If you're picturing more than one deck in your backyard; say, a covered dining area near the house and a separate hot tub zone somewhere else in the yard, you're not overcomplicating things. It's actually one of the more practical ways to plan an outdoor space, especially if you want to use different parts of your yard for different purposes at the same time.
One of our customers did exactly this. They installed two blokDEK deck kits in the same backyard: one under a roof overhang for outdoor dining, and one across the yard built around their hot tub. Here's what they built, and how to think through the same layout for your own space.
Why Split a Backyard Into Two Deck Zones Instead of One Big Deck
A single large deck sounds efficient, but it usually forces every activity; cooking, dining, soaking in a hot tub, lounging, into one shared footprint. That creates a few predictable problems:
- Noise and privacy conflicts. A hot tub conversation and a dinner party don't mix well six feet apart.
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Wasted square footage. Most of a deck's surface sits empty most of the time if it's sized for the busiest moment rather than the most common use.
Two smaller, purpose-built zones solve for all: each space can be planned around how you actually intend to use it, and you get functional separation without fencing or walls.
Vision vs. Reality: What They Brought Us vs. What We Built
Before this project started, our customer started with an inspiration, the look they were after for both spaces. That's a useful starting point for any deck build, but a saved photo and a real backyard are two different things: lot size, sun exposure, house layout, and budget all shape what actually gets built. Here's how their vision compared to the finished result.
The pattern worth noting: in both cases, the overall look stayed true to what they wanted, but how it got built was adapted to their specific property. That's the part a Pinterest board or inspiration photo can't tell you, and it's exactly the kind of thing worth talking through before a build starts rather than after.
If you're collecting inspiration photos of your own, bring them. The goal isn't to replicate an image exactly, it's to identify what you actually like about it (the coverage, the separation of spaces, the furniture layout) so that can be translated into a plan that fits your yard.
The Project: Two blokDEK Decks, Two Purposes
Zone 1 — Covered Outdoor Dining Deck
This deck sits under a roof overhang directly off the house, with a dining table as the anchor piece. Being covered does double duty: it defines the space visually (you don't need railings or planters to signal "this is a room") and it extends the usable season, since a covered deck can handle light rain and stay in shade during peak sun.
Placement logic: keeping the dining deck close to the kitchen/house entrance cuts down on the number of trips carrying food and dishes back and forth, a detail that matters more than most backyard plans account for.
Zone 2 — Hot Tub and Lounge Deck
Positioned across from the dining zone, this second deck is built around the hot tub with lounge chairs for the ultimate retreat. Separating it from the dining area means someone can be in the hot tub while someone is reading a book in the dining zone, with neither activity interrupting the other.
Lighting: Making Both Zones Work After Dark
This customer also chose to build lighting directly into their deck, a detail that changes how much a two-zone backyard actually gets used. A dining space and a hot tub retreat are both, realistically, evening spaces as much as daytime ones. Without lighting, that usage window closes at sunset. With it, both zones stay warm and inviting well after dark, without relying on floodlights or string lights rigged up separately.
Material: Why They Chose Composite Over Cedar
blokDEK offers both composite and cedar decking, and this customer went with composite for both zones. It's a great choice for any backyard: more surface area means more maintenance if you go the cedar route, since real wood needs regular staining or sealing to hold up and keep its colour.
Composite skips that upkeep almost entirely, no sanding, staining, or sealing year after year, while still giving a real wood-like texture and grain underfoot. For a hot tub zone especially, that matters: the deck around a hot tub deals with more moisture and splashing, which makes our slip-resistant composite an even more important decking choice.To read exactly how you need to maintain the composite decking, you can read our guide here.
How to Plan Your Own Two-Zone Deck Layout
If you're working from this as a model, here's the actual planning checklist:
1. Map activities before you map square footage. List what each zone needs to hold, dining table and chairs for X people, hot tub plus lounge seating plus walking clearance around the tub, before deciding on dimensions. A hot tub zone generally needs a few feet of clearance on all sides for lid removal, step access, and safe entry/exit, on top of the tub's own footprint.
2. Plan for sightlines, not just distance. Open lawn between zones does less than you'd think if there's a direct sightline and no visual break. A shrub row, a low planter wall, or the angle of the deck relative to the house can do more for privacy than distance alone, useful whether you want the zones to feel like one shared space or fully separate.
3. Decide whether the zones connect or stay separate. A stepping-stone path or a strip of landscaping between two decks reads as intentional design. No connector at all can work too, but it tends to make the yard feel like two unrelated projects rather than one plan. This is a cheap decision to get right and an expensive one to fix later.
4. You don't have to build both zones at once. Install the primary living space first, then add the second zone, hot tub, bbq zone, pool side, whatever it is, once budget or timeline allows. With a modular system, this doesn't mean redoing the first deck.
Why a Modular Deck System Fits This Kind of Layout
Building two separate deck structures with traditional stick-built construction usually means two separate framing jobs, two separate footing layouts, and two separate timelines, which is part of why most backyards end up with one deck instead of two. A modular system changes that math:
- Each zone can be sized independently instead of forcing a single deck to serve every use case.
- Because of the modular deck, adding a second deck later doesn't require reworking the first one. Or even extending the deck later to make it larger is something that can happen at any time.
- An average blokDEK can be built within an hour... this one might have taken a little bit longer because of it being two decks. However, you will be able to assemble the deck in an afternoon, instead of waiting weeks for a contractors to finish your traditionally built deck.
FAQ
Can a modular deck support a hot tub? Yes, each blok (module) can hold 1,600 lbs of distributed weight. Our team will be able to answer any technical questions you have about the weight, here.
How far apart should two deck zones be in a backyard? There's no fixed number, as every backyard is different. If you want it to feel like a shared space with different zones like this backyard, or if you want complete separation.
Can I build the second zone later instead of all at once? Yes, this is one of the practical advantages of our modular decks. You can prioritize your primary living space now and add a second deck zone in a future season without disrupting the first installation. Or, you can even extend the first deck if you decide to add onto it making it larger.
Can I move the deck? Yes, this is one of my favourite perks about our decks. With the modular design, you are able to move it to a different part of your backyard, take it with you when you move, or pop off the decking if you dropped something between the panels.
Plan Your Own Backyard
There isn't one perfect backyard deck design, the right layout depends on your space, your home, and what you want to do with it. Whether you're picturing an outdoor dining area, a deck built around a hot tub, or multiple outdoor living zones, a modular deck gives you more room to put that plan together on your own terms.
That's exactly why we built blokDEK. Your backyard doesn't need to fit a standard deck design, your deck should fit your backyard.
Explore blokDEK and start planning your own outdoor space.
