Comparison
Deck vs patio
A deck is $44.24 a square foot, a paver patio $21.41 and a poured one $13.71. But the price is rarely what decides — the height of your back door above the ground decides, and this is why.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-17 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
On this page — 6 sections
Both numbers, and why they are not the point
The short version
- Deck $44.24 a square foot, paver patio $21.41, concrete patio $13.71. A deck is a structure; a patio is a surface.
- The door height decides it, not the budget. At grade, a patio. Four feet up, a deck.
- A patio lasts longer and asks for less. Thirty to forty years against twelve to twenty.
- A porch is neither. Add a roof and it becomes a structural addition at two to three times a deck.
Every figure here comes from the calculator that prices it, and the gap is real. But it is the least useful thing on this page, because in most houses the choice has already been made by the building.
| Deck | Paver patio | Concrete patio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per square foot | $44.24 | $21.41 | $13.71 |
| Lifespan | 12–20 yr | 30–40 yr | 30–40 yr |
| Maintenance | Stain every 2–3 yr | Joint sand occasionally | Effectively none |
| Permit | Almost always | Usually not | Usually not |
| Footings | Below frost | None | None |
| Railing | Required above 30 in | None | None |
| On a slope | The answer | Wall or fill first | Wall or fill first |
The thing that actually decides it
Stand at your back door and look down. That measurement answers this question more reliably than any comparison of materials.
| Door above the ground | Build | Why |
|---|---|---|
| At grade, or one step | Patio | A deck here is an expensive way to get a surface you could have poured. And it needs no railing, no footings and no permit. |
| Two or three steps | Either — and it is a real choice | A low deck needs no guard below 30 in, and a patio needs only a short flight down. Decide on looks, maintenance and money. |
| Three feet or more | Deck | A patio at ground level leaves the usable space nowhere near the door. You would be walking down to it every time, which is how patios end up unused. |
| Sloping away steeply | Deck | Levelling a slope means a retaining wall or serious fill, and either costs more than the framing you avoided. |
| Any height, and you want rain cover | Porch | The roof is the point, and it is a structural addition rather than a surface. Two to three times a deck. |
The patio that nobody uses is the failure mode nobody plans for. An outdoor space three steps below a door gets used a fraction as much as one you walk straight onto, and no amount of paving makes up for it.
That is the real argument for a deck, and it is not about materials at all: a deck puts the floor at the height of the door, and a patio puts it at the height of the ground.
2.1×
Deck against pavers
per square foot
3.2×
Deck against concrete
per square foot
30 in
Where a guard starts
and the cost with it
~1/12
Of a deck is decking
the rest is structure
Side by side, once the height question is settled
| Deck | Patio | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | About twice | The baseline |
| At the door | Level with it | At ground level, wherever that is |
| Permit and inspection | Almost always | Usually neither |
| Maintenance | Stain, and boards over time | Sweep it |
| Lifespan | 12–20 years | 30–40 |
| Underneath | Storage, or a second patio | Nothing |
| Furniture | Levels itself — the deck is flat | Wobbles unless the base was done right |
| Heat underfoot | Wood stays cooler | Concrete and stone get hot |
| Drainage | Straight through the gaps | Has to be graded away from the house |
Settled before either one starts
- Where the water goes. A patio has to slope away from the house, and a deck has to not trap water against the siding.
- Buried services located, whichever you build. A patio excavation is shallow and finds things; a footing is deep and finds more.
- Setbacks checked. A deck is a structure and is usually bound by them; a patio at grade often is not.
- The door swing. A deck level with the door means the door opens over it, and that has to be planned rather than discovered.
- Where the sun is in the afternoon, which decides whether the space gets used more than any material does.
The frame is the deck — joists, beams, footings below frost, the ledger and the guard. The decking boards are the smallest part of it.
Price a deck properlyFour ways this decision goes wrong
01Choosing a patio to save money when the door is four feet up
The saving is real and the space ends up three flights from the house, so it gets used a fraction as much. An outdoor room you walk down to is not the same room.
Instead — If the door is well above grade, build the deck or accept that the patio is a garden feature rather than an extension of the house.
02Thinning the patio base to afford better pavers
The compacted stone carries the patio; the pavers only spread the load. A thin base settles within two winters and the expensive pavers sit in a wave.
Instead — Specify the base depth and the compaction in lifts. Take the money out of the paver choice instead — it changes the look, not the life.
03Economising on the deck frame
Nobody sees the frame, which is exactly why it gets cut. It is also the half that fails, and the ledger connection is where failures injure people.
Instead — Upgrade the boards last. Frame, hardware and the ledger are where the money belongs.
04Assuming a porch is a deck with a roof on top
The roof makes it a structural addition — its own footings, its own framing, often a different foundation requirement, and a permit process to match. Two to three times a deck for the same footprint.
Instead — Price it as an addition from the start, or build the deck now and design it so a roof can be added later.
