Deck Construction in Sunnyland, Bellingham WA

Sunnyland is one of Bellingham's original streetcar neighborhoods, and its housing shows it — craftsman bungalows and boxy early-1900s cottages on compact lots between Sunset Pond and downtown. Decks here are rarely sprawling; they are back porches, small entertaining platforms, and thoughtful additions that have to fit a century-old house without looking bolted on. That is exactly the kind of deck work Alpine Exteriors likes best.

Designing Decks for Historic Small Lots

A deck behind a 1915 bungalow plays by different rules than one behind a suburban two-story. Scale matters: an oversized platform overwhelms a small Sunnyland backyard and eats the garden space that makes these lots livable. Attachment matters more. Old homes have true-dimension framing, original cedar siding, and sometimes brick or stone foundations, so ledger connections and flashing have to be adapted to the actual structure rather than to a modern-framing assumption.

We design around those constraints — often a modest elevated deck at the kitchen door, steps down to a ground-level platform or patio, and railing details that echo craftsman porch character instead of fighting it.

Permits and setbacks deserve early attention on these blocks, since small lots leave little margin at the property lines. We measure the real setbacks before designing anything, handle the permit paperwork with the city, and lay out stairs and landings so they meet code without eating the yard — groundwork that keeps a small project from stalling halfway through.

Materials That Suit the Neighborhood — and the Climate

Bellingham's marine climate is not gentle to horizontal wood, and Sunnyland's mature trees shade many yards enough to keep boards damp through winter. Depending on the house and the homeowner, we typically build with:

• Western red cedar, the historically honest choice, detailed with modern flashing and fasteners so it lasts far longer than the original porches did.
• Composite boards in muted, period-appropriate tones for owners who want the look without the annual maintenance ritual.
• Traditional painted rail-and-baluster systems matched to craftsman trim profiles.
• Ground-level platform decks engineered for under-deck airflow, the detail that decides whether a low deck lasts eight years or thirty.

Old-House Experience You Can Lean On

Alpine Exteriors has worked on northwest Washington homes for 25 years, and among our 2,000+ completed projects are a great many pre-war houses just like Sunnyland's. That experience shows up in small ways — protecting original siding during ledger work, matching stair proportions to a period porch — and in one big way: a 25-year workmanship warranty on everything we build.

If your back porch is sagging, your deck boards have gone soft, or you have been sketching an outdoor space on graph paper all winter, invite us over. On-site estimates are free, and we will give you an honest read on what your house and lot can carry — including when a repair or partial rebuild makes more sense than starting from scratch.