Deck building

The DeckBuilding pack tunes Manuall for new builds, resurfaces, structural repair, and yearly deck care: multi-day carpentry priced mostly by the square foot and the linear foot. Apply it at signup from the Trade dropdown, or any time from Settings -> Vertical Packs.

What the pack adds

Custom fields

Eleven definitions. No Customer and no Lead fields ship in this pack, so if you want gate codes, HOA contacts or dog-on-site notes on the customer record, add them yourself in custom fields.

• Job: Scope (New Build / Repair / Resurface / Stairs / Railings), Railing Type (Wood / Composite / Aluminum / Cable).
• Equipment: Deck Size (sq ft), Decking Material (Pressure-Treated / Cedar / Redwood / Composite / PVC / Hardwood), Height Above Grade (ft), Attachment (Ledger-Attached / Freestanding / Partially Attached), Railing Type (same list plus Glass and None). Equipment here is the deck itself, recorded against the property, so the repair quote three years later starts from real numbers instead of a phone call.
• Invoice: Warranty (Years).

Job templates

Thirteen, each with an estimated duration, required skills, a linked checklist, and default service lines that pre-fill the billable scope: New Deck Build (1440 min), Composite Deck Build (2400), Pergola / Cover Build (960), Under-Deck Drainage & Lighting (600), Resurface / Re-Board (720), Stairs / Railing Install (480), Deck Tear-Out & Haul-Away (480), Power Wash + Stain (480), Deck Repair (240), Ledger Flashing Fix (240), Storm Damage Stabilization (240, priority Emergency), Annual Deck Care Visit (180), Deck Inspection (120).

Skills are DeckBuilding paired with Carpentry, Inspection, Staining or Demolition; set the same skills on your crew under team and availability or the slot finder gates everybody out. Default quantities are sized to a mid-size deck: 300 sq ft on New Deck Build, 320 sq ft plus 280 ft of joist tape, 48 ft of railing and 4 stringers on Composite Deck Build. Build 600 sq ft entertaining decks or tight second-storey landings and you edit the quantity once on the job template, not on every job.

Services

Twenty-four, all under the Deck Building category, each with Default, Member and Commercial tier prices plus a cost so margin shows. Every one arrives badged "Set your price" in the price book; the numbers are a 2025 US national-average starting point and saving the service clears the flag.

• Installation: New Deck (Pressure-Treated) and New Deck (Composite) per sq ft, Deck Resurfacing per sq ft, Stair Stringer per step, Railing Installation and Deck Skirting and Privacy Screen Wall per linear ft, Pergola Build per sq ft, Under-Deck Drainage System per sq ft, Deck Lighting Installation, Joist Protection Tape per linear ft.
• Repair: Deck Repair and After-Hours Labor per hour, Deck Board Replacement, Support Post Replacement, Ledger Flashing Repair, Hot Tub Deck Reinforcement.
• Service: Service Call & Diagnostic per visit, Deck Inspection, Design & Permitting Package, Power Wash & Stain per sq ft, Deck Tear-Out & Haul-Away per sq ft, Dumpster & Disposal Fee per load, Annual Deck Care Plan per year.

Two are worth arguing with. Deck Repair ships as an hourly rate with materials extra, which is not how plenty of shops sell a rot repair; if you quote those flat, write your own flat line. And the demo split (tear-out per sq ft plus a separate dumpster fee) only makes sense if you rent roll-offs. Ten of the 24 are flagged for public booking; the per-step and hourly lines are not, because a homeowner cannot pick those off a dropdown.

Checklists

Three, shipped for you to check against your own procedure, and every job template points at one: New Build Checklist (25 items), Repair Checklist (12), Pre-Service Safety Check (9).

They lean on DCA 6 and IRC R507, so they ask for the numbers an inspector asks for: footing depth below grade, ledger fastener type and spacing on center, lateral load hold-down count, guard height, largest baluster gap, riser height, tread run, riser variation across the flight. The safety check wants the 811 locate ticket before anyone digs. Several items are photo prompts placed where you cannot photograph later: footings before backfill, ledger flashing before decking.

Parts

Twenty-two, the truck stock a deck crew actually burns. Framing hardware (joist hangers, standoff post bases, lateral load tension ties), fasteners (structural ledger screws, timber screws, coated and color-matched deck screws, hidden clips), waterproofing (butyl joist tape, ledger Z-flashing, cut-end preservative), decking in PT and grooved composite, 6x6 posts, footing form tubes, aluminum balusters and rail bracket kits, post cap lights, drainage trough, lattice skirting.

Cost and price are a national average, on hand is zero, and there is no reorder point, because nothing can know what is on your truck. Counting stock is your first pass in parts and inventory. A bill of materials wires the parts to the services that consume them: 68 rows across 15 services, heaviest on New Deck (Composite) at 14 parts and New Deck (Pressure-Treated) at 11.

Seasonal pricing proposals

Six, all shipped switched off. The pricing engine ignores an inactive rule, so nothing moves until you turn one on in seasonal pricing.

• Peak Deck Season: +15% on New Deck (Pressure-Treated), Apr 1 to Jul 15.
• Spring Staining Rush: +15% on Power Wash & Stain, Apr 1 to Jun 15.
• Post-Winter Repair Surge: +10% on Deck Repair, Mar 1 to May 15.
• Winter Build Discount: -12% on New Deck (Composite), Dec 1 to Feb 28.

Typical workflow

• Service Call & Diagnostic is credited toward the repair if they book it, so the trip is not free work. Probe for rot, photograph it, price it from the truck.
• Builds go out as estimates with a deposit. On a $20K composite deck the deposit is what keeps a signed job from evaporating the week the material lands.
• Rot found once the old decking is up is a change order, not an edit of the signed estimate. Sistered joists and a replaced ledger are real money and the homeowner approves them in writing.
• A build is one job with time logged against it across days. The 2400-minute composite template will not drop into a single slot; block the crew across the calendar and let the duration tell you how many days to hold.
• Annual Deck Care Plan is the recurring half of this trade. Wrap it in a service agreement and let recurring jobs put next spring's visit on the board before you leave the driveway. Excavation, concrete and low-voltage electrical usually go out to a subcontractor; log that cost against the job or the margin is fiction.

Permits and inspections on a multi-day build

Anything ledger-attached, more than 30 inches above grade, or carrying a hot tub is almost always permitted, and the inspector wants the framing open before decking covers it. Track it on the job in permits: number, fee, status, inspection dates. A permit fee counts as job cost by default, so if you pass it through at cost, flag the row billed to the customer and it drops back out of the margin. Design & Permitting Package is the separate line you bill for the plan set and the submission, and it is not the fee.

The New Build Checklist opens with "Permit pulled + posted" and carries a "Framing inspection result" field plus a "Photo: footings before backfill" prompt. That order is deliberate. A failed framing inspection after the boards are down is a tear-off you eat, and the photo is the only proof you will have that the footings went to depth.

Re-applying and mixing packs

Re-applying only adds what is missing. It never overwrites a price you set, a checklist item you rewrote, or a template you renamed. Deck shops commonly run Fence beside this one: same crew, same post holes, often the same customer. Pressure Washing fits the staining side, Concrete if you pour your own footings, and Handyman for the small carpentry between builds. Apply as many as you run from Settings -> Vertical Packs.