Gradient Deck Works · Slope & multi-level deck specialists · Telford Rise & Fern Gulch · Since 2009
Flat decks are built on flat yards. We don’t get those.
Gradient builds on the ground you actually have — levels stepped to the grade, piers lengthened by the fall, guards computed for the drop side, and stairs drawn at the rise-and-run the code counts in eighths. The yard slopes; the deck doesn’t have to know.
Slope surveys with a laser level and a fixed quote that already carries the fall · Telford Rise, Fern Gulch and the gorge roads · (555) 328-6609 · grade@gradientdecks.example
What we do
Three ways down a hill
Stepped platforms
Levels split where the grade turns, each one flat, each one framed full-height on its downhill posts — a deck that follows the yard like a staircase of rooms. The steps land on posts, never mid-span, and every platform carries its own guard and its own footing depth.
The landing stair
A stair computed to the code’s arithmetic — risers within a quarter-inch of each other, runs deep enough for a tea tray, landings every twelve feet of drop, and rail the height the drop side asks for. The most-used part of a slope deck is the part we measure twice.
Rack rails & guard geometry
On a slope the guard works harder on the downhill side, so posts go deeper, blocking doubles, and rail sections rack to the grade where the pattern allows. We draw the guard heights off the walking surface at every point — the number the inspector brings a tape for.
The fall line-item
The slope is priced, not absorbed
Every builder pays for the hill; the honest ones print it. Pier length, step count, rail footage and guard height all grow with the fall — so each one is its own line on the fixed quote, computed from the laser survey, before you sign. A slope deck quoted as a flat square-foot number is a change order waiting for week three.
What a 4-ft fall adds
Composite deck, base ratefrom $59/sq ft
the flat-yard number, for comparison
Pier extension+$46/pier/ft
every foot of fall, per post
Landing stairfrom $210/riser
code risers, deep runs, handrail
Downhill guard upgrade+$18/ln ft
drop-side posts and doubled blocking
Skirt & retainfrom $64/ln ft
hides the posts, holds the bed
Telford Rise · Fern Gulch · 2024–2026
Yards that slope, decks that don’t
Six builds from the gorge country, every one starting below the door and ending above the creek. Ask at the survey and we will lend you the address of the slope nearest yours.
How it goes
Laser survey to level walkthrough
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 1
The laser survey
The grade shot at every post point, the fall mapped corner to corner, and the soil probe where the piers want to go. You leave with a level diagram of your own yard and a budget band — free, and yours whoever builds it.
Week 1
The stepped drawing
Levels placed where the grade turns, the stair computed to code eighths, and the pier schedule printed one post at a time — length by length, depth by depth. One fixed price rides on it, fall already carried.
Week 2
Piers to depth plus fall
Helical where the access is mean, poured where the auger can travel — every pier to 48 inches below its own footing elevation, which on the downhill corner means the deepest hole on the job.
Weeks 3–4
Frame, stairs, guards
Twelve-inch centres under any diagonal, blocking doubled at drop-side rail posts, stairs hung on headers not stringers-to-nowhere. The crew that shoots the grade frames the deck.
Handover
The level walkthrough
A ten-foot level across every platform, readings written into your folder beside the survey. On a slope the promise is specific: each level flat, each stair even to the quarter-inch, each guard the height the drop demands.
Three crews quoted our slope as a flat square-foot number with a shrug about “seeing how the posts go.” Gradient shot the grade with a laser, printed the pier lengths one by one, and the fixed price survived a four-foot fall without a murmur. The stairs are the first ones I have owned where nobody counts steps.
Our yard falls six feet to the creek and the other bidders treated it as a rumour. Gradient’s drawing had the fall on it as contours, the quote had it as line items, and the build matched both. The downhill guard passed inspection with the tape still in the inspector’s hand.
The switchback stair lands on posts, which I learned is the difference between stairs that season and stairs that sag. Two winters of gorge wind and the readings at the walkthrough still match the readings in my folder.
They charged me for the hill exactly once, in writing, at the start. Having watched two neighbours absorb “surprises” on their slopes, that turns out to be the whole service.
Asked with the laser out
How far can a deck cantilever past its posts on a slope?
A quarter of the back span, and never more than 24 inches on residential 2×10 joists — the rule the county checks and the one we frame to. On a hillside the temptation is to reach out over the grade and skip a pier; the arithmetic says buy the pier. Beyond the rule you are borrowing stiffness from the guard, and the guard has other work to do.
Do guard heights change on a slope?
Yes, because the code measures from the walking surface to grade — and on a slope that distance changes as you walk. Wherever the deck sits more than 30 inches above the ground at that point, the 36-inch guard applies; the downhill corner usually demands it for the whole run. We draw the guard off the survey, not off the brochure.
Helical or poured piers on a hill?
Helical piers shine on slopes: no excavation sliding down the grade, no concrete truck terracing the yard, and every pile torque-verified against its own deeper elevation. Poured sono-tubes win on price where an auger can reach the uphill line. Most slope builds here use both, and the quote names which and why.
Can we put a pergola over the top level?
Yes — but it is a load question before it is a shade question. A pergola on a slope deck is engineered to the county’s 40-psf snow load with its posts landing on the deck’s posts, never mid-span, and the downhill corner post usually grows a size because it carries the canopy and the fall at once. The drawing shows the load path before the lumber order.
What does a stair on a steep yard really cost?
Computed honestly: roughly two hundred dollars a riser with landings, handrail and footings — and it is the money you feel every day, because a stair built to code eighths is the difference between a deck you use and a deck you look at. Landings every twelve feet of drop are code here and comfort everywhere.
Before the survey
The slope questions
The four questions every hillside owner arrives with — answered with the quarter-span rule and a pier schedule rather than a shrug about seeing how it goes.
Send us the slope.
One laser survey, one stepped drawing with the fall itemized, one fixed number that survives the grade. Telford Rise, Fern Gulch and the gorge roads between.