Methodology
Three pieces, kept separate on purpose: a national job-cost range, a city labor adjustment, and a permit fee copied or computed from the official schedule.
Why the city number
A national average hides both wage differences and permit rules. Seattle and Nashville do not charge the same fee for the same deck. The useful number is the city number.
Job cost
National low / typical / high come from published 2026 industry ranges (cited on each project page). We do not invent a local bid survey. City adjustment is a BLS construction-and-extraction wage index applied to the labor share only. Materials stay at national.
City multipliers = laborShare × (metro construction wage / national construction wage) + materialShare × 1.0. Austin uses May 2024 pair. This is a wage-index adjustment, not a local bid survey. National mean $31.42/hr (May 2025). BLS OEWS
Permit fees
Fees are either copied from an official schedule or computed from an official formula at a documented assumed valuation. Assumed valuations are not city-assessed values. We cite the city's published schedule, not a third-party calculator.
If the official table could not be extracted, the fee is left blank. We show that we do not have this city fee yet and link the portal. We do not fill the gap with a guess. Charlotte and Minneapolis permit fees were filled from official schedules as of 2026-08-29.
Limitations
- Ranges are typical, not a bid. Site conditions, access, and material grade move the number.
- Permit extras (plan review, tech fees, state surcharges) are included only when the source record says they are.
- Fee schedules change. The retrieved date is on the money page. Confirm with the city before you apply.
- Deck board prices in the calculator are user-enterable defaults, not a cited 2026 SKU survey.