A South Hills Deck Has One Job: Do Not Waste That View
Perched on the slope above Bellingham Bay, the South Hills neighborhood looks west across the water toward the San Juans — which means the deck is often the single most-used square footage of the house from May through September. It also means these decks live a harder life than most. West-facing exposure takes the full brunt of wind coming off the bay, winter rain arrives nearly horizontal, and the steep lots that create the views also create structural challenges that flat-lot deck builders simply have not solved before.
Alpine Exteriors has spent 25 years building and rebuilding decks around Bellingham, from the older craftsman-era homes on the upper streets near the Sehome and WWU side of the hill to the mid-century houses stepped down the slope. Sloped-lot construction is its own discipline: footings dug properly into a grade, posts of real height with engineered bracing, and stairs that negotiate elevation changes safely.
Engineering First, Decking Second
On a hillside, the visible deck boards are the least important decision. What matters is beneath: footings sized for the soil and slope, hardware that ties the structure together against wind uplift, and a ledger connection that keeps decades of sideways rain out of your rim joist. We have opened up too many older South Hills decks where a beautiful cedar surface was riding on posts leaning out of plumb and a ledger nailed — not bolted — to the house.
Once the structure is right, we help you choose a surface that fits how much maintenance you honestly want to do. Tight-grain cedar suits the character of the hill's older homes; capped composite shrugs off the algae film that makes shaded boards slick every winter, and it will not gray out under summer UV bouncing off the water.
- Engineered footings and bracing for sloped lots — the difference between a deck and a liability
- Stainless and hot-dipped hardware that stands up to salt-tinged wind off the bay
- Wind-smart railing design, including cable and glass options that protect the view instead of fencing it off
- Drainage and flashing details that keep the structure dry through a Bellingham winter
Resurface, Extend, or Rebuild
Not every project is a teardown. Plenty of South Hills decks have sound bones and tired surfaces, and a resurface with new decking and railings costs a fraction of a full rebuild. Others deserve to grow — a wider main level, a second tier down the slope, a covered section so the deck earns its keep in October too. Across more than 2,000 projects in Whatcom County we have done all of it, and we will tell you which category your deck falls into during a free on-site estimate, with the reasoning laid out plainly.
Every build carries our 25-year workmanship warranty, because a deck hanging off a hillside over the bay is exactly the place where craftsmanship should be guaranteed in writing. If your deck wobbles, weeps rust stains, or just no longer matches the view behind it, we should talk before another winter gets there first.