Deck Skirting Ideas for Ontario (2026): Materials, Costs and Keeping Animals Out

Skirting is the last thing anyone thinks about and the first thing you see when you walk up to a deck. Done well, it turns a deck that is sitting on stilts into something that looks built into the house. Done badly, it seals damp air under the joists, hides the water shutoff you need in February, and gives a groundhog a roofed apartment. This guide covers the skirting options we install across Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville, what each costs, and the details that decide whether the deck above it lasts.

Deck skirting compared

To estimate your own face area, multiply the height from grade to the bottom of the deck boards by the length of every side you plan to skirt. A 16 x 12 ft deck skirted on three sides at 30 inches high is (16 + 12 + 12) x 2.5, which is 100 square feet before you take out the access hatch and stairs. Prices are 2026 Ontario estimates and include the framing behind the panel.

The ventilation rule, and the one everyone quotes wrongly

Search this topic and you will be told a deck needs one square foot of ventilation for every 150 square feet. That figure is the crawl space requirement from residential foundation code. It is not a deck requirement, and the Ontario Building Code does not set a ventilation ratio for deck skirting at all. What is true is that trapped, still, damp air under a deck is what rots joists and beams from below, and skirting is the thing most likely to trap it.

The working rules we build to:

• Keep at least 20 percent of the skirt face open. Lattice and gapped boards do this automatically. Solid panels need deliberate vents.
• Vent opposite sides. Air has to come in one side and leave another. Openings on a single side do very little.
• Leave the ground breathing too. Grade the soil so it slopes away from the house, and lay 3 to 4 inches of clear stone under the deck. It stops splash-back on the joists, kills the weeds you can no longer reach, and dries fast.
• Keep wood off the soil. Any skirting board within 6 inches of grade should be cedar or pressure-treated rated for ground contact, or it wicks water and rots first.

If the deck is above a space you actually want to use, that is a different job: an under-deck drainage system installed between or below the joists channels water away and turns the area into dry storage or a covered patio. It adds meaningfully to the cost and has to be planned with the framing.

Keeping animals out, the Ontario version

Skunks, groundhogs, raccoons and feral cats all like the space under a deck: dry, roofed, and with soft soil to dig in. Lattice alone does not stop them, because they dig underneath it.

1. Make sure nothing is living under there first. Sealing an animal in is worse than leaving it out, and in spring there are usually young. The standard approach is a one-way door on the active entrance so the animal can leave but not return, left in place for several days before you close up.
2. Use half-inch galvanized hardware cloth behind the skirting, not chicken wire, which rusts through and tears.
3. Bury it in an L. Run the mesh 6 to 12 inches down into the soil, then bend it outward, away from the deck, for another 8 to 12 inches and backfill. Diggers start at the base of the barrier, hit the horizontal apron, and give up.
4. Close the gaps at the stairs, which is where most animals actually get in.

If an animal is already denning under the deck, Ontario's wildlife rules limit what you can do about it. Hiring a licensed removal service is usually faster and always legal.

Deck skirting ideas

1. Horizontal slats that match the railing

Boards run horizontally with a consistent quarter to half inch gap, in the same material as the deck. It reads as one designed object rather than a deck with a skirt bolted on, and the gaps handle ventilation without any extra thought. This is the most requested look right now. Match it to your railing: see our deck railing ideas and cost guide.

2. Classic lattice, done properly

Lattice gets a bad name because it is usually thin, unframed and stapled on. Use heavy 1 inch lattice, set it inside a built frame of 2x4s with a top and bottom rail, and hold the bottom rail 4 to 6 inches above the soil on a stone strip. It costs a little more and looks like joinery instead of trellis.

3. Vertical board and batten

Vertical boards with a narrow batten over each joint suit farmhouse and traditional homes, and they shed water better than horizontal boards. Leave a gap behind the battens or drill discreet vents along the top rail.

4. Black metal panels

Perforated or corrugated steel in black or bronze, set into a wood frame, gives a modern look, will not rot, and the perforations vent the space. It also stands up to whipper snippers and hockey pucks better than anything else on this list.

5. Stone or brick veneer

A thin stone veneer on a framed and sheathed wall makes a raised deck look like part of the house, and it is the obvious move when the house already has a stone front. It is the most expensive option by a wide margin, needs vents designed into it, and needs a footing detail so the veneer does not crack when the ground moves.

6. Under-deck storage doors

On a deck 3 feet or more off the ground, the space under it is genuinely useful. Frame a pair of doors into the skirt, put down clear stone or a simple slab, and you have somewhere for patio furniture, bikes and the hose reel over the winter.

7. A planted skirt

Low shrubs and grasses in front of an open frame hide the underside while leaving the airflow completely alone. Use plants that tolerate the dry shade right up against a deck: sedge, hosta, hydrangea back from the edge, or ornamental grasses. Keep them 18 inches off the skirt so you can still get in.

8. No skirt at all

On a deck under about 18 inches high, a skirt can look heavy and the gap is often better handled with a wide fascia board and a strip of clear stone. A low deck has another advantage: at 600 mm (24 inches) or less above grade and not attached to the house, it usually needs no building permit and no guard. Our deck ideas guide covers where those lines fall.

Skirting an above-ground pool deck

If the deck serves a pool, the skirting is not decoration, it is part of the enclosure. In Hamilton, Pool Enclosure By-law 16-184 requires an enclosure at least 1.5 m high measured from the outside ground, with no opening that passes a 100 mm sphere and nothing climbable. Standard lattice fails the sphere test and horizontal slats can read as a ladder. Oakville's By-law 2006-071 sets a 1.2 m minimum. Settle this with the inspector before you buy material: see our above-ground pool deck ideas.

Mistakes we get called to fix

• Solid skirting with no vents, found when the joists above it are soft after five or six years.
• Skirting screwed on with no hatch, found in January when someone needs the water shutoff.
• Boards touching the soil, rotted from the bottom edge up.
• Lattice with no frame, which bows, cracks at the staples and looks tired inside two seasons.
• No mesh, so the skirt looks perfect and something is living behind it by April.
• Weeds and saplings growing in soil under the deck that nobody can reach any more.

If the framing above the skirt is already soft, fix that first. Our deck repair cost guide covers what that runs, and why decks warp and squeak explains what moisture does to a frame.

Building a floating deck? See how to build one on deck blocks with a gravel pad that drains.

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