg.webp)
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Before calling a deck company, investigate the websites of these deck companies thoroughly, go through their portfolios and see what kind of work they have done.
- Compare the advertised “years of experience” with the age of their domain, many new companies are blatantly lying about their experience At Delta Decks – you can see our reviews on Homestars go back to 2006 and our domain was registered in 2005.
- When asking for references, point to specific pictures and and ask questions about these projects. Start with the bigger/nicer jobs. If the contractor has someone else’s pictures on their website, this is how you will catch them.
- Trust the Homestars reviews and read those reviews. Do not trust Google reviews
as much, many of them are fake. - Make sure the contractor has WSIB and liability insurance. Ask to see these certificates.
Remember that seeing past jobs or talking to past clients has a very limited reach. Even the bad contractors make some people happy.
- Ask the contractor if a permit is needed. If they tell you that you do not need a permit when in fact you do, stay away. It is the homeowner and not the contractor who will be on the hook for building without a permit if something goes wrong.
- Get a few quotes and compare pricing. Stay away from contractors who are way out of range.