Here a deck is where you take in what Ridgefield looks out on, the refuge marshes, Lake River sliding past below, or the open country off the rises above town. It also sits through a longer, wetter season than most decks are built for. Morning fog settles into the bottoms, shade keeps the damp pressed against the boards, and the rain runs from October nearly to June. We build decks and patio covers to stand up to it, carefully flashed, braced right, and set on footings that will not budge, so they stay sound long after the weather has worked on it.
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From the footings up: posts and beams, joists, deck boards, stairs and rail, flashed for the river-bottom damp, in composite or cedar.
If the frame still has good years in it, we lay fresh boards over the top. If the damp has taken it, the whole thing comes out.
A proper roof above the patio, which keeps the rain off and leaves the space usable well into winter.
The ledger that locks it to the wall, plus the posts, beams and footings beneath.
Posts that have sat in river fog for years get checked first, then the old rail comes off and each post gets stiffened before new rail goes on. Fresh guards must satisfy current code, standing 36 inches or higher with balusters close enough that a 4-inch sphere cannot slip through. The deck underneath does not get rebuilt.
The frame is the part you never see again once the boards go down. This is the same deck at both stages.
Drag the handle. Left, the deck framed: joists on the beam, nothing to walk on yet. Right, the same deck finished, with the timber cover over it and the steps down to the yard.
Before After On most of the decks we get called out to inspect, the trouble is sitting at the ledger, the board lagged to the house that hands the whole load back into the wall framing. If the flashing was run the wrong way, water slips in behind it, and down here, where fog and river-bottom damp keep a shaded wall wet for months on end, it settles into the rim joist and the sill with nothing showing from the yard. Bit by bit the deck eases off the house while the framing behind the siding turns soft and dark. On a rebuild, that board comes off before anything else; on new work, we give its flashing and bolts all the patience they ask for. No other part of a deck hides its failure the way the ledger does.
The decisions all get made here. There are four, and only one of them is the part you put your weight on.
Start with the surface, because that is the piece you stand on. Treated fir is the cheapest and the least settled of the three; it works with every wet and dry spell, so it wants a full season to dry before a finish will hold, then a wash and a fresh coat on a set round after that. Cedar lies truer, feels better to walk, and asks more money, but the stock sold today runs soft with sapwood, so over a few years its upkeep lands close to fir. Capped composite is the steep number the day it goes down and almost free from there on: it never needs a sealer, never grays out, never hands you a splinter, though it does drink up heat where a wall faces south. When your ground stays wet most of the year, the real question was never the cost of one board. It is whether you will actually scrub and reseal a wood deck every year or two, and most of us already know, if we are honest, which camp we fall in.
Whatever tops it, the frame below is wood, and the frame is where a deck is truly won or lost. We build ours in treated stock, seat every joist in a hanger rather than nailing through its end, and spec hot-dipped galvanized or stainless on all of it, hangers and screws alike. The copper they load treated lumber with eats plain zinc right up, and a hanger rusted thin is holding nothing. We also run a strip of tape across the top of each joist. It is a few dollars a roll and it keeps water off the one face of the frame that, in the shade we get here, barely dries all winter.
Below that are the footings, sunk where nobody will ever see them and worth every dollar regardless. A deck is only as sound as whatever holds it up off the dirt. We bore the holes to the depth the permit spells out, fill them with real concrete, and stand each post on a base that lifts it clear of the pad instead of parking it in a puddle. In the soft, damp ground around the river bottoms especially, a post driven straight into soil is the number-one reason a deck that still looks fine has to come out early.
Railing mostly comes down to the view, and around here the view is often the refuge, the water, or the open country off a lot up on the rise. Wood is the least costly and wants the same regular fuss as a wood floor. Powder-coated black aluminum is where most owners settle in: slim posts, no upkeep, and it all but disappears against the trees. Cable and glass throw the whole outlook wide open and run the most, which is why they turn up on the lots with something worth framing, and each brings its own rules about how far apart the posts can sit and what fills the gaps, rules a frame set up for wood railing often will not satisfy. Whatever you land on, some numbers will not bend: rail height and how wide the balusters can space out are fixed in the code, not left to taste.
Two things cost far less decided now than bolted on later. Stairs eat more of the budget than their size lets on, because every single tread is its own bit of framing, and a wide, easy run costs more than a tight, steep one while being the whole difference between a deck the family actually uses and one that just sits there looking nice. The other is anything electrical, some low-voltage lighting tucked under the rail, a weatherproof outlet, a fan if there is a cover; it is cheap to put in while the framing is still open to the sky and a genuine nuisance to add after the deck boards are screwed down.
