Deck Repair Labor Cost in San Antonio

Deck repair labor in San Antonio works out to roughly $47 to $71 per carpenter hour billed, built from the $23.51 median hourly wage a San Antonio carpenter is actually paid, multiplied by a 2x to 3x burden and overhead factor. A two-person crew for one day, plus a modest lumber allowance, lands between about $950 and $1,750. Every step below is shown.

Key points

• The 2025 BLS median wage for a carpenter in San Antonio is $23.51 per hour, against a national median of $29.12 — a gap of $5.61, or 19.3 percent below the United States figure.
• The wage is not the price. Billed labor is wage × a burden and overhead multiplier covering payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, trucks, fuel, tools, office time, warranty reserve and profit. 2x to 3x is the working assumption used here, and it is an assumption, not a measured number.
• At the 2.5x midpoint, one San Antonio carpenter hour bills at $58.78; a two-person crew bills $117.55 per hour of crew time.
• Lumber producer prices are up 10.1 percent over twelve months (index 264.248 → 291.019). That inflates the material line, not the labor line.
• A San Antonio crew supervisor’s median wage is $35.35 per hour, 50.4 percent above the carpenter wage. If a foreman is on site all day, that changes your total.

What does a San Antonio carpenter actually earn?

The table below is straight from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for Carpenters in San Antonio, 2025 survey year. These are wages paid to workers. Nothing here is a price to a homeowner.

Area	25th pct	Median	75th pct	Mean	Employed
United States	$23.32	$29.12	$36.94	$31.55	670,090
Texas statewide	$21.48	$23.51	$27.78	$24.51	33,540
San Antonio, TX	$21.91	$23.51	$26.49	$23.79	2,240
San Antonio supervisor	—	$35.35	—	—	—

Two things stand out. San Antonio’s median matches the Texas median exactly at $23.51, so the metro is not a local outlier within the state. And San Antonio’s spread is narrow: $21.91 to $26.49 is a $4.58 band, against a national band of $23.32 to $36.94, which is $13.62. A San Antonio deck crew is unlikely to contain a $37-an-hour carpenter, because the local 75th percentile stops at $26.49.

The occupation itself, its entry requirements and its outlook, is described in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for Carpenters.

How far below national is San Antonio?

Statistic	San Antonio	United States	Gap ($)	Gap (%)
25th percentile	$21.91	$23.32	−$1.41	−6.0%
Median	$23.51	$29.12	−$5.61	−19.3%
75th percentile	$26.49	$36.94	−$10.45	−28.3%
Mean	$23.79	$31.55	−$7.76	−24.6%

The discount grows as you move up the wage ladder. At the entry end San Antonio is only 6.0 percent cheap; at the experienced end it is 28.3 percent cheap. Practical reading: hiring a plain competent carpenter in San Antonio costs close to national money, but hiring an experienced one costs meaningfully less than it would in a high-wage metro.

Carry that into billed rates. At a 2.5x multiplier:

• San Antonio median: $23.51 × 2.5 = $58.78/hr billed
• National median: $29.12 × 2.5 = $72.80/hr billed
• Difference: $14.02 per carpenter hour

Over a 32-carpenter-hour job that is $448.64 of difference from geography alone.

What is the billed labor rate, step by step?

The build-up, in full view:

1. Start with the wage the carpenter is paid: $23.51/hr (San Antonio median).
2. Multiply by burden and overhead. This covers employer payroll taxes, workers’ compensation premium, general liability, truck and fuel, tools and blades, unbilled office and estimating time, warranty reserve, and profit. Assumption: 2.0x to 3.0x. Not measured. Small residential contractors typically fall in this band; a one-truck operator with low overhead sits nearer 2.0x, a company with an office, a scheduler and a written warranty sits nearer 3.0x.
3. Multiply by crew size to get the cost of an hour of elapsed site time.
4. Multiply by hours on site.
5. Add materials as a separate line.

Burden multiplier	Billed per carpenter hr	2-person crew per hr	3-person crew per hr
2.0x	$47.02	$94.04	$141.06
2.25x	$52.90	$105.80	$158.69
2.5x	$58.78	$117.55	$176.33
2.75x	$64.65	$129.31	$193.96
3.0x	$70.53	$141.06	$211.59

If a foreman is on site, substitute the supervisor wage for one of the seats: $35.35 × 2.5 = $88.38/hr billed for that person. A two-person crew of one supervisor and one carpenter bills $147.16 per hour at 2.5x, which is 25.2 percent above a two-carpenter crew. This is the most common reason a bid comes in higher than a homeowner’s mental arithmetic.

What does a deck repair cost across the full range of job sizes?

Below is the sweep. Find your row. Every figure is computed from the San Antonio median wage of $23.51, a two-person crew, and a 2.5x burden multiplier. Material allowances are stated separately as assumptions so you can replace them with your own numbers.

