Serving the greater Tampa Bay area
Decks and Outdoor Living in St. Petersburg
St. Pete is a city of small backyards and big weather. The lots are tight, the bungalows are old, and the bay is close enough that the air carries salt most days. People call me wanting a deck or a patio, and the first thing I do is ask how close they are to the water, because that one fact changes nearly everything about how I'd build it.
I'm Ricky Powers. I've been building in Tampa Bay for 30+ years, and I still walk every job myself. When you call, you talk to me.
Deck, patio, or screened lanai?
There are three real options, and the right one depends on your lot and how you want to live out there.
A wood or composite deck gives you a finished, raised surface, which helps on the older lots where the grade isn't level. A paver patio sits low and takes the heat and the humidity in stride. A screened lanai is the one a lot of St. Pete homeowners land on, because the bay brings bugs and a screened room is the difference between a space you use at dusk and one you abandon. On a small bungalow lot, the trick is fitting the right one without eating the whole yard. We figure that out before anyone draws a thing.
Building for bay humidity and salt air
The closer you are to the water, the harder the air is on a build, and that drives the materials.
Salt air and steady humidity chew through cheap fasteners and finishes faster than most folks expect. Near the bay I lean toward composite decking, stainless or coated hardware, and finishes meant to take the moisture, because pressure-treated pine that's fine a few miles inland can struggle close to the water. It costs more up front. It also means you're not rebuilding in five years. I'll give you the real numbers on both and let you decide.
The part you can't see: footings and drainage
This is where decks go wrong, and it's the part nobody photographs.
St. Pete sits low and the soil holds water, so footings and drainage are what decide whether your deck is still solid in ten years. The footings have to be deep enough and sized for the load. The grade has to push water off the structure and away from those old bungalow foundations, not let it pool. On a tight lot, getting the water to go somewhere sensible takes thought. A crew in a hurry skips that and you find out when the posts shift. We don't. We pull the right permits too, through the City of St. Petersburg or Pinellas County depending on where you sit.
The yards we see around St. Pete
The housing here leans old. You've got the craftsman bungalows in the historic neighborhoods and the mid-century homes on modest lots, most of them with backyards that were never big to start with. So the work is rarely about filling open space. It's about carving a usable, shaded, bug-free spot out of a small yard, and doing it in a way that suits an older house instead of fighting it. The plan starts with the house you've got and how close the bay is.
One crew, start to finish
You won't get handed off. The same crew that sets your footings is the one that lays the boards and the one that sweeps up the last day. We tell you what's happening at each step, and if your budget doesn't match your wish list, I'll say so up front. I'd rather lose the job than sell you a deck I know the salt air will beat up in a few years.