Where these numbers come from
The deck figure comes from the deck calculator — a 16 × 12 ft deck with framing, footings below the frost line, hardware, guard and stairs. The patio figures come from the paver calculator and the concrete slab calculator on its patio setting, both on 20 × 16 ft with excavation and a compacted base.
The per-square-foot comparison is across different footprints, which is deliberate: these are the sizes each thing is actually built at, and a deck and a patio are rarely the same size. Nothing in the ratio depends on it — the deck figure includes railing and stairs, which scale with the perimeter rather than the area, so a much larger deck would come in a little cheaper per foot and a much smaller one dearer.
Every figure traces to a dated source.
The words on the quote
Two worth knowing: at grade, because it is the word that decides the whole question, and ledger, because it is where a deck fails and the reason deck permits exist.
- Deck
- A raised platform framed on posts and beams, with a walking surface of boards and gaps between them. It is a structure, and it is inspected as one.
- Patio
- A surface laid directly on the ground — pavers, poured concrete, gravel or stone. No structure, no framing, and in most places no permit.
- Porch
- A roofed structure attached to the house, usually with a floor at the level of the interior floor. The roof is what makes it a porch rather than a deck, and it changes the cost entirely.
- Ledger
- The board bolting a deck to the house. It is where decks fail, it is what an inspector looks at first, and it is why deck permits exist.
- At grade
- Sitting on the ground, or within a step of it. A patio is at grade by definition; a deck within a step of grade barely needs to be a deck at all.
- Frost depth
- How deep the ground freezes where you are. Deck footings go below it. A patio does not have footings, which is most of why it is cheaper.
- Guard
- The railing required on anything more than 30 in above grade. It is a code requirement, not a choice, and it adds meaningfully to a deck's cost.
- Base
- Compacted crushed stone under a patio. It is what carries the surface, it is the part a cheap quote thins, and it is the deck-footing equivalent for something that has no footings.
- Setback
- How close to a boundary a structure may be built. A deck is a structure and is usually bound by it; a patio at grade often is not, which occasionally decides the whole question.
- Impervious coverage
- The share of a lot that does not absorb rainwater. Some jurisdictions cap it, and a poured patio counts fully against it where a deck with gapped boards may not.
Common questions
- Is a deck or a patio cheaper?
- A patio, by about half. A deck works out around $44.24 a square foot including framing, footings, railing and stairs; a paver patio is $21.41 and a poured concrete one $13.71. The gap is structure: a deck is a building and a patio is a surface.
- What actually decides between them?
- The height of your back door above the ground, and it decides more often than budget does. If the door is at grade, a patio works and a deck is an expensive way to achieve the same thing. If the door is four feet up, a patio leaves you with steps down to it and the useful space is nowhere near the house.
- How much does a deck cost?
- About $44 a square foot built, which on a 16 × 12 ft deck is roughly $8,500 with framing, footings, hardware, railing and stairs. Decking boards are only about a twelfth of that — the frame underneath and the labour are the job.
- How much does a patio cost?
- $13.71 a square foot in poured concrete and $21.41 in pavers, on a 320 ft² patio. Most of both figures is excavation and the compacted base, not the surface — which is also the part a cheap quote makes thin.
- Does a deck need a permit?
- Almost always, because it is a structure attached to the house. A patio at grade usually does not. That is a real difference in time and paperwork, and it is one reason people at grade choose the patio even when they like the look of a deck.
- Which lasts longer?
- The patio, by a wide margin and with less fuss. Pavers and concrete last thirty to forty years with little attention. A pressure-treated deck is twelve to twenty and wants staining; composite lasts longer but its frame is still wood and the frame is what fails.
- What about a porch?
- A porch is a deck with a roof, and the roof changes everything — it is a structural addition with its own footings, its own framing and often its own foundation requirement. Expect two to three times a deck for the same footprint. It also makes the space usable in rain, which neither of the others does.
- Which adds more value?
- Both do, and the research consistently puts the return in a similar range. What differs is expectation: in a market where every house has a deck, not having one is noticed. Where every house has a patio, a deck reads as unusual rather than better.
- Can I put a patio under an elevated deck?
- Yes, and it is one of the better uses of the space if the deck is high enough to stand under. It needs the deck boards sealed or a drainage system above, or the patio is under a shower every time it rains through the gaps.
- Is a deck harder to maintain?
- Considerably. Wood decking wants cleaning and staining every two or three years and boards to be replaced over time. A patio gets swept, and pavers may want sand topped up in the joints every few years. That difference compounds over the twenty years the comparison actually covers.
- Which is better for a sloped yard?
- A deck, and it is not close. Levelling a slope for a patio means either a retaining wall or a great deal of excavation and fill, both of which cost more than the framing a deck would have needed. This is the situation the deck exists for.
- Can I do either myself?
- A patio, plausibly — the work is excavation, compaction and patience, and the mistakes are reversible while the sand is still loose. A deck, less so: it is structural, it is inspected, and the ledger connection is where decks fail and where failures injure people.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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