Volcano Builders

Final reveal. Rooftop deck in Seattle, and it took four parts to get here for a reason.

No street parking. A road too narrow to get material anywhere near the building. So every board went up by ladder, by hand, from further down the street.

And the whole thing sits on a TPO roof. One wrong fastener, one dropped tool, and you are not fixing a deck any more, you are fixing a leak into the building underneath. That is exactly why the client took his time. He was not going to hand this to whoever answered the phone first, and honestly he was right not to.

He found us through reviews and a recommendation, rang to ask whether we could actually do it, and this is what it looks like finished. Trex, installed by a Trex Certified crew.

If you have a flat roof and you have been told a deck is not possible up there, it usually is. It just cannot be done casually.

Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Renton, and Monroe. +1 (206) 666-0412 or www.volcanobuilders.com

Every one of these was invented so somebody could see the thing before they built it.

Drafting tables, T-squares, blueprints. Then CAD, which felt like witchcraft in 1985 and looks like a wireframe now. Each step was people trying to take guesswork out of a decision that costs real money.

Homeowners are the ones who got skipped. You still get handed a four-inch tile sample and asked to picture an entire room from it, and then you find out what it looks like at full scale after it has been set.

A free 3D design comes with every remodel we do. Tile layout at full scale, the lighting your room will genuinely have, and the sightline from the doorway rather than from a drawing.

Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Renton, and Monroe. +1 (206) 666-0412 or www.volcanobuilders.com

The deck at Google's Kirkland facility didn't need replacing, it needed stripping.

Chemical treatment to lift the old stain, then we buffed the whole surface back. Swapped the boards that were past saving, fewer than most people would guess. Custom railing all the way around, then restained. The railing took longer than the refinish did.

Here is the thing worth taking away from it. Most tired-looking decks are a finish problem rather than a framing problem, and those are two very different jobs at two very different numbers. Find out which one you have before somebody quotes you a teardown.

Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Renton, and Monroe. +1 (206) 666-0412 or www.volcanobuilders.com

Told you couldn't build a backyard cottage in Bellevue? That answer expired. 👀

For decades it was true. Bellevue allowed attached ADUs starting in 1993 and required every one of them to be connected to the main house. A detached unit in the backyard was simply not an option. Plenty of homeowners asked, got a no, and never asked again.

That ended on July 1, 2025. Thirty-two years apart.

Detached ADUs are now allowed up to 1,200 sq ft and 24 ft tall, or up to 28 ft if the unit sits above an existing garage. State law HB 1337 lets most lots hold two ADUs rather than one, in any combination of attached and detached. And there's no owner-occupancy requirement, so you can rent the main house and the unit.

One thing worth being straight about: Bellevue didn't decide this. HB 1337 requires every Washington city planning under the Growth Management Act to allow two ADUs per lot. Bellevue was one of the more restrictive cities before that, which is why the change feels so dramatic there.

If you're in Seattle, this was never your reality. Seattle has allowed DADUs since 2019.

And if you're waiting on Bellevue's pre-approved DADU plans program, it isn't live yet and there's no launch date. If you're building next spring, don't wait on it.

The rules moved. Most people's information didn't.

Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Renton, and Monroe.

Thinking about a DADU? Call +1 (206) 666-0412 or visit www.volcanobuilders.com

Built Without Compromise.

Part three. This deck can only be reached by walking through somebody else's home.

Jack owns the property, but the access runs through his tenant's unit, and that changes how the whole job runs. Materials, crew, timing, all of it has to work around a person who did not hire us and did not sign anything. Bar was in the area and did not even have the tenant's number, so this visit was a knock on the door and a bit of hope. Worth saying that the tenant has been good about it every time.

The landing area is Trex, and it is the part that had to be right, because it is the first thing you see stepping out.

Final reveal next Friday. Follow so you catch it.

Trex Certified. Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Renton, and Monroe. +1 (206) 666-0412 or www.volcanobuilders.com

Stephanie's bathroom had an 80s jacuzzi tub that had not worked in years. Extremely common in houses from that era, and they take up an enormous amount of floor space for something nobody uses.

Taking it out made room for a much bigger shower and still fit the soaking tub they had always wanted, in the same footprint. People assume they have to choose between the two. Usually they just have to lose the thing that was wasting the space.

She also mentions being told upfront what she needed to buy and what we would handle. That sounds minor until you are three weeks in and nobody ordered the vanity.

Bar ran this one. Thanks, Stephanie.

Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Renton, and Monroe. +1 (206) 666-0412 or www.volcanobuilders.com

We just wrapped a deck at Google's Kirkland campus. 👀

This is the overview. The full build, start to finish, drops next.

Follow so you don't miss it. Same crew, same standards, whether it's a corporate campus in Kirkland or a backyard in Bellevue.

Trex Certified. Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Renton, and Monroe. Call +1 (206) 666-0412 or visit www.volcanobuilders.com