Part I

EDDY ZARETSKY WORKS

as a corporate concierge, arranging for well-heeled clients to live it up at marquee events like the Super Bowl. Suffice it to say he knows how to throw a party, and his brand-new home outside Charlotte, N.C., shows it. In the sprawling living space where he does his entertaining, he pampers guests with a wet bar complete with ice maker, a built-in stereo system and a hot tub big enough for eight. The only things missing: walls.

Zaretsky's party "room" is a deck that spans 1,150 square feet twice as big as his living room. The souped-up space boasts dueling gazebos the hot tub sits under one, a dining table under the other a gurgling fountain and a stainless-steel grill with a restaurant-caliber infrared burner for searing Zaretsky's signature filet mignons. His first order of business after buying his place last year was to rip the postage-stamp deck off the back of the house and commission this pleasure platform, which has room for 50 or 60 of his closest friends. Even this past winter he and his wife hosted several gatherings, creating a competition of sorts with the homeowners association's clubhouse. "We wanted people to say, 'Should we go to the clubhouse, or should we go to Eddy's?'" he says.

Welcome to the back deck one of the only places in this somber housing market where homeowners are partying like it's 2004. Tricked out with appliances and plush amenities, decks are giving restaurant-grade kitchens and spa-style bathrooms a run for their money as the renovation of the moment. Even more impressive, decks have remained hot as the real estate climate stays cool. Spending on renovations is in its second straight year of decline after six years of increases, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. But the cost of the average deck project still rose 40% between 2004 and 2007, to $10,347. And while the housing slump has diminished our love affair with McMansions, decks keep growing. The size of the average deck on an upscale home has doubled in the past 10 years, to about 700 square feet anywhere from 40 to 75% bigger than the typical indoor great room.

Decks are bucking the broader swoon in part because the whole family, from toddlers to geezers, can enjoy them together. That makes them more appealing to residents and potential buyers than narrowly tailored indulgences like pools and home theaters. At the same time, changes in the way homes are built and neighborhoods laid out have convinced many homeowners that "backyard appeal" is just as important as curb appeal when it comes time to sell. The latest cost-versus-value survey from Remodeling magazine bears out that shift: It shows that at resale time, an investment in a deck recoups 85% of its cost, the best return of any remodeling project.

But delivering that wow factor can be an expensive proposition. Just ask Zaretsky, who saw his budget balloon to $75,000 as he added bells and whistles. And that's not as dramatic as it might seem; in fact, some deck clients are spending in the low six figures. "Women hate going to a party and seeing Mary Jane wearing the same dress. In the same way, people hate going over to someone's house and seeing the same deck," says Waxahachie, Tex., builder Bob Fogarty. And the issues go deeper than pergola versus gazebo. Decks pose safety concerns, particularly for those with children or elderly parents. Plus, owners face a growing quandary over building materials, which make up the lion's share of the costs and are the key factor in how a deck looks and holds up. Choose wisely and it's like adding a multipurpose room to the house. Choose poorly and no one's happy.

THE BOOM IN backyard living is the culmination of a decades-long retreat from the front of the house. As Harvard political science professor Robert Putnam wrote in his study of American communities, Bowling Alone, the front porch was the social hub for most Americans post-World War II. But families were soon lured inside by television and air conditioning technologies that made the porch as obsolete as the milkman and the soda jerk. What's changed today, in part, is that the family can enjoy the great outdoors without sacrificing the comforts of indoors; the rusty hibachis and plastic lawn chairs of yore have been supplanted by outdoor kitchens, patio heaters, all-weather TVs and upscale furniture.

Drive around the newer subdivisions of Charlotte, a city of 610,000 with ideal weather for this movement, and you'll notice that the vast majority of homes don't look forward they look backward. There's a preponderance of fan-shape lots, with expansive backyards and house fronts that are little more than a facade. Even homes on more traditional lots feature smallish front yards and nondescript entryways. You'll also see spacious decks that could be the envy of any beach-house owner. Barry Klemons, who left an Emmy-winning career as a television cameraman to start a deck-building franchise in Charlotte in 1988, has seen the transition firsthand. In the beginning his average job cost about $2,000: "We mostly just built rectangles," he says. Now his firm's contractors build all shapes and sizes with a dizzying array of building materials, decorative railings and even awnings that activate when they sense wind and rain.

Home builders, interestingly enough, don't seem to have caught on to the trend: Roughly 90% of all decks are added after initial construction, says Steve Van Kouteren, of consulting firm Principia Partners. The demand comes fromhomeowners wanting to make better use of their outdoor space. An undulating lawn is not the most conducive to entertaining where do you set your beer? and many young parents like the idea of keeping the tykes in a space that's outside but still enclosed. Throw in the desire for a greener lifestyle and it's easy to see why decks have become a must-have.

