New Deck Construction in Jonesboro, AR: How It's Actually Built

A photo of a finished deck tells you nothing about whether it's still solid in fifteen years. That comes down to what's underground and what's bolted to the house, decided before a single board goes down. Here's what a new deck build in the Jonesboro area actually involves, step by step, and what the state's adopted code requires at each one.

Step 1: Site evaluation and design

A builder should walk your yard before drawing anything. Craighead County isn't one kind of ground, most of it sits in flat Delta farmland with heavy clay that holds water and shifts through wet and dry seasons, while Crowley's Ridge, the loess-soil upland running through the middle of the county, drains completely differently a few hundred feet away. A design that assumes one ground type applies everywhere is a design that gets expensive to fix later.

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Step 2: Permitting

Arkansas runs one state-adopted residential code statewide, the 2021 Arkansas Fire Prevention Code (based on the 2021 International Residential Code), which took effect January 1, 2023. That's a real advantage over some markets, the underlying construction standard doesn't change from one town to the next the way it does in states where every county picks its own code year. What does change by address is who administers the permit and what fee applies. The City of Jonesboro's own FAQ names a "deck with roof" as requiring a permit; we could not confirm from the city's published pages whether an uncovered deck below some size is exempt, so call Planning and Zoning at (870) 932-0406 to confirm your specific project rather than assume. Several of the towns we serve, Trumann and Sedgwick among them, aren't even in Craighead County, and each runs its own separate department. Full breakdown by town on our permit guide page.

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Step 3: Footings

This is where a deck actually fails, underground, not on the surface. The 2021 IRC increased the minimum footing diameter to 18 inches (up from 16 inches in older code editions some neighboring states still use), set on undisturbed or compacted soil below the frost line. Arkansas's frost depth runs shallow, generally 8 to 12 inches statewide, well short of what northern states require, which keeps footing depth manageable here. What takes more judgment locally is the soil itself: Delta clay compacts differently than the loess soil on Crowley's Ridge, and a footing dug to spec on the wrong assumption about which one you're standing on is still a footing dug wrong.

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Step 4: Posts and beams

Support posts run a minimum of 6x6, spaced no more than 8 feet apart on center, with beams built from doubled 2x12 lumber (or a solid 4x12 where available) spanning no more than 8 feet between posts, per the American Wood Council's DCA 6 prescriptive deck guide that the IRC's deck provisions are based on. Every connector, bolts, screws, joist hangers, needs to be hot-dip galvanized or stainless steel. Standard zinc-coated hardware-store fasteners corrode faster against treated lumber's chemical preservatives than most homeowners expect, and Jonesboro's humidity doesn't help that clock.

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Step 5: Ledger attachment

If your deck attaches to the house, the ledger board connection is the single most safety-critical joint in the structure, it's what keeps the deck from pulling away from the house under load. The board needs proper flashing (copper, stainless, UV-resistant plastic, or zinc-plated galvanized steel) installed before the ledger goes up, with half-inch carriage bolts or lag screws in a double/single/double pattern spaced 16 inches on center for 2x10 or 2x12 ledgers. Lag screws should never be driven in with a hammer, if it's being hammered, it's the wrong fastener.

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Step 6: Joists and decking

Joist size and spacing determine how far a deck can span without sagging. As a reference point under standard load assumptions, a 2x10 joist at 16 inches on center is rated for roughly a 16-foot span; go to 24-inch spacing and that same joist drops to about 13 feet. Decking gets fastened with ring-shank nails or hot-dip galvanized or stainless screws, never standard nails, which back out over a few seasons of Delta humidity swings.

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Step 7: Guardrails and stairs

Any deck floor more than 30 inches above finished grade needs a guardrail, minimum 36 inches tall, posts no more than 6 feet apart, with baluster gaps tight enough that a 4-inch sphere can't pass through. Stairs need handrails past three risers, with a maximum 7.75-inch rise and a minimum 10-inch tread depth. These numbers are sized around how people actually fall, not arbitrary.

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Materials

• Pressure-treated pine: the budget standard, $25-50 per square foot installed. Needs restaining every two to three years, Jonesboro's humidity and summer heat work against any exposed wood finish faster than a drier climate would.
• Cedar: a step up in look and natural rot resistance, $30-47 per square foot installed. Still needs periodic sealing, just less often than pressure-treated.
• Composite (Trex, TimberTech, Fiberon, AZEK): $35-70 per square foot installed, and often more for premium lines on a full-service job. No staining or sealing, and it doesn't splinter, real upfront cost for real long-term savings on upkeep.

More detail on each material on our composite decking and cedar decking pages. Full cost breakdown by size on our cost guide page.

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Timeline

A standard single-level deck, once permitted, typically runs one to three weeks from first dig to final inspection, weather and material availability being the two things that actually move that number. Multilevel decks, roof-covered decks, or anything past 14 feet of depth from the house need an engineered design reviewed before construction starts, which adds time up front and isn't optional past that size.

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FAQ

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