How to Build Curved Decks — Lessons from a Kawarthas Project
This deck, built by one of our design-builders near North Kawartha (close to Peterborough, Ontario), is one of the better examples we’ve seen of a curved deck done properly.
What makes it work is restraint and planning: the deck was laid out artfully around the site’s existing trees, with generous clearance, so it reads as though it grew there naturally rather than being imposed on the landscape. It complements the house instead of competing with it.
Structurally, this isn’t a shortcut “kerf-cut” curve that looks fine on install day and falls apart in five or ten years. The rim joist uses a proper layered lamination with marine epoxies, the rails are cut from solid stock, and heavy ledgers tie the deck securely into the home’s frame — built to hold its shape and stay attached through decades of seasonal movement. Done this way, a curved deck should easily outlast thirty years.