Part II

Troy Dana's deck in Olympia, Wash., shows how a creative design can yield a year-round outdoor room. Dana's winding deck overlooks the South Union Valley and, at about 3,200 square feet, has more floor space than his entire house. An octagon on the south side is a retreat for warm summer afternoons, with an arbor, built-in benches, a hot tub and an outdoor shower. The north end features a steel firepit whose cone-shaped wall traps heat on cool autumn nights. When Dana's guests marvel at the 80-mile view and nibble hors d'oeuvres, they're often surprised by one feature of his addition: It's not wood at all but a composite material, made up of plastic and wood pulp. Dana opted for composite after his six-year-old niece suffered a nasty splinter on his old lumber deck. ("On a lumber deck you don't get a splinter, you get a harpoon," notes builder Fogarty.)

A decade ago pressure-treated lumber was the sole option for deck boards. Homeowners endured cracking, warping, fading, termites and annual maintenance costs as high as $1,000. Lumber remains the most popular material because it's cheaper, but composites, which cost around 30% more, account for about a quarter of all new decks. Not everyone is happy about that. To some the materials look artificial and cheap (as one builder says, "like a Duraflame log"). Some can get scorching hot under the sun, and others slippery when wet. And some builders complain that manufacturers have promoted their products as "no maintenance," even though they can stain and scratch over time just like lumber. Trex, the industry's leading seller of composite decking, settled a class-action suit over its advertising in 2004. An increasingly popular compromise in the wood-versus-composite debate is the Brazilian hardwood ipe (pronounced EE-pay), which requires little maintenance and has a fire-resistance rating close to steel's. The downside: It comes from the Brazilian rainforest, which may be tough to stomach for those with a Prius in the garage.

In Santa Barbara, Calif., Paul Waters figured he might be able to build his own deck, a tempting proposition for a lot of do-it-yourselfers since labor can account for more than 25% of the total cost. But with the design demands of today, even pros can feel all-thumbs. Waters spent more than a year poring over dense construction manuals and wrestling with mature oak-tree roots before he threw in the towel and hired a professional builder. "I didn't want to be working on it every weekend. I wanted to be sitting on it every weekend," he says. Work ethic aside, DIY types and others have to deal with building codes that have tightened in the wake of some high-profile fatal accidents. Indeed, Chicago home inspector Frank Lesh says deck construction remains consistently problematic. "There is almost always something," he says, whether it's a deck that's poorly attached to the house or one with inadequate safeguards for children. And if a poorly built deck doesn't literally hurt you, it can trip you up when you sell your home. It's not unusual for lenders to refuse to provide a mortgage because of structural issues with a deck, says Pat Lashinsky, CEO of online brokerage ZipRealty.

IN THE WORLD OF DECKS, though, the toughest critics often aren't the building inspectors but the folks next door. While new deck owners are thrilled about their backyard Margaritavilles, they may find the neighbors a little frosty, especially as more decks include features that aid and abet nighttime entertaining. In Charlotte, Eddy Zaretsky says he hasn't gotten any complaints about the big and sometimes boisterous parties he's thrown after his two sons' football games. But Trenesa Bost, whose backyard is a pigskin toss away, admits to being slightly anxious about the upcoming hot tub season: "I don't know what it's going to be like in the summer."

Atlanta builder Bobby Parks, who specializes in decks for upscale homes, sees pressure coming from neighbors through another channel: scolding homeowners associations. Parks says associations in his area are increasingly banning built-in stereos on decks; he has already been involved in cases where groups have asserted veto rights over his clients' choice of materials. Indeed, an association's "architectural control" committee (also known as "the pretty committee") can demand approval over everything from the shape and color of your deck to whether it can be built at all. "It's becoming more of a factor," Parks says.

All of which raises the question of whether, at the end of the day, a deck is worth the trouble. A well-designed one will probably capitalize on the truism that "adding living space adds dollars," says Mike Evans, a senior fellow with the American Society of Appraisers. And assuming that weather allows a homeowner to get a lot of use out of it, it's adding space at a bargain price, given there's no roof to install and the infrastructure is not overly complicated. By comparison a new bathroom is 20 times more expensive than a deck on a cost-per-square-foot basis, while a sunroom is 10 times more expensive.

Although statistics suggest that decks are a home run in terms of resale value, that homer may come with an asterisk for those who dig deeper into the numbers. Homes on the Pacific coast get a 108% return on investment, for example, whereas those in the upper Midwest get only 71%. What gives? A deck makes the biggest difference if it capitalizes on the natural topography, says Gary Ashton, a Nashville real estate agent; hence, homes with mountain, water and city views reap the biggest rewards, while those that overlook a flat expanse of soybean field do less well. And a deck will return more at resale if other homes in the neighborhood also have them; in that respect they're like a swimming pool, though much cheaper to build and maintain.

The danger comes when homeowners express their individualism a little too much Evans recalls one deck that had been painted pink or go overboard ordering upgrades. After all, one owner's enthusiasm for floodlights or rococo cherubim may not be something future buyers will share. Sometimes less is more.

Best/Worst Bets

Home improvement doesn't pay like it used to. The average amount recouped for remodeling projects was 70 percent in 2007, down from 87 percent at the peak of the housing boom in 2005, according to "Remodeling" magazine. But some projects fare better than others. Our guide to some of the best and worst investments in today's market: