Deck building statistics

What a deck returns at resale

• A midrange wood deck addition costs $18,263 and returns $17,323 at resale - a 95% cost recouped, the highest of any deck project in the report.

  Source: Zonda / JLC, 2025 Cost vs Value Report (national average)

• A composite deck addition costs $25,096 and returns $22,199 at resale - 89% recouped, and a larger absolute resale gain than a wood deck.

  Source: Zonda / JLC, 2025 Cost vs Value Report

The US deck stock is large and aging

• The United States has more than 60 million decks (about 50 million residential and 10 million commercial), and roughly 30 million are estimated to be past their useful life and in need of repair or replacement.

  Source: NADRA, Deck Safety page

• An earlier NADRA estimate put the US at roughly 40 million residential decks, of which about half were more than 25 years old.

  Source: NADRA press release (2017)

Deck safety

• Between 2016 and 2019 approximately 2,900 people were injured and 2 killed as a result of deck, porch and balcony collapses and failures.

  Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), cited in NADRA Deck Safety Month

• When a deck actually collapses, over 75% of the people involved sustain significant harm.

  Source: NADRA / Decksforlife, Deck Safety Month 2026

• Under the 2021 International Residential Code, any deck more than 30 inches above grade needs a 36-inch guardrail with openings a 4-inch sphere cannot pass through - the core safety threshold behind most permit reviews.

  Source: 2021 International Residential Code (via City of Spearfish, SD)

The decking market and materials

Grand View Research figures are a global market sizing spanning residential and non-residential decks; the residential-relevant signals are North American share and composite growth.

• The global decks market was estimated at $14.54 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $24.57 billion by 2033, a 6.0% CAGR.

  Source: Grand View Research, Decks Market Report

• North America dominated the decking market with the largest revenue share, 31.3% in 2024.

  Source: Grand View Research

• Plastics and composites are the fastest-growing decking material class, expected to grow at a 6.3% CAGR through the forecast period.

  Source: Grand View Research

• The largest composite decking manufacturer frames its entire strategy around converting the still-dominant wood decking base to composite, calling out a strategic initiative to accelerate material conversion from wood.

  Source: Trex Company, Form 10-K (FY2024, SEC EDGAR)

Outdoor living and remodeling trends

• Of roughly 950,000 single-family homes started in 2023, 63.7% came with patios - the eighth consecutive record high - while the share of new homes with decks fell to a low of 17.5% in 2021.

  Source: NAHB Eye on Housing (Census Survey of Construction)

• A patio ranks among the very top features home buyers want, second only to a laundry room, in the NAHB What Home Buyers Really Want survey.

  Source: NAHB, What Home Buyers Really Want (2024)

• US home improvement and repair spending is holding near record levels, projected around $523 billion in early 2027, but year-over-year growth is decelerating to about 0.5%.

  Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, LIRA