Columbus Custom Decks works Columbus, OH and five communities around it, from streets inside the outerbelt laid out a century ago to subdivisions still being platted past it. The permit office changes at nearly every city line, and so does what a back yard can carry.
Columbus, OH
Home ground. Franklin County reviews most of the city directly, but the housing stock is not one thing: German Village brick rowhouses on lots with no side yard, Clintonville bungalows backing onto a ravine, Bexley lots wide enough for the porch and the drive, newer infill wherever a parcel comes free. The footing and the framing plan follow whichever one shows up.
None of that changes what actually holds a deck up:footings poured past the frost line, a ledger bolted and flashed to the house, taped joists, guards run through the frame rather than screwed to its face.
Communities we serve
Dublin, OH
Large subdivision homes on generous lots, a city that runs its own building department and a design review culture that expects drawings.
Upper Arlington, OH
Pre war and early post war homes on narrow lots under heavy tree canopy, with a board of zoning appeals that takes setbacks seriously.
Westerville, OH
Two housing stocks in one city: century homes around Uptown and wide post war and newer subdivisions to the north.
New Albany, OH
The most design controlled market in Central Ohio.
Powell, OH
Delaware County money on wooded, sloping lots.
Five offices, one job
Franklin County anchors the metro, but Dublin, Westerville, Upper Arlington, New Albany and Powell each run a review of their own, and two of them do not even stay inside one county line.
- Columbus sits in Franklin County and reviews permits through its own building department. Conditions shift block to block more than anywhere in the suburbs, so every address here gets treated as its own case.
- Dublin and Westerville both keep a building division of their own, and both straddle the Franklin and Delaware County line. The same subdivision can answer to a different reviewer depending which side of the road a lot sits on.
- Upper Arlington stays inside Franklin County, but the review reads setbacks and lot coverage harder than anywhere else we build.
- New Albany spans Franklin and Licking Counties and seats an architectural review board in front of the building permit, on its own meeting schedule rather than a first come queue.
- Powell falls in Delaware County, with the city or the township taking zoning depending which side of a line an address lands on.
We confirm which office actually governs a property before pricing it, draw the framing plan to that office's standard, submit it, then meet the inspector at footing and again at final. Homeowners association review on exterior appearance runs on its own separate calendar in most of the newer subdivisions, and we build that into the schedule instead of finding out partway through.
Where the housing stock changes the deck
No side yard to work with
Upper Arlington is the clearest case. Pre war houses, no machine access to most back yards, mature roots deciding where footings can go and materials that have to suit a house with a strong character. Nearly every job there is a replacement.
Drawings before the framing starts
Dublin expects drawings and a committee submission alongside the permit, and the open lots make shade the deciding factor, which is why pergolas and covered sections sell there the way they do nowhere else in the metro.Composite is the default expectation.
A retrofit on one street, a blank yard on the next
Westerville carries century homes around Uptown and wide modern subdivisions to the north, so the job is either a careful retrofit or a blank generous back yard. A good share of those lots back onto Alum Creek, which changes the footings.
Architecture approved before it is built
New Albany reviews material, colour and proportion before the structure is permitted, and the budgets follow.Screened porches finished as rooms are the signature project there.
Slope, canopy and walkout basements
Powell sits on wooded, falling ground where walkout basements are close to standard. Decks go up rather than out, which puts the cost into the frame, the stair run and an under deck system below.
Outside these five?
Franklin, Delaware and Licking counties are not a hard edge. We take jobs past these five communities too; a longer drive just gets added to the estimate as its own line instead of buried in the price. Call with the address and we will tell you straight away whether it is a normal trip or a longer one.
Every service, every community
There is no reduced menu for the suburbs. Thefull list travels to all five: composite and wood decks, screened and covered porches, railings, repair, replacement, pergolas, under deck systems, lighting and paver patios.