The deck in this photo is one of our own builds, and it happens to show both sides of this page at once: a raised deck, and a roofed section of it that still earns its keep after the rain moves in for the season.
Trace the border. That strip of lighter board running all the way around the deck, and on around both wide steps to the ground below, is what gets called a picture frame. It is pricier than simply cutting the boards off square at the edge, since every board out in the middle has to be sized to meet it cleanly and the framing beneath the rim has to be doubled to hold it. The payoff is that the deck reads as a finished thing and not just a stack of planks. The steps matter too: broad and gentle instead of narrow and sharp, so the deck ties down into the yard rather than standing off from it.
That gazebo up top, four posts draped in dark mesh, is built of wood and carries its weight straight down onto the deck, not onto footings of its own. So the framing below had to be worked out for that load before the first surface board was ever laid. Here is the plain, visible version of why we treat a cover as framing and not an accessory: whatever holds it up gets decided down in the joists, well before anybody is picturing a roofline.
There is not a wrong choice here, only the one that matches how you want to spend your time. Cedar and treated lumber are gentler on the budget up front and can be refinished again and again, but in Ridgefield’s wet they reward you only if you stay on top of the cleaning and the resealing. Composite asks for more at the register and then leaves you alone, brushing off the moss and the gray that our long winters force onto bare wood. Either way, the surface is not the thing that matters most. The frame beneath it is wood no matter which you choose, and it is the quality of that framing, far more than the boards, that sets how long the deck will serve you.
Here the wettest stretch of the year lands squarely on the months you would otherwise spend outdoors, and that stretch runs from fall into late spring. A proper roof overhead flips that around. Tie it into the house wall with real flashing, set it on posts bearing on footings that go to depth, and the patio becomes space you will reach for in nearly any month. Since it joins into the home’s structure, this is framing, not a bolt-on shade, which means a permit nearly every time. That goes through the City of Ridgefield’s Community Development Department within the city, or through Clark County if you are out on the rural edges. One crew handles the whole arc of it, the drawing, the permit, and the build.
Mostly it comes down to three things: how large the deck is, how far up off the ground it stands, and what you surface it with. Cheapest is re-decking at grade over a frame that is still sound. Fresh footings, tall posts, a full run of stairs, or a frame that has to be torn out and replaced all push the other way. Composite adds to the material cost and takes the yearly upkeep off your hands. And if someone has already handed you a written quote, put it in front of us, because we match or beat most written estimates by 10%, in writing.
What costs the most is not the part you walk on, even though those boards are the first figure anyone asks after. The fat part of the bill is labor and framing: cutting and hanging the joists, standing and bracing the posts and beams, and building the stairs, which pack more work into a square foot than anything else on the job. After that come the footings and all the digging they take, and those run up quickly on a taller deck, since bigger posts call for bigger footings and solid bracing to hold them steady. Then come the decking and the fasteners, then the railing, which people guess low on because it is priced per running foot and there is a surprising amount of running foot on a deck. The finish work closes it out: skirting, a few lights, a gate, the trim that boxes the framing in.
That is how two decks measuring the same on paper can come in at wildly different prices. Picture one standing a few feet up a sloped lot on one of the rises, reached by a full flight of stairs, and another sitting flat on a low yard down near the water. If the number has to stay where it is, the first place to find savings is nearly always the height and the layout, never the material underfoot.
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Send over a couple of photos of the area and a rough notion of what you want out there. Anything that comes in before 5pm earns a same-day answer.
Nearly every part of this plays out in the yard, so a deck is one of the quietest things we can build around a household that is still going about its day. Below is the sequence it usually takes.
We settle the measurements and heights, where the steps come down and how the railing sits, then the drawings go in for a permit, to the City of Ridgefield inside the city or Clark County out on acreage. On any deck tied to the house, and every roofed cover, this step is not optional, and it is the lone part of the schedule that hangs on an office other than ours.
We run out the string lines, dig the footing holes down to whatever depth the permit specifies, then fill them with concrete and seat the post bases in it. A wet stretch can bump this day down the calendar, because fresh-poured concrete is choosy about the weather it will set in.
Now the ledger is through-bolted and flashed to the wall, the posts and beams go up braced plumb and firm, and each joist is hung with a cap of tape along its top edge. While all of that sits exposed, the inspector signs off on the frame, which is the whole point of building in this order.
Down goes the surface, screwed off board by board, the border wraps the outer edge, and the stairs are cut and fitted last. Somewhere in here the project quits looking like a pile of lumber and starts to look like a deck.
Last up go the posts, the top rail and whatever fills the bays, then the trimmings: skirting, low lighting, maybe a gate. It is all light work, but it is what carries a deck from almost right to properly finished.
