Building a deck in St. Louis often runs into a problem most national how-to guides never mention: how do you attach a ledger board to a brick wall? A large share of the homes in this area are brick, and the ledger, the board that bolts the deck to the house and carries a big share of its structural load, has to be handled differently on masonry than it does on the vinyl or fiber-cement siding most generic deck content assumes you have. St. Louis Deck Pros connects you with a local contractor who builds decks for St. Louis lots specifically, brick ledgers, sloped yards, and all. Call (314) 626-3663 to start the conversation.
There are two honest answers, and which one applies depends on what's actually behind your brick. Homes with a wood-framed wall and a brick veneer, which describes a lot of St. Louis's postwar housing stock, can sometimes support a properly through-bolted ledger board, as long as the veneer ties back to solid framing and the connection is flashed correctly to keep water from working its way in behind the brick over time. Homes with solid masonry construction, more common in the city's older neighborhoods, generally can't take a ledger-mounted deck safely at all, because there's no wood framing behind the brick to bolt into in the first place. In that case the right move is a freestanding deck: its own posts and beam carrying the full load a few inches off the house, with no structural reliance on the wall whatsoever. A contractor who has actually built decks on St. Louis brick usually knows which situation your house is in before they pick up a drill, often just from knowing the neighborhood and roughly when the home was built.
Plenty of St. Louis lots, especially in the older inner-ring suburbs, sit on a real grade rather than a flat pad, and a lot of homes have a walkout lower level that puts the back door well above the yard. A deck on a sloped lot usually needs taller posts on the low side, sometimes stepped down in two or three levels connected by stairs rather than one flat platform. That's not a problem, it's just a design decision that has to happen early, because post height and footing depth both change once you're talking about a deck that sits six or eight feet off the ground instead of eighteen inches. A yard with a mature tree in the footprint adds another layer: root protection during footing excavation, and sometimes a framing plan that routes around a trunk instead of through it. None of this is exotic work for a local crew. It's just work a builder used to flat suburban tract lots somewhere else has never had to think through.
Plan on a few weeks between the first conversation and the first cut of lumber, most of it spent on decisions and paperwork rather than construction. The first visit is measurements and a walk of the yard: grade, sun exposure, tree locations, and how the house is built where the deck will attach. From there comes material selection and a design that fits both the yard and the budget, followed by a permit application to whichever St. Louis County municipality or the city has jurisdiction over your address. Review times vary by city and by season, since permit offices get backed up in spring when everyone has the same idea at once. Once the permit clears, framing usually moves fast, often a matter of days for a single-level deck, with decking, railing, and stairs following right behind.
A few decisions affect safety and code compliance more than they affect the photo you'll post when it's done. Railing height is code-driven once a deck sits above a certain distance from the ground, usually 30 inches, and that number isn't optional or a matter of taste. Stair rise and run need to stay consistent step to step, since a single stair that's an inch taller than the rest is a documented, common cause of falls, not a minor quirk. Joist spacing has to match whatever decking material goes on top, and composite boards generally need tighter joist spacing than solid wood to avoid flexing between supports. Footing count and placement follow the load the deck actually carries, which changes with size, height, and whether you're planning a hot tub or a stone fire feature on it someday. A contractor should walk you through each of these choices, not just hand you a materials list and a signature line.
Ready to talk through a design for your yard? Call (314) 626-3663 for a free consultation with a local St. Louis deck builder.
All of it, within what the yard and the budget allow. A good contractor brings up code requirements and structural limits, footing placement, railing height, stair geometry, but layout, decking material, railing style, and features like built-in seating or lighting are your call. The best custom builds come from a design conversation where the contractor pushes back on things that won't hold up structurally while leaving the actual look of the space to you.
Often, yes, though it depends on the tree's root spread and how close the trunk sits to the planned footing locations. Framing can be notched or offset to leave room for a trunk to keep growing, and some designs leave a gap around the base entirely. What doesn't work is excavating footings right through a major root zone, since that can damage or eventually kill a mature tree that took decades to grow. A contractor familiar with St. Louis's tree canopy will usually flag this during the first site visit, not after footings are already dug.
Sometimes. Most single-level, standard-height decks get built to prescriptive code tables that don't require a stamped engineering drawing. Multi-level designs, decks built to carry unusual loads like a hot tub, or anything with an especially long unsupported span usually do need engineering sign-off before the municipality issues a permit. Your contractor should tell you upfront whether your design crosses that line, since it affects both the timeline and the cost.
It depends on how you'll use it more than how big the yard is. A deck meant for a grill, a table for four, and not much else can work well under 150 square feet. A space meant for entertaining, with room for furniture groupings and walking space around them, usually wants closer to 300 square feet or more. The yard itself sets the outer limit: setback requirements from the property line, existing trees, and the slope all shrink the usable footprint before design even starts.
Yes, and it's a common project, usually either building a deck that connects to an existing patio at a different level, or replacing a small original patio with a larger deck that better fits how the family uses the yard now. The main design question is how the two surfaces meet: a shared step, a defined edge, or in some cases removing the old patio and installing a paver landing in its place instead. A site visit is the best way to figure out which approach fits your specific layout.
Call (314) 626-3663 today to schedule a free design consultation for your custom deck project in St. Louis.