LakefrontLake Minnetonka
Multi-level cedar stepping down through stone columns to mature lakefront landscaping. Sunset light, cedar planks, iron rail.
Cedar + Stone · Lakefront
Mockup preview · Minneapolis Decks← Back to case study
Custom Architectural Decks · Twin Cities
The serious deck
for serious homes.
Six hundred decks drawn for the Twin Cities and the lakes. Let us draw yours.
Certified by the brands we install
Trex Platinum ProTimberTech ProAZEKWestern Red Cedar Association
Featured · Lake Minnetonka
Three levels.
Steel underneath.
A 2,400-square-foot lakefront build for a Minnetonka client who wanted the deck to feel like another room of the house, not an addition to it. Three levels stepping down to the dock, a fieldstone outdoor hearth, an integrated grill kitchen, and a galvanized steel substructure rated for a thirty-year life on the shoreline.
- Material
- Western red cedar + steel
- Square footage
- 2,400 sq ft
- Levels
- Three
- Finished
- Q3 2025
Selected projects
Six recent.
Cedar, composite, stone.
Lakefront
CompositeEdina back yard
Composite plank with iron picket rail, golden-hour light through bare oaks. A first-person view from the deck out into the yard.
Composite · Iron rail
ScreenedExcelsior screened porch
Modern screened build with infrared heat, dark window frames, and a wood-clad ceiling. The room you can sit in in November.
Screened · Year-round
Multi-levelWayzata back yard
Two-story cedar-trim screened porch + open deck combination, integrated stone columns, full architectural daylight composition.
Multi-level · Cedar trim
PergolaCross Lake retreat
White-frame pergola with wood-clad ceiling and warm interior lighting at twilight. The yard turns into a room as the sun drops.
Pergola · Twilight
Multi-levelEden Prairie back yard
Elevated cedar build with iron rail and white columns, photographed in fall. The leaves under the deck show the daylight clearance.
Cedar · Iron rail
Specialty
Rooftop decks.
Thirty and counting.
Rooftop builds are a different trade. The waterproofing membrane under the boards is the part that can’t fail; the deck on top is the part the homeowner sees. Most contractors don’t specialize in both. We’ve finished thirty in the metro.
- Membrane-rated pedestal systems and ballast trays
- Capped composite for zero-drainage flat surfaces
- Glass + cable rail for lake and skyline views
- Integration with existing flat-roof warranties
Materials
Four materials.
One steel frame.
We’ve installed every premium board on the market. We spec the material to the home and the homeowner’s twenty-year plan, not to whatever’s on the truck.
01
Western red cedar
Kiln-dried, hidden-fastener. Looks better the longer it stands. Specified when the look needs to be the look.
02
Capped composite
Trex Transcend, TimberTech AZEK, TimberTech Reserve. Twenty-five-year warranty on the board. Color-matched fascia and rail.
03
Local Minnesota fieldstone
For fireplaces, retaining walls, and the hard-surface portions of multi-level builds. Sourced inside the state.
04
Galvanized steel substructure
Twenty-five-year frame warranty. The reason your deck still stands at year thirty when the cedar above it has been swapped twice.
How a build moves
Six weeks. Five steps.
The schedule we hand you on day one is the schedule you’ll walk on at the end. Built into every estimate is the buffer for the things weather always does in Minnesota.
01
Site visit
Week 1We measure, listen, leave. No high-pressure pitch.
02
3-D design
Weeks 1–2Your deck rendered before any contract. Shadows, heights, rail.
03
Fixed estimate
Week 2Locked sixty days. The number we quote is the number on the invoice.
04
Permit + build
Weeks 3–6Same crew start to finish. Yard cleaned every night.
05
Walkthrough
Week 6We don't take final payment until you walk it with us.
Why we get hired
Eight reasons the call comes back.
01
Eight-person crew
The same eight men start your deck and the same eight finish it. No subs cycling through.
02
Founder on site
Alex Knapp designs every project, walks every site, and answers his own phone. There is no account manager.
03
Drawn before built
3-D renderings of your deck before you sign. Shadows, heights, rail. You see it before we cut it.
