High ground between the metro and the Springs
Larkspur is a tiny town — a core of maybe a few hundred residents — surrounded by some of the best custom-home country on the Front Range. Perry Park's 750-plus families live among genuine red-rock formations near Lake Wauconda and the country club; Sage Port runs 240 one-acre covenant lots through the pines. Almost everything here is custom, treed, and sloped.
It's also 6,733 feet up on the Palmer Divide, and that elevation is the first thing we design for.
Snow load is not a detail here
The Palmer Divide is an upslope-snow hotspot — the same storms that dust Denver stack feet here. Douglas County writes that into code by tiering snow-load criteria with elevation, from a 30 psf floor scaling to 70 psf at 9,500 feet and above, and Larkspur sits above the floor tier. Practically, that means beams, posts, and footings sized heavier than a metro deck, frost-depth footings at 30–36 inches, and covered structures engineered for snow bearing down and wind pulling up rather than picked from a catalog.
Sloped, treed lots add their own structural work: stepped footings, taller posts, and decks that earn their views by cantilevering over grade honestly.
Ember-aware in Perry Park country
The fire context here is documented, not hypothetical. Perry Park maintains formal Community Wildfire Protection Plans citing its ponderosa and Gambel oak fuels, and the 2002 Hayman Fire burned to within miles. A deck is one of the most ember-exposed assemblies on a house, so on these lots we default to ignition-resistant surfaces, framing bays closed or screened so embers can't nest, and an underside that isn't a woodpile. None of it makes a deck fireproof — it makes it meaningfully less of a liability.
Composite, for reasons this ridge supplies
Altitude UV, deep freeze-thaw cycling, heavy spring snows, and summer hail: this is the exact weather capped composite was built for, and why we lead with it over wood that starts an annual refinishing clock at this elevation. Our materials comparison is honest about both sides. Where red-rock views are the point — and in Perry Park they usually are — slim aluminum or cable railing keeps them.
Existing decks get inspected first
Custom homes here span decades, and many carry original decks framed to lighter snow assumptