By Radu Oprea, Owner, Wolf Spirit Deck · Illinois Contractor License #TGC119852 · Naperville, IL · Last updated: July 2026
I build decks for a living, and hiring a contractor still strikes me as one of the more nerve-racking things a homeowner takes on. You hand a near-stranger a five-figure check and trust them to bolt something onto your house that your kids will be running across all summer. Most of the folks I meet in La Grange have already been burned once, or they know a neighbor two doors down who was.
So this is the post I keep wishing homeowners had read before they picked up the phone. Below are the questions I would ask if I were the one doing the hiring, plus the answers worth listening for. One or two of them might cost me a job down the road by making buyers sharper. That is fine by me. You can see how we would answer each one on our La Grange deck builders page, but the real goal here is to hand you a yardstick for judging anyone, us included.
1. Are you registered with the Village of La Grange, and will you pull the permit yourself?
This is the quickest way to tell a real contractor apart from a guy with a pickup and a Facebook page.
La Grange makes every contractor working in the village register with the Community Development Department before a permit will be released. The rules are laid out on the Village of La Grange contractor registration page, so you can read them yourself. A builder who works here often is already registered and will not flinch at the question.
The reply that should raise a flag is any version of “you pull the permit as the homeowner.” You can, technically. What they are really doing, though, is shifting the liability onto you. If the work flunks inspection, your name sits on the application, not theirs. And when a contractor offers to skip the permit altogether to “save you money,” end the conversation there. The fee is small. The mess you inherit when you sell the house and the deck has no permit on file is not.
2. What is your license number, and can I see your certificate of insurance today?
Anyone can claim to be licensed and insured. The real question is whether they will prove it while they are standing in your backyard.
A legitimate builder can rattle off a license number (ours is TGC119852) and email you a current certificate of insurance the same afternoon, with general liability and workers’ comp both on it. Do not settle for a screenshot from two years back. Coverage lapses. Ask for something current, and if the job is a big one, call the agent named on the certificate and confirm the policy is still active.
Here is why this carries more weight than people expect. If an uninsured worker gets hurt on your property, you can wind up holding the bill. That quote that looked three grand cheaper stops looking cheap in a hurry.
3. Who is actually on my property building this, your crew or a sub I have never met?
Some companies sell the job in a crisp polo shirt, then hand the build off to a revolving cast of subcontractors. That is not automatically a problem. Plenty of solid builders lean on trusted subs. The problem is not knowing which you are getting.
Ask it plainly: are these your employees, and will the same crew be here from the first footing to the last board? You want one foreman who owns the project, not a fresh trio every morning who each assume somebody else double-checked the ledger height. On our jobs I can tell you the name of the lead carpenter on your build. If a company cannot, that says a lot about how much oversight you are actually paying for.
4. Can you show me a deck you built near here that is at least three years old?
Anyone can photograph a deck the day it is finished. Fresh stain and tight boards photograph beautifully in May. The honest test is what that deck looks like after three Chicago winters have worked it over.
Ask to see an older local project, ideally one you can drive past on a Saturday. Has the framing stayed flat? Are the boards cupping? Did the railing hold tight? We ran a five-year inspection of our own builds across these same zip codes and wrote up what we found in our Naperville cedar vs. Trex vs. TimberTech review, partly because I wanted homeowners looking at aged work instead of glamour shots. A builder who is proud of a three-year-old deck will happily point you to one. A builder who only shows you last week’s photos is hiding the part that counts.
5. What is not in this quote?
This is the question that saves people the most money, and hardly anyone thinks to ask it.
A low number on a proposal usually means something got left off. The costs that tend to vanish from cheap quotes are the same ones every time: tearing out and hauling away the old deck, permit fees, footing depth, surface prep, and dragging material through a narrow side yard. Then they resurface as change orders once your old deck is already sitting in a dumpster and you have lost all your leverage.
