A deck is just carpentry you can inspect from below, there's nowhere to hide sloppy work. Our decks start with footings below frost line, proper ledger flashing, and joist spacing that matches the decking, because the GTA's freeze-thaw will find every shortcut by the second spring.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://lfbuilders.ca/decks-fences-porches.html