If you’re a homeowner, you likely want your house to both look nice and be functional. You want anyone driving or walking by to admire the work you’ve obviously put into it, but you also need everything about your home to fulfill the function for which it was intended.

If you don’t have a deck yet, or you have an old one that’s falling apart, you should consider putting some money into getting a new one. There are more than a few reasons why spending cash on a new deck makes sense, so let’s run down a few of those right now.

You Should Get a New Deck for Safety Reasons

As you think about the list of factors that might go into getting a new deck for your home, safety is probably the one that will stick out for you the most. Maybe you moved into a house that’s on the older side, and you know you’ll need to put a lot of work into it to make it livable. Perhaps it was a HUD property, or it stood empty for several years and fell into disrepair.

If so, the deck might need some work, or you might have to tear it down entirely and replace it before you feel comfortable using it. Maybe when you walk on it, you notice there are lots of warped or rotting boards. Perhaps you see some nails sticking up, or the entire structure doesn’t feel stable.

You’ll want to prioritize fixing that deck before you walk around on it and before you let your kids play on it. You don’t want one of them to fall and injure themselves, and getting an entirely new deck should prevent that from happening.

It Will Improve Your Home’s Resale Vale

You should also think about what a brand-new deck can do for your home’s resale value. Maybe you reside in an area where most homes have decks. If so, anyone looking to potentially buy your house when you put it on the market will look for a fully-functioning deck. Having one makes it more likely that you can sell your home faster.

A new deck is something that might cause a potential homebuyer to put in a higher bid when the time comes that you’re ready to move on. You can certainly enjoy your deck and get plenty of use from it in the meantime, but whenever you feel prepared to move to your next living situation, you’ll probably find a newer deck is a major selling point.

You Can Invite All of Your Friends and Relatives Over

Maybe you’ve dreamed for years of having a house with features that your friends and relatives can enjoy. Perhaps you have many relatives who live in and around your city. You’ll want to invite them over frequently so they can appreciate your new deck.

Even if you have relatives who live on the other side of the country, you’ll probably want to show off how nice your house is whenever they come for an infrequent visit. Maybe you like the idea of making them a little envious, which they will undoubtedly be when they see your gorgeous new deck.

You might set up a nice table and chairs there, a BBQ grill, an umbrella to keep the sun off, or even a wet bar if you want to get a little more ambitious. You can have quite a party for someone’s birthday, a graduation, or any other family event that feels like a good excuse to use this attractive home feature.

You Can Sit on the Deck and Enjoy Quiet Times with the Family

Maybe you like the idea of spending quiet time on the deck with your family or by yourself more than having big blowout parties. You might feel like the deck can be a place where you can reconnect with your family members if all of you are very busy or you fear you’re drifting apart.

It seems many people are very busy with their lives, what with work, school, and all kinds of other pressures and obligations. You might use the deck as a place to have dinner in the evenings if the weather is nice. You can use it as a convenient excuse to bring everyone together.

You might instruct every family member to help with dinner, and then all of you can sit out on the deck and enjoy it. You can leave the TV and phones inside the house and talk to one another for a while instead. The deck can be a great place to reconnect and talk about what’s happening in each other’s lives.

It Can Be a Place for Your Kids to Play

If you have young children, maybe they’re imaginative and like to play outside a lot. The deck can be a place where they can come up with games to play. If you have a new one, you can feel confident your kids have a stable surface under their feet that won’t give way like an old, dilapidated deck might.

If the deck looks out over your backyard, you can sit back there on nice days and watch over your younger kids while they play in the yard. If you have a dog, you might let them out in the yard as well while you stand on the deck and watch.

An elevated deck might give you a nice view of the surrounding streets as well. You can see what’s happening around the neighborhood, and you can watch the weather roll in during storm season.

There are many frivolous things you can spend money on related to your house, but you should view a new deck as less of a luxury and more of a necessity. Sure, you can get along without one. However, the reasons we’ve mentioned should be enough to convince you that the money you will spend on a new deck is well worth it.