MA CSL #CS-115640
MA HIC #201757
TrexPro® Platinum Installer
BBB A+ Accredited
Building Since 2012
Custom decks, porches, and outdoor living spaces for homeowners in Woburn and the surrounding Middlesex County towns, including Winchester, Stoneham, Burlington, Reading, and Wilmington.
Woburn sits in a buried glacial valley, which means soft ground in places and a wetland layer over much of the city that most towns do not have. Footings still reach 48 inches. What changes here is what you find on the way down, and who has to sign off before you dig.
Recent projects for homeowners across Worcester County.
Massachusetts sets its frost line at 48 inches statewide, so every footing carrying deck load bears at four feet. In Woburn the depth is rarely the hard part. What the footing lands on is.
The city sits over a deeply buried glacial valley. USGS mapping of the Mystic Lakes area describes a preglacial valley running down through Woburn and Winchester toward Arlington, since filled with glacial deposits. Till covers the higher ground bordering that valley, while stratified sand and gravel predominate in the low ground, laid down by meltwater rather than dropped directly by ice. Bedrock underneath is granite and schist, and the rock surface undulates, with no consistent depth across the city. The part that matters most for footings is what sits in the low ground along the Aberjona corridor: peat. Studies of the river valley record organic peat deposits running up to seven feet deep beneath and beside the channel. Peat is compressible and holds water, and a footing bearing on it will keep settling long after the concrete has cured. On a lot near the river, near Horn Pond, or in any of the low wet ground between them, establishing what is actually under each footing location is not optional.
Then the wetland layer, which is where Woburn genuinely differs from most of the towns around it. The Conservation Commission administers the state Wetlands Protection Act alongside the city's own Wetlands Ordinance, and it claims jurisdiction over land within 150 feet of a wetland rather than the 100 feet the state sets, plus 200 feet of riverfront along a river. Decks are named directly in the Commission's policies: the Conservation Administrator can sign off on a building permit for a deck between 100 and 150 feet from a resource area, while anything closer gets a case-by-case determination, and groundwork within 50 feet requires a full Notice of Intent rather than the lighter filing. The Commission also holds a 25-foot no-disturb line at the wetland boundary and expects special justification for anything inside it. Practically, that means a Woburn deck near water is a two-track approval, not one, and the conservation track can be the slower of the two.
Snow load is the last piece. Massachusetts does not publish one number for the state the way Connecticut does. It assigns a ground snow load to every city and town individually, and residential values across the Commonwealth run from 25 to 50 pounds per square foot depending on where you are. Towns bordering each other can carry different figures, so a deck detailed from a plan drawn for a neighboring town will not necessarily size correctly here. Massachusetts also formally recognizes the American Wood Council's prescriptive deck guide, DCA6, as an alternative design path in the residential code, and it is the reference most inspectors in this state work from when checking framing and connections.
Deck, porch, and outdoor living construction across Woburn and the surrounding Middlesex County towns.
Custom decks in wood, composite, and PVC, designed around your home's grade, exposure, and how you actually use the yard.
Trex and TimberTech composite surfaces that handle freeze-thaw and damp ground without a refinishing cycle.
Structural plans and detailing, including drawings for building and conservation filings where a project sits near a wetland buffer.
Design consultation, 3D rendering, permitting, footings, framing, and construction handled end to end.
Screened space that extends the season on both ends, which matters more than usual on a lot near standing water.
Roofed outdoor space built with posts and footings sized for roof load on top of snow load.
Wood, composite, aluminum, glass, and cable systems built to code height and baluster spacing.
Structural assessment and repair for decks showing settlement, ledger rot, or footings that never found bearing.
Gutter-and-channel systems that turn the space beneath a raised deck into dry, usable outdoor living area.
Decks and rooftop structures for Worcester businesses and multi-family properties, built to commercial standards.
Hemlock is a second-generation carpentry business. The owner started under another contractor in his late teens, went into business with his father, and over time narrowed the company from general contracting down to exteriors and then to decks, porches, and outdoor living. The company has been building since 2012. A design and plastics background sits behind that, including work with extrusion, the process that produces the composite boards most of these decks are built from. Understanding a material from the manufacturing side is uncommon in this trade and it shows up in how things get specified.
