Building a deck in Calgary… What to know and where to start!
Let’s start with a trusty deck diagram

This deck diagram includes all the building materials needed to go into building a deck frame; lumber, posts, concrete, and hangers, as well the locations of each component.
It is common practice at big box stores when discussing per square foot price of deck framing, to just include the bare minimum in order to advertise the lowest square foot price to get people in the door.
At Mountain View Building Materials, we prefer to advertise a higher per square foot price for our deck frame packages, and make sure to include everything our clients need to successfully build their deck.
Deck Frames are typically constructed of either 2×8 or 2×10 Pressure Treated Lumber. However, it is not uncommon to have portions of a deck built with 2×6 or 2×12 Pressure Treated Lumber as well.
A deck frame constructed as shown in the diagram, using all the identified components, using 2×8 Pressure Treated Lumber will run about $7.45 per square foot.
The same deck frame using 2×10 Pressure Treated Lumber will run about $8.16 per square foot.
Once your deck frame is built, there are an array of different decking material options to choose from here at Mountain View Building Materials.
These choices can be divided into 2 categories, natural wood decking, and composite decking.
There is a wide range of pricing between the 2 categories, as well within each category.