About Maple Veranda

Maple Veranda is a small set of free calculators for building outdoors: a deck, its stain, a paver patio, a fence and the concrete footings under them. Each one answers the question you face at the counter of a lumber yard or garden centre: how many, how long, how much.

How the calculators work

Everything is worked out in your browser with plain arithmetic and geometry: board rows from your board width and gap, joists from your spacing, pavers from their size plus the joint, concrete from the shape of the hole. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, and the pages keep working if you lose signal in the yard.

You can switch between feet and inches and metres at any time; what you have typed is converted, not lost. Results can be copied, downloaded as a text file or printed.

Where the numbers come from

Fixed figures come from published sources, named and linked at the bottom of each page: the American Wood Council's DCA 6 deck guide and the 2021 International Residential Code for spans, spacing, fasteners and footings, the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association for paver bases, and makers' data sheets for stain spread rates and concrete bag yields. Where we had to choose a figure ourselves, such as a waste allowance or how much wood a balustrade holds, the page says so, and you can change it.

What it is not

These are estimates for planning and buying. They are not engineering, and they are not a building permit. Codes differ between countries, states and towns, and your building department and inspector decide what is safe and allowed where you live. Read the labels on what you buy: they come first.