While patios and composite deck projects didn’t offer as much bang for the buck compared to last year, pressure-treated decks continue to provide a solid return on home improvement dollars, according to Remodeling magazine’s latest Cost vs. Value report. Overall, there was a slight decrease nationally in in the average payback of the 20 benchmark projects that the report tracked in 2017, which the authors attributed to across-the-board cost increases in materials and labor.
The average return on investment for a typical 16-ft. x 20-ft. PT deck was almost 83% in this year’s report, up from less than 72% a year ago, making it one of the top-performing home improvement projects. The ROI for a composite deck decreased slightly, from 65.2% last year to 63.6% this year. Backyard patios saw about an 8% decrease in payback, from 54.5% to 47.6%. In general, work done on the exterior of the house generated higher returns than did interior renovations. Read more.