Formula for each row: crew hours = on-site hours × 2 · labor = crew hours × $58.78 · total = labor + material allowance.

Job scope	On-site hrs	Crew hrs	Labor @ 2.5x	Material allowance (assumed)	Total
Single loose board, tighten rail	2	4	$235.12	$40	$275
Replace 4–6 deck boards	4	8	$470.24	$120	$590
Replace ~40 sq ft of decking	8	16	$940.48	$300	$1,240
Replace ~80 sq ft + fasteners	12	24	$1,410.72	$550	$1,961
Replace ~120 sq ft, 1 joist sistered	16	32	$1,880.96	$800	$2,681
Full deck surface ~200 sq ft	24	48	$2,821.44	$1,300	$4,121
Surface + rail system replacement	32	64	$3,761.92	$2,000	$5,762
Surface + multiple joists + rail	44	88	$5,172.64	$2,900	$8,073
Structural: beam, posts, footings	60	120	$7,053.60	$4,200	$11,254
Tear-off and rebuild, ~250 sq ft	80	160	$9,404.80	$6,500	$15,905

The material allowances are the weakest numbers on this page and you should treat them that way. The BLS producer price series tells you lumber’s direction, not its dollar price, so no material figure here is sourced. Replace the allowance column with a real supplier quote and the labor column still stands.

How does the answer move if the multiplier or the crew changes?

Two axes at once. Rows are on-site hours with a two-person crew; columns are the burden multiplier. Labor only, no materials.

On-site hrs	2.0x	2.25x	2.5x	2.75x	3.0x
4	$376.16	$423.18	$470.24	$517.22	$564.24
8	$752.32	$846.36	$940.48	$1,034.44	$1,128.48
12	$1,128.48	$1,269.54	$1,410.72	$1,551.66	$1,692.72
16	$1,504.64	$1,692.72	$1,880.96	$2,068.88	$2,256.96
24	$2,256.96	$2,539.08	$2,821.44	$3,103.32	$3,385.44
32	$3,009.28	$3,385.44	$3,761.92	$4,137.76	$4,513.92
48	$4,513.92	$5,078.16	$5,642.88	$6,206.64	$6,770.88

A 16-hour job swings from $1,504.64 to $2,256.96 purely on the overhead assumption. That is a 50 percent spread on identical work by identically paid people. When two honest bids differ by half, overhead structure explains most of it, not skill.

Now vary wage percentile instead, holding 16 on-site hours and a two-person crew:

Crew wage basis	Hourly wage	2.0x total labor	2.5x total labor	3.0x total labor
SA 25th pct	$21.91	$1,402.24	$1,752.80	$2,103.36
SA median	$23.51	$1,504.64	$1,880.96	$2,256.96
SA 75th pct	$26.49	$1,695.36	$2,119.20	$2,543.04
SA supervisor	$35.35	$2,262.40	$2,828.00	$3,393.60
US median	$29.12	$1,863.68	$2,329.60	$2,795.52

What did the year-over-year change do to your material line?

The BLS Producer Price Index gives index levels, not dollars. Never convert an index point into a price. Use it for direction and rate of change only.

Series	July 2025	July 2026	12-month change
Lumber (WPU081)	264.248	291.019	+10.1%
Metal doors, sash and trim (WPU1071)	465.470	525.255	+12.8%

Applying the lumber rate of change to the material allowances above, the same material package would have cost this a year ago:

Job scope	2026 allowance	Implied 2025 equivalent (÷1.101)	Increase
Replace 4–6 boards	$120	$109	+$11
~40 sq ft decking	$300	$273	+$27
~120 sq ft + joist	$800	$727	+$73
Full surface ~200 sq ft	$1,300	$1,181	+$119
Tear-off and rebuild	$6,500	$5,904	+$596

Note what this does not say: labor did not rise 10.1 percent. The wage figures above are a 2025 survey and the PPI is a materials series. A contractor who raises the whole bid 10 percent citing lumber has applied a materials increase to a labor line.

Reverse the calculation: what hours does your quote imply?

Take the labor line from your written quote and divide.

implied carpenter hours = labor line ÷ billed rate

Labor line on quote	Hours @ 2.0x ($47.02)	Hours @ 2.5x ($58.78)	Hours @ 3.0x ($70.53)
$500	10.6	8.5	7.1
$1,000	21.3	17.0	14.2
$1,500	31.9	25.5	21.3
$2,000	42.5	34.0	28.4
$3,000	63.8	51.0	42.5
$5,000	106.3	85.1	70.9
$8,000	170.1	136.1	113.4

Read the middle column. A $2,000 labor line means the contractor has priced about 34 carpenter hours, which is a two-person crew for roughly two full days. Stand on your deck and ask whether two people have two days of work in front of them. If the answer is obviously no, you have a specific, checkable question to ask rather than a vague feeling that the price is high.

