The deck on the back of the house weighs what it weighs, and nothing on a replacement bid tells you that. You see new boards, new railing, new footings and a labor line, and add it up as the price of the deck you are getting. The old one is the part nobody itemized.
It comes off before anything goes on — boards, joists, railing, stringers, hardware — and that pile leaves in a truck. At the other end of the ride is a scale.
Tear-out, trucking and tipping are three costs, not one line folded into the new deck. The last is priced by weight and by what the load is made of…