04
Steel substructure
Galvanized steel frame on every build. Twenty-five-year warranty. The reason ours stand at year thirty.
05
Fixed-price quotes
Locked sixty days. The number we hand you on day one is the number on the final invoice.
06
Permits handled
We pull every permit and meet every inspector. The homeowner doesn't make a single phone call.
07
Six hundred decks
Twenty-five years across the Twin Cities and the lakes. Six hundred yards we still drive past on weekends.
08
Thirty rooftops
The membrane builds nobody else takes. Edina, downtown, Excelsior. Thirty completed and counting.
From the homeowners
Sixty reviews.
Five stars apiece.
Google Reviews
Minneapolis Decks
5.0
Based on 60 reviews
Mark H.
Local Guide · Lake Minnetonka
2 months ago
Alex drew our deck three times before we picked one. The crew showed up the same eight men every morning for six weeks. Two summers later the cedar still looks like the day they left.
Posted on Google
Daniel R.
Local Guide · Edina rooftop
5 months ago
We had three other quotes. Alex was the only one who walked the roof before naming a number. The membrane work on our downtown unit is invisible — and that's the whole point.
Posted on Google
Karen M.
Local Guide · Excelsior
8 months ago
Our screened porch added a season to the year. The detail on the cedar ceiling is the first thing every guest looks at. Worth every conversation we had to get it right.
Posted on Google
Read all 60 reviews on Google
5.0 ★ average · 25 years on the lakes
About
Family-owned.
Founder-built.
Minneapolis Decks is owned and run by Alex Knapp out of Edina, with his wife Kelsey managing the office. Every project is designed, modeled, and built under Alex’s direct supervision — he is on every site, on every walkthrough, and answers his own phone.
The reason our decks still stand at year thirty isn’t the cedar. It’s the steel substructure underneath, the membrane on the rooftop builds, and the eight-person crew that starts and finishes every job together.
Alex + Kelsey Knapp
Owners · Minneapolis Decks
“Every yard we’ve worked on, we still drive past on weekends. That’s why we built the company — so the deck would be worth driving past.”
— Alex Knapp, founder
Where we build
Eight counties around one shop.
Edina is the center. From our shop, every county we work in sits inside a forty-five-minute drive — a fraction of the two-hour radius the schedule allows.
Counties · 8
- 45 min
Wright County
Northwest · Buffalo · Monticello · Delano
- 30 min
Anoka County
North · Blaine · Coon Rapids · Andover
- 22 min
Ramsey County
Northeast · St. Paul · Roseville · Maplewood
- Home
Hennepin County
Home county · Minneapolis · Edina · Wayzata · Plymouth
- 32 min
Washington County
East · Woodbury · Stillwater · Cottage Grove
- 26 min
Carver County
Southwest · Chaska · Chanhassen · Waconia
- 28 min
Scott County
South · Shakopee · Prior Lake · Savage
- 20 min
Dakota County
Southeast · Burnsville · Eagan · Apple Valley
Drive estimates from 6505 Cecilia Cir, Edina · Off-peak
- How long does it take from first call to finished deck?
- Two to three weeks for design. Six weeks for a typical build once permits clear. Multi-level lakefront and rooftop projects run longer — we'll tell you the timeline before you sign.
- What does a custom deck typically run?
- Most of our full builds land between $80,000 and $300,000 depending on size, material, levels, and integrated features (kitchens, fire, fieldstone). Rooftop work runs higher. We send a fixed-price estimate after the design is approved — no surprises later.
- Do you offer financing?
- Yes. Synchrony and GreenSky both run through us. We can also work with home-equity disbursements on a project schedule if that's cleaner.
- Do I need a permit?
- Yes for any deck over 200 sq ft. We pull every permit, schedule every inspection, and handle the entire municipality side of the build.
- What's the warranty?
- Twenty-five years on the galvanized steel substructure. Manufacturer warranties on the composite (Trex Transcend, TimberTech) — twenty-five-year residential. One-year workmanship on everything else, but most of our calls back are courtesy adjustments, not failures.
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Book a consult
Tell us about the decking project.
We’ll come measure, listen, and leave. We don’t quote on site — we go back to the office, design first, and put renderings in your inbox within the week.