The area underneath an elevated deck is a great candidate for valuable storage space or even additional outdoor living space, if you can keep it dry. That’s why Mike Guertin installs an under-deck drainage system on nearly every deck he builds that has more than 4 feet of headroom below it.
There are several commercially available under-deck drainage systems—including some that can be retrofit to an existing deck—but on new decks, Mike prefers to fabricate his own system using an EPDM synthetic rubber roofing membrane and standard aluminum gutter parts. “My system,” he says “is fast and easy to install before the decking is laid, and it’s durable as well as cost effective for me and my clients.”