I regret taking this project on. Realistically how much have I really saved doing it myself.

1. I’m about $3500 in on composite. About $2000 for railing system. $600-$800 for other lumbar.

2. Demo’ed, added 4 ft, now doing deck board and railing later.

3. This project has been hell. Had 20 boards fall off the trailer because I fucked up my strapping. Fortunately it fell in the parking lot. Days later, had 50 boards on the trailer. Made it 10-15 mins of driving and the damn gate metal bent and collapse going 20-30 mph.

4. Apparently timber tech doesn’t make the plugs for my deck board so I either had to use another brand, jimmy rig some with a plug cutter or drive an hour to someone with a drill press to make some. Lowe’s has the boards but they don’t carry the risers which is hella annoying.

5. My dumbass is doing this in 20-40F and this fucking boards are rigid as hell some nights.

6. Lowe’s carries the Cortex screw which is nice but they don’t carry the camo edge hidden fasteners so now I’m splitting between Lowe’s/ HD for supplies.

7. Thought I could get by with 30-32 inch for stairs. Learned quickly that they bend easy and had to redo the stairs and add 3 more stair supports.

So contractors, make me and my significant other feel much better or much worse, how much did we save in labor?