Customer Service: (253) 677-0290
Customer Service: (253) 677-0290
By Danu Rotari, owner of Decks Restore. Most people call me Daniel. Licensed and insured in Washington, WA LIC #CC DECKSRL797P2.
I get this question at least twice a month, usually right after someone tells me they already called a general contractor and the number scared them. “Do I even need a deck contractor, or should the GC just handle it?” The honest answer is that it depends on what else you are building. For a lot of Tacoma backyards, though, the general contractor is the wrong first phone call, and I want to walk you through why.
I have been on both sides of this. I build decks. I have also finished deck work that a general contractor started, quoted, and then handed to a framing crew who had never flashed a ledger in the rain. So I am not neutral. But I will tell you plainly when a GC is the right call, because sometimes it is.
A general contractor runs the whole job. If you are gutting a kitchen, adding a bathroom, and putting a deck off the back, the GC hires and schedules the electrician, the plumber, the roofer, the framer, and pulls one permit that covers all of it. You pay one company and they answer for the mess when a trade shows up late or does something wrong. That coordination is the product. It is real work and it is worth money when the job is big and tangled.
A deck contractor does one thing. We build, repair, and resurface decks. In Washington that is a registered specialty, not a lesser one. A deck built by a licensed deck contractor gets its own permit with the City of Tacoma, its own footing and framing inspection, and its own final sign-off. Nobody needs to sit above me to make that happen. On a deck-only project the GC layer is a middleman you are paying for a service the deck itself does not require.
Most backyard deck jobs in Tacoma are exactly that: a deck. No new wiring except maybe some lighting, no plumbing, no roof tie-in beyond a proper ledger and flashing. When that is the scope, going straight to a deck builder gets you three things.
First, price. A general contractor typically adds a management fee on top of the deck cost to cover the coordination I described above. On a single-trade job you are paying that fee for very little coordinating. When you hire me, there is no one to coordinate with. I am the crew.
Second, the person who quotes it builds it. I walk your yard, I check your grade and drainage and how the sun hits the space, and I am the one holding the tape when framing starts. With a GC, the person who sold you the deck often hands it to a sub you never met. I have inherited enough of those jobs to know how that goes. The ledger that let water into the rim joist on a two-year-old build was not framed by the guy who smiled through the sales visit.
Third, the details that matter here are decking details, and a deck specialist obsesses over them because it is all we do. Correct joist spacing for the board you chose. Stainless or hot-dipped galvanized fasteners because this climate eats cheap hardware. Flashing at the ledger and the posts. A finish coat that goes on only after the lumber dried enough to take it. A general framer who builds walls all week can absolutely learn this. Whether the sub your GC pulled off another site has learned it is a coin flip you do not get to watch.
Building in Tacoma or the South Sound? See how we handle a deck from the on-site quote through final inspection on our Tacoma deck builder page, or call (253) 677-0290 for a free on-site estimate.
I would be lying if I said always skip the GC. Here is when I tell people to go get one.
Your deck is part of a bigger remodel. If the same project includes a new sliding door cut into the wall, an outdoor kitchen with gas and water run to it, a covered structure that ties into your roof, and electrical for all of it, that is four or five trades on one permit. Somebody has to sequence them so the electrician is not standing around waiting on the framer. That is a GC’s job and it earns the fee.
You do not want to manage anyone. Some homeowners would rather pay a premium to have exactly one throat to choke. Fair. On a complex job that peace of mind is worth real money, and a good GC delivers it.
The structure is genuinely complicated. A three-story elevated deck with engineered footings that hangs off a hillside, feeding into a larger addition, may want a GC over the whole thing even if a deck specialist builds the deck portion. I do elevated and engineered builds, so I can take that piece either as the direct contractor or as the deck sub under a GC. The scope decides.
You do not have to pick a pure lane. On plenty of jobs the smart move is a deck contractor for the deck and a separate trade for the one other thing you need. If your only “extra” is a couple of outdoor outlets and some deck lighting, I build the deck and you bring in a licensed electrician for the electrical. Two specialists, no management markup, and each of us permits and stands behind our own work. That is often cheaper and better than folding a simple deck into a general contract just to keep it under one roof.
This part is the same no matter which way you go, and it takes two minutes. Get the license number and look it up on the state’s Washington L&I contractor verification tool. Confirm the registration is active, the bond is current, and general liability insurance is in force. Do this for a deck contractor and do it for a general contractor. An unregistered operator with a nice truck is still an unregistered operator, and if their work fails inspection you are the one holding it.
Mine is CC DECKSRL797P2 if you want to start with a name you can actually verify. Whoever you call, ask who is physically building the deck, not just who is selling it. On a GC bid, ask which sub gets the deck and whether you can see their work. On my bid, the answer is that the crew walking your yard is the crew that shows up.
If you are still deciding whether your existing deck needs a rebuild or just a repair before you call anyone, the 7-point deck safety checklist I wrote will help you tell the difference, and it might save you a general contract you never needed in the first place.
Not for a standalone deck. A licensed deck contractor can permit, build, and pass inspection on a deck without a GC over the top. You mainly want a general contractor when the deck is one part of a larger job that ties several trades together on the same permit.
For deck-only work, usually yes. A general contractor adds a management markup for coordinating trades. On a straight deck build there is little to coordinate, so that markup buys you less. On a multi-trade project it can pay for itself.
You have two good options. Hire a deck contractor for the deck and a separate licensed trade for the electrical or roofing, each permitting their own work. Or, if the extras are extensive, hire a general contractor to run all of it. The more trades involved, the more the GC route makes sense.
Look up the license number on the Washington L&I Verify tool, confirm active registration, a current bond, and general liability insurance. It works the same for either type of contractor.