A wooden deck should be a carefully crafted piece of art that you can be proud of after you get done building it. Too many professional contractors use cookie-cutter plans when building decks for houses - there's practically no room for customization unless you want to pay plenty of extra over on top of what you're already paying in building and service fees. On the contrary, building a deck yourself doesn't have to be expensive, but it does take a little time and patience to get it right.

Of course you might have doubts about taking on such a huge project. Perhaps you've had the experience of trying to build a wooden project from scratch before and it didn't turn out quite like you'd hoped. Well, I believe that wouldn't have happened if you'd followed a good woodworking plan.

How Woodworking Plans Can Help

The first dilemma you'll be faced with when planning a wooden deck project is how big you'll need to make your deck as well as the materials that you'll need. A good plan gives guidelines about how large or small of a deck you need. In addition, a list of all the needed materials is included with woodworking plans, all the way from the nails and screws that you'll use to the properly-fitted wooden beams you'll have to buy.

A second reason why many people choose woodworking plans to help build a deck is time constraints. People just don't have the time these days to figure everything out themselves. However, a plan that includes all the steps simplifies the process, taking the guesswork out of where to start and which beam to lay first.

Customizing your Deck

As mentioned above, having a professional contractor may seem like a good idea at first but really leaves little room for personalization or customization if you are on a budget. If however, you build the deck yourself, you can make it look exactly how you want it and it doesn't have to look like one of the decks that are build using cookie-cutter plans that a lot of contractors use. This means that for example if you want to build a special platform for a barbecue grill then you can make these customizations without having to find a huge amount of extra money for your contractor.

All things considered, a woodworking plan that shows you how to start and finish your wooden deck is what you really want. Instead of relying on someone else's expertise, many people find it satisfying work to personally build and work on an addition to their house, so give it a go!