When we put three real quotes on the same backyard side by side, the cheapest bid was not actually the cheapest once you added back everything it skipped. I walked through it line by line in this post on why a $19K quote beat a $35K one. Read it before you sign anything. Then make every builder hand you an itemized quote, so you are comparing the same scope of work and not just the same number at the bottom.
6. How are you handling footings and frost depth for our soil?
This one is a quiet competence check. Most homeowners will not know whether the answer is correct, but you will absolutely notice if the contractor fumbles it.
Around here, deck footings have to reach below the frost line, which sits roughly 42 inches down in our corner of Cook County. Go shallower and the ground heaves every winter, and within a few seasons the deck starts pulling away from the house and your patio doors stop lining up. A builder who knows the local code will bring up footing depth, soil, and frost before you even ask. If you ask how deep the footings go and get a vague “deep enough,” treat that as a warning. The village inspector will measure it regardless, so you want someone who builds to that standard the first time around. That same care shows up in how a builder handles permits and inspections in general, which I broke down in our Naperville deck permit process post.
7. What happens after I pay you and something goes wrong?
Every builder is friendly right up until the deposit clears. What you are really hiring is the version of that person who shows up eighteen months later when a board warps.
Ask what the warranty covers, get it in writing, and then ask the question that actually reveals something: when was the last time you went back to fix a deck that was out of warranty, and what did you do about it? The answer tells you whether they treat a callback as an obligation or an irritation. A company that plans to still be working around here a decade from now guards its name in towns like La Grange and Western Springs, because word moves fast between neighbors. A company chasing the next deposit does not.
A few smaller things worth doing
The seven questions above carry most of the load, but while you are at it, a handful of smaller habits help. Read the three- and four-star reviews, not just the glowing ones, because that middle band is where you learn how a company handles a problem. Notice whether they pick up the phone before you have paid them, since that is the friendliest they are ever going to be. And trust your read on the person standing in your yard. If they get cagey about a permit or bristle at a fair question, you already have your answer.
Hiring a deck builder is not really about landing the lowest number. It is about finding someone who will still answer the phone in two years. Ask these questions, watch how people react, and the right choice usually sorts itself out.
If you are in La Grange and you want straight answers to all seven, that is the conversation we would rather be having anyway. You can reach us at the number below.
Frequently asked questions about hiring a deck builder in La Grange, IL
Do I need a permit to build a deck in La Grange, Illinois?
Yes. The Village of La Grange requires a building permit for new decks and for most deck alterations, and the contractor doing the work has to be registered with the village first. A reputable builder registers and pulls the permit under their own name rather than asking you to file it as the homeowner.
How deep do deck footings need to be in La Grange and Cook County?
Deck footings in this part of Cook County generally need to extend below the frost line, which runs about 42 inches deep. Footings set shallower than that can heave during freeze-thaw cycles and pull the deck away from the house over a few winters.
How much does it cost to build a deck near La Grange?
Cost depends on size, material, height off the ground, and site access, so the honest answer is that you need an itemized quote rather than a single number. Ask every builder to spell out tear-out, disposal, permit fees, footings, and material delivery so you are comparing the same scope. Our write-up comparing three real Naperville-area quotes shows how a lower bid can end up costing more once the missing items reappear as change orders.
What should I ask a deck contractor before hiring them?
Confirm they are registered with the village and will pull the permit, ask for a license number and a current certificate of insurance, find out whether their own crew or a subcontractor builds the deck, ask to see a local deck that is at least three years old, get an itemized quote, ask how they handle footings and frost depth, and ask what their warranty covers and how they handle callbacks.
Does Wolf Spirit Deck build decks in La Grange?
Yes. Wolf Spirit Deck is based in Naperville and builds decks throughout the western suburbs, including La Grange and Western Springs. You can reach the office at (312) 765-3998 or see project details on our La Grange deck builders page.
Wolf Spirit Deck
Owner & CEO: Radu Oprea
Illinois Contractor License #: TGC119852
Naperville Office: 2020 Calamos Ct, Suite 200, Naperville, IL 60563
Phone: (312) 765-3998