On the way out the crew clears the site, the offcut ends, the dirt from the footing holes, the dumpster, all of it. Then we walk the finished deck together, your estimate in hand, and if you went with wood, we will give you the honest word on when that first seal coat needs to go down.
A fair amount of the time, yes, and saving the frame keeps good money in your pocket. Before we commit to anything, we crawl under the deck and read the whole structure, the ledger at the wall, the posts, the beams and the joists, looking for soft spots and for any sign it has shifted. Then we give it to you plainly: keep the frame, cut out and replace the bad parts, or walk away and rebuild. The decision rides on what is really under there, not on crossed fingers.
Most do. Once a deck is attached to the house, or stands more than a single low step up, it has to be permitted, and a roof over it almost always does too, since now there are real loads in play. Where depends on your address: inside the city it runs through the City of Ridgefield’s Community Development Department, while out on the unincorporated acreage it is Clark County’s to review. We handle that paperwork as a registered Washington contractor (WA Lic. #EVERGRS757MC), filing the plans and booking the framing and final inspections. The exception is a ground-hugging platform, flat on the dirt and attached to nothing, which can sometimes skip the permit.
Plan on something between a handful of days and roughly two weeks of on-site work, with the size, the count of footings, and the behavior of the weather all pulling on that. The schedule lands in your estimate up front, so there is no guessing. And a cover brings a quiet bonus: as soon as its roof is on, the crew can keep going underneath on days too soggy to set concrete out in the open.
Bounce means one of two things, a frame that was built too light for the distance it spans, or one that has begun to break down with rot, and either way it deserves a look in person, particularly on a raised deck. The safe way to help us before we visit is a few clear shots from below, the joists and the steel hangers in particular. Send those over and we will read you what they show us before we ever point the truck your direction.
Honestly, it rides on the frame far more than on anything you walk across. Build that frame right, treated stock, the ledger flashed, tape over the joists, galvanized or stainless at every hanger and screw, each post standing clear of its concrete, and it will see out two or three surfaces fastened over it. A wood deck washed and sealed on a routine goes a long way; left to slide in our wet, shaded air it turns mossy, then gray, then punky. Composite outlasts either while riding the same frame underneath, which is why we keep dragging the decision back down to the framing.
A lot of the time, no. As long as there is headroom to spare and the old slab still carries water away from the house, we build the deck low on sleepers run across the concrete, with no digging and no footings. What changes the plan is a slab cracked up badly or settled so it drains back toward the foundation. That gets put right first, because once a new deck seals moisture against the house, you have a slow, costly problem nobody notices until the damage is done.
They should, and building the two as a single job keeps good money in your pocket. A cover gets its support one of two ways, from the deck’s own framing or from posts on footings set just for it, and either way that extra load has to be drawn into the plan before the surface ever goes on. Come back to add a cover later and the job almost always means lifting finished boards to reach the frame beneath, paying a second time for work that was already done.
Around here, moss is just what a flat outdoor surface collects. It settles in anywhere a deck sits shaded, pins moisture against the board, and keeps the wood below damp for weeks, which the fog and river-bottom air only encourage. An open gap between the boards, tape over the joists underneath, and a good scrub as winter backs off will keep you ahead of most of it. But for a deck in permanent shade on a low, damp lot that never sees real sun, the smart move is not more sealing. It is choosing composite from day one.
Our shop is over on SE 184th Avenue in east Vancouver, and from there it is a straight shot north on I-5 to Ridgefield without a single river crossing, so this is work that stays near home for us. We build across town, from the historic downtown on the bluff, Pioneer Street and Main Avenue, out to the Lake River waterfront, up on the view lots over the refuge near Overlook Park, through the new subdivisions by the Ridgefield schools and out toward Exit 16, and on to the rural acreage at the city’s edges, plus the rest of north Clark County.
Three of the 50 reviews on our Google profile, in the homeowners' own words.
Wow. Just Wow. Had the Evergreen crew replace existing fencing, put in a 33.5ft x 18.5ft multi-tiered deck, and assemble a 12ft x 16ft gazebo. Couldn't be happier with the results.
Anthony L.Deck, fence and gazebo
We talked to 4 different contractors and only David, of Evergreen, took the time to climb up to our roof to check out the job. The others gave us bids based upon a photo. Evergreen was not the cheapest but the extent of the work they did was worth every penny.
Steve K.Roof and exterior work
We had a small but very unique project and this team handled it with a great attitude. They were responsive, on time, and the finished work looks like it was always meant to be there.
Paige T.Small custom project
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Built for the wet side of the river.
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Oregon CCB #262707 · WA Lic. #EVERGRS757MCEvergreen Renewal Services LLC
505 SE 184th Ave Unit 320
Vancouver, WA 98683
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