Two things homeowners get wrong

Misconception 1: “The carpenter makes $23.51, so $58.78 an hour is a 150 percent markup and someone is gouging me.”

No. Of the $35.27 difference, the contractor never sees most of it. Employer-side payroll taxes, workers’ compensation premium for a fall-risk trade, general liability, the truck, fuel across a metro the size of San Antonio, saw blades and fasteners consumed on site, the hours spent measuring and writing your estimate for free, and the reserve to come back if a board cups in six months all come out of it before profit. The multiplier is the cost of employing someone legally and insured, plus a business. A quote at 1.5x the wage is not a bargain; it is a signal that something in that list is missing, and the item most often missing is workers’ compensation.

Misconception 2: “Lumber is up 10 percent, so my deck repair costs 10 percent more.”

Only the material portion moved. Take the ~120 sq ft row: $1,880.96 labor plus $800 materials equals $2,681. Inflating only the materials by 10.1 percent gives $800 vs $727 a year ago, so the total moved from $2,608 to $2,681. That is a 2.8 percent rise on the job, not 10.1 percent. Material-heavy jobs move more: on the tear-off row the same math gives 3.9 percent. The more labor-heavy the repair, the less lumber inflation matters to you.

When is this estimate wrong?

Everywhere the arithmetic cannot see. Specifically:

• Permits and inspection. Structural deck work, footings, and anything attached to the house commonly requires a permit. Fee and inspection scheduling are not in any wage or price series. Check with your local building department directly.
• Disposal. Tear-off generates volume. Dump fees, a bin, and the trip are a real line and scale with the deck, not with the hours.
• Code upgrades triggered mid-job. Open a rotted rim joist and you may be required to bring ledger flashing, ledger fasteners, or rail height to current code. That is new scope, not padding.
• Access. A second-story deck, a narrow side yard, no truck access, or a gate too small for a bin all add hours the square footage does not predict.
• What is under the surface. Rot found after demolition is the single biggest source of change orders. The $2,681 row becomes the $8,073 row if two beams are gone.
• Season and heat. San Antonio summer afternoons cut productive hours. The same 16-hour job may take three site days in August instead of two.
• Emergency call-out. A collapsed rail on a Saturday carries a premium no survey median captures.
• The wage data is a 2025 survey. It is the most recent available in this series and it is already historical. Actual pay today may be higher.
• Every hour figure on this page is an assumption. The BLS supplies wages, not task durations. Use the reverse table to convert the contractor’s own hours instead.

How do you read a real quote against these numbers?

These line items should appear separately. If they are fused into one number, ask for them split:

1. Labor, with hours and crew size stated, not just a dollar total.
2. Materials, itemised by species or product and quantity.
3. Disposal, as its own line.
4. Permit and inspection, as its own line, with a note on who pulls it.
5. Contingency or change-order rate, stated in advance as a dollar-per-hour or percentage.

The single question that exposes a padded bid: “How many carpenter hours is this priced at, and how many people are on site?”

A contractor who has estimated the job answers immediately, because that is the number the price was built from. A padded bid cannot answer without either inventing a figure on the spot or revealing an hour count that does not match the visible work. Then check their answer against the reverse table above. If they say 12 hours and the labor line is $3,000, their implied rate is $250 per carpenter hour, which is over 10 times the San Antonio median wage and needs an explanation.

Also ask whether the crew includes a supervisor. At $35.35 median, a foreman on site all day legitimately raises the bill 25 percent over a two-carpenter crew. That is a real cost, and a contractor should be willing to say it out loud.

What to check before signing

• Confirm the labor line states hours and crew size. Divide it by $58.78 and see if the implied hours match the deck in front of you.
• Confirm workers’ compensation and general liability are carried, and ask for the certificate, not a verbal yes. A quote below roughly 2x the $23.51 wage should prompt this question hard.
• Get the material list in writing with quantities. Lumber is up 10.1 percent year over year and a vague allowance is where that increase hides.
• Get the permit responsibility in writing — who pulls it, and who pays if inspection fails.
• Get a written change-order rate before demolition, because rot is found after demolition, not before.
• Get two or three quotes and compare their implied hours, not their totals. A 50 percent spread on identical work is normal once overhead structure differs; a 50 percent spread in implied hours is not.

This page does no inspections, collects no contractor quotes, and surveys nobody. It does arithmetic on published federal wage and price data and shows every step so you can change an assumption and redo it yourself.

Read next

• Lumber Prices and What They Do to a Deck Quote
• Carpenter Rates in Seattle and What Drives Them Up
• Reading a Carpentry Bid: What Should Be Broken Out Line by Line
• Drywall Repair Cost: Where the Money Actually Goes

Also worth reading: What Repairing Water-Damaged Flooring Costs in San Antonio