Call three deck builders in Dunwoody about the same backyard and it's common to get three numbers that don't seem to belong to the same job — sometimes $8,000 or $10,000 apart. That spread almost never means one contractor is trying to take advantage of you. It usually means the quotes are built differently: one includes engineered footings and a permit fee up front, another leaves those as a later change order, and a third is quoting a lighter railing package than you assumed. Once you know the categories that make up a deck estimate, you can compare bids on substance instead of just the total at the bottom.
What's Actually Driving Your Deck Quote
Every legitimate deck estimate in the Dunwoody area breaks into four buckets: decking material, the structural framing and footings underneath it, labor, and permitting or engineering. Pressure-treated decking material typically prices out between $5 and $9 per square foot, while composite boards — the subject of our full composite vs. wood comparison — usually run $8 to $16 per square foot before installation. What catches most homeowners off guard is that framing and footings, the part nobody sees once the deck is finished, often make up a third or more of the total bid, especially once the deck sits more than a step or two above grade.
Labor for a licensed, insured local crew generally runs $13 to $19 per square foot for a straightforward single-level build in the Perimeter area. That number climbs with stairs, a second level, curved or angled framing, or a lot where lumber has to be hand-carried instead of dropped near the build site with a lift gate. Whether you go with pressure-treated or cedar or composite decking, the framing crew's time is roughly the same either way — material choice mostly moves the decking and railing line, not the structure underneath it.
Rough Price Ranges by Deck Size
These are planning numbers for a simple, single-level deck attached to the house — not a quote, since elevation, soil conditions, and design details move the math a lot in either direction.
- Around 200 sq ft: roughly $9,500–$15,000 in pressure-treated wood, or $15,000–$22,000 in composite.
- Around 300 sq ft: roughly $14,000–$22,500 in wood, or $22,000–$32,000 in composite.
- 400+ sq ft: roughly $19,000–$32,000 or more in wood, or $30,000–$45,000 or more in composite.
Notice the wood-to-composite gap widens as the deck gets bigger — that's simple per-square-foot math, not composite becoming a worse deal at scale. Once you account for the sanding, staining, and board replacement wood needs over 15 years, the total cost of ownership often narrows or reverses, which we break down fully in the composite vs. wood post.
What Pushes a Number Above These Ranges
Elevation and DeKalb County's Red Clay
A deck that sits one step off a concrete patio needs far less structure than one built off a walkout basement on one of Dunwoody's sloped lots near the river or the Perimeter corridor, which calls for deeper footings, taller posts, and usually a full staircase with landings. DeKalb County's dense red clay soil compounds this — it drains slowly and shifts more than sandy soil, so footings often need to go deeper than homeowners expect to meet code and stay stable through wet Georgia winters. This is exactly the kind of build we cover under multi-level and pool decks, and it's consistently the biggest cost driver beyond raw square footage.
Railings, Screens, and Covers
Standard wood or composite balusters are the budget option; cable rail, glass panel systems, and premium composite railing all add meaningful cost per linear foot. Turning part of the deck into a screened porch or adding a pergola or roof structure is a popular upgrade in Dunwoody, but each is priced as its own project layered on top of the base deck.
Permits and Engineering
Any deck attached to the house, or elevated more than roughly 30 inches, requires a permit from the City of Dunwoody or DeKalb County depending on the exact address, and most of those require stamped engineered plans. That's a real cost, not a box to skip — our Dunwoody permit guide covers exactly what gets checked during plan review and inspection, and why it matters when you eventually sell the house.
Get a Real, Itemized Quote
We measure your yard in person and hand you a written estimate broken down by category — no mystery lump sum, no surprise change orders.
📞 Call 470-327-9145Site Access and Tear-Out
A narrow side yard, an existing failing deck or patio that has to be removed first, a tree that needs to come down, or an HOA that restricts work hours all add labor hours a phone estimate can't account for. This is one reason a walkthrough beats a number given sight-unseen, and it's also why our project timeline breakdown builds in time for site prep before the framing crew ever shows up.
Getting a Number You Can Actually Compare
Every lot in Dunwoody, from the flat streets near Georgetown to the sloped yards closer to the Chattahoochee, is a little different, which is exactly why we don't quote sight-unseen. We'll walk your yard, talk through wood versus composite, flag anything that's likely to need engineering, and hand you a written estimate broken into the categories above. Once you know what's supposed to be inside the number, you'll recognize a fair quote — and a padded one — the moment you see it.