It’s game day! Kickoff is at 2:30, the grill’s already going and appetizers are being dipped into, your friends and family are filtering in with their tailgate dishes. Your kids are tossing a football in the yard, your dog is under the table hoping for scraps, and every few minutes there’s a groan or a cheer loud enough that the neighbors two houses down know exactly how the game’s going.
Now picture where all of that is actually happening at your house. If the honest answer is “the living room, because that’s where the TV is,” you’re not alone – but you’re also missing out on a Saturday most homeowners around Alabama would love to have. Most backyards just weren’t built with game day in mind. They were built for a quiet evening, not a yard full of people, a grill running all afternoon, and a TV everyone can actually see.
We build a number of decks and covered spaces every year specifically with that in mind, and the requests tend to come up repeatedly.
Nobody Should Have to Choose Between the Grill and the Game
Once we’re talking layout, the real question isn’t whether there’s a TV – it’s whether someone can grill, grab a seat, and still see the screen without playing musical chairs every time something happens. We spend time during design working through sightlines: where the seating naturally lands, where the grill ends up, and whether both of those spots actually have a clear view of the TV without anyone craning their neck or missing a play because they were mid-flip on the burgers.
That’s the layout conversation we have before anything gets built. Separate the grill, the bar area, and the seating too far from each other, and someone ends up constantly walking between them. Keep everything close enough together, and nobody has to pick between manning the grill and watching the game.
Don’t Let Weather Cancel the Party
Fall in this part of the country is unpredictable. Rain rolling through at kickoff is one thing, but a big issue is usually the cold front behind it – the kind of afternoon that starts out fine and turns into everyone bundled up wishing they were somewhere warmer. That’s where an enclosed space, like a screened porch or sunroom, earns its keep. It keeps the TV, the food, and the group together in one place instead of splitting the party between the yard and the living room the second the temperature drops.
Homeowners who’ve had a space like that through a few football seasons will tell you the same thing: it’s the reason the party stays outside all afternoon instead of slowly draining indoors once the weather turns.
Materials Matter More Than People Realize
Game days are hard on a deck. Drinks get spilled, grease from the grill ends up where it shouldn’t, and there’s a lot more foot traffic than a typical evening outside. This is one of the reasons we build almost exclusively with TimberTech composite decking for these kinds of spaces. It holds up to that kind of use in a way traditional wood just doesn’t – no staining from spills, no warping from grease or moisture sitting on the boards, and it still looks the way it did on day one after a full season of hosting. It’s also a lot friendlier underfoot than concrete, which can get uncomfortably hot for kids running around barefoot on a sunny afternoon.
What This Usually Looks Like Put Together
Most of the projects we build for this end up with a similar shape, even if the details differ from home to home: a grill or bar area within easy reach of the seating, a TV positioned where it’s actually visible from where people sit, and some kind of roof overhead so the whole thing still works if the forecast doesn’t cooperate. None of that has to be complicated, but it does have to be thought through before construction starts. That’s why our team takes the time to understand how you actually plan to use the space before a single design decision gets made.
Let’s Talk About Your Backyard
If Saturdays at your place tend to turn into a crowd, it’s worth having a conversation about whether your outdoor space is actually built for that. At DeckTech, we work with homeowners across Auburn, Opelika, Lake Martin, Pike Road, Birmingham, and west Georgia to design decks, covered patios, and outdoor living spaces built around how they actually use them – game days included.
Reach out to our team to start the conversation.
