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Meridian Deck Co Call

Build Guide

When to build a deck here

The Treasure Valley build season runs roughly late March to October, and it fills from the front. Knowing how the calendar behaves is worth more than any negotiating tactic.

Every deck builder in the Treasure Valley has the same year. A quiet January, a phone that starts ringing in March, a spring where everybody decides at once, a summer spent working through the backlog, and a fine October when the weather is perfect and the calendar has finally loosened.

Understanding that shape is the difference between a deck finished in June and a deck finished in September.

The season is set by the ground, not the air

Late March through October is the working window, and the reason is underfoot. Boise's NOAA normals put the January average low around 25 degrees, which is a real freezing season, and a deck begins with holes that have to be dug, seen into, and poured.

How seasonal ground movement reaches a deck, and how a footing avoids it One stretch of ground with a tinted band along the top marking the soil that freezes and thaws each winter. On the left a post stands on a block bearing inside that band, and the framing it carries has been pushed up out of level. On the right a post stands on a metal base over a concrete footing that passes through the band and bears on the ground beneath it, and the framing there is still level. 1 2 3 4
  1. 1 The layer that freezes. Soil holds water. Water expands as it freezes, so the upper ground swells through the winter and settles back in the spring. The depth this reaches is a property of the climate, not of the yard.
  2. 2 Bearing that stops inside it. A block sitting on or near the surface has nothing beneath it but ground in motion. It rises and falls with the season, and it does not come back to exactly where it started.
  3. 3 What the structure does about it. Nothing, and that is the problem. One corner lifts, the far corner does not, and the frame takes the difference. Repeat that every winter and a level deck acquires a fall, doors bind, and boards open up at the joints.
  4. 4 A footing carried past it. The base rests on original ground that stays put all winter, so the seasonal movement happens around the concrete rather than under it. The soil can still grip the sides, which is why this is a question about the bottom of the hole rather than the top.
The layer this drawing tints is the same layer that has to be excavated through before any concrete goes in. Frozen, it is slow and expensive to dig and hard to read the bottom of, which is what closes the season rather than the temperature itself.

Spring is when demand arrives, not when capacity does. The first warm weekend in March generates a week of inquiries, and every one of them is competing for the same crews as the projects that were designed over the winter.

Month by month

  • January and February. Quiet on site, busy on paper. The time to design, get architectural committee approval, and place a materials order.
  • March. The ground releases, the season opens, and the phones start. Projects designed over the winter break ground; new inquiries are joining a queue that already exists.
  • April. Full swing. Good weather, occasional rain days, and the calendar visibly filling.
  • May and June. Peak. This is when everyone wants their deck and when it is hardest to get one built quickly.
  • July and August. Hot. Afternoon work on a dark surface in 95 degree heat is hard going, and the day gets rearranged around it.
  • September and October. The quiet secret. Excellent weather, dry ground, loosening calendars, and time to talk a design through properly. If you can wait, this is the best time to have a deck built in this valley.
  • November and December. Ground work winds down. Covered structures, rail retrofits and repairs continue. Design work for spring starts up again.

What runs before anyone digs

People underestimate the lead-in far more than they underestimate the build, and the reason is that almost none of it is under the builder's control.

  • Design. As long as it takes you to stop changing your mind. This is the one part of the calendar you own, and it is the one worth spending on, because every decision made here is cheap and every decision made later is not.
  • Architectural committee review. Committees meet on their own schedule. Submitting the day after a meeting and submitting the day before it are very different decisions, and nobody can accelerate either one.
  • Materials. A stock color sits in a distributor's warehouse. A special order color and a matching rail system have to be manufactured and shipped, and this is the most common single cause of a start date moving.

That is the whole answer to why a call in May does not produce a deck in June. None of the lead-in is waiting on the crew; it is waiting on a committee, a factory and a freight schedule, and those three do not care what month it is.

Weather that stops work

  • Frozen ground. Excavation gets slow and expensive, and the bottom of the hole still has to be readable before concrete goes in. This is the real winter constraint.
  • Rain during framing. A nuisance rather than a stopper. Treated lumber does not mind it.
  • Extreme heat. Slows the day rather than stopping it.
  • Wet boards at finishing time. The one that genuinely matters on a wood deck, because a finish applied over damp wood fails early. The finishing guide covers it.

The practical version

If you want a deck for next summer, start the conversation in the winter. If you have decided in June, aim for a September or October build and accept that this year's summer is mostly gone. And if the deck is going to be covered, decide that now rather than later, because the footings have to be built for it from the start.

A winter inquiry costs nothing and puts you at the front of the spring calendar rather than the back. Call or send the details whenever the thought arrives; the season will sort itself out.

Keep reading

Ready for a number on your own yard? Call (208) 314-4914 or use the quote form for a free quote.

Related questions

When should I call if I want the deck finished by summer?

Over the winter. Almost everything that happens before a shovel goes in the ground runs on somebody else timetable: an architectural committee meets when it meets, and a special order rail or decking color is manufactured and shipped when the supplier gets to it. None of that compresses because you would like it to, and the spring calendar is largely spoken for by the time the first warm weekend arrives.

Can concrete be poured in an Idaho winter?

It can be, with cold weather protection. The harder problem is the ground rather than the concrete: frozen soil is slow and expensive to dig, and the bottom of the hole still has to be readable before anything is poured into it. Most valley work moves off the ground in deep winter for that reason and picks up again when the ground releases.

Is it cheaper to build in the off season?

Marginally at most, and on scheduling rather than on materials. The real off season advantage is attention. A design conversation in October gets more of it than the same conversation in June, and design is where the decisions that cost money get made.

Thinking about a deck this season?

Call (208) 314-4914 or use the quote form for a free written price on any deck project in the Treasure Valley.

Call (208) 314-4914 Get a free quote