Trex's highest installer tier
handling structural planning and permit drawings
so you see the build before it starts
Warranty. Materials are covered by the manufacturer's warranty, which runs with the product and is issued by Trex, TimberTech, or whichever brand is specified. Workmanship is covered separately by us: one year on base-level materials and three years on premium materials. Those are two different things and we keep them described separately so there is no confusion about who stands behind what.
We walk the property, look at grade and drainage, and establish early whether any part of the deck falls inside a wetland buffer. On the low ground near the Aberjona or Horn Pond, we also want to know what the footing locations are actually bearing on before the design gets fixed.
You see the deck before anything is built. Our in-house engineer produces the structural detail at the same time, so the design and the framing plan develop together.
If the deck sits within 150 feet of a wetland resource area or 200 feet of a river, the Conservation Commission is involved before the building permit. Between 100 and 150 feet, the Conservation Administrator can sign off on the building permit application directly. Between 50 and 100 feet it is a site-specific determination. Inside 50 feet, a Notice of Intent gets filed and the Commission holds a hearing. Commission agendas are capped at seven public hearings per meeting, so a filing that misses one agenda waits for the next. This is the step that decides a Woburn project's timeline more often than the building permit does.
The building permit goes through the city, footings go in below frost depth on ground that will actually hold them, framing follows the approved drawings, and we finish with a walkthrough.
Concrete will not cure properly below 40 degrees, so footing work runs from spring through late fall. Winter is the right time to design and file, particularly where an EPB filing sits in the path.
Serving Woburn and the surrounding Middlesex County towns, including Winchester, Stoneham, Burlington, Reading, Wilmington, and Wakefield.
It depends how close you are to a wetland or river. Woburn’s Conservation Commission regulates land within 150 feet of a wetland resource area and within 200 feet of a river, which is a wider reach than the 100-foot state buffer. Between 100 and 150 feet, the Conservation Administrator can sign off on the building permit application. Between 50 and 100 feet, it is a site-specific decision. Within 50 feet of a resource area, groundwork requires a Notice of Intent and a hearing.
Enough that it should be started early. Commission meeting agendas are capped at seven public hearings, and anything submitted after an agenda fills goes to the next available meeting. There is also an abutter notification requirement with its own deadline before the hearing. On a project that needs a Notice of Intent, conservation review is usually the longest step in the process, not the building permit.
48 inches below grade, the Massachusetts frost line, which applies statewide. The harder question in Woburn is usually what the footing bears on rather than how deep it goes.
Because Woburn sits over a buried glacial valley. The high ground has till over granite and schist bedrock, with the rock surface at inconsistent depth. The low ground along the Aberjona corridor is stratified sand and gravel, and in the wet areas there are peat deposits recorded up to seven feet deep. Peat compresses and holds water. A footing that lands on it will keep settling for years, which shows up as one corner of a deck slowly dropping while the rest stays put.
The Commission expects no alteration of land closer than 25 feet to a wetland boundary and requires special justification for anything proposed inside it, with detail showing the wetland will not be damaged. In practice that often sets the closest the deck can sit to the water rather than the property line doing it.
It usually is, but not always. Composite and PVC do not absorb water the way wood does, which matters on a shaded lot with slow drainage where a wood deck stays damp and goes soft early. The trade-offs are still real: composite costs more up front, dark boards hold heat on a south-facing deck, and the surface reads more uniform than natural wood. On a dry, sunny, well-drained lot with a tight budget, pressure-treated is still a reasonable answer as long as you accept the maintenance cycle.
Design and filing over the winter, construction spring through late fall once concrete will cure. If any part of the project sits in a wetland buffer, start earlier than you think you need to, because the hearing calendar sets the pace rather than the crew’s schedule.
Tell us about the space you have in mind and we will walk the property, work out whether conservation review applies, and put together a plan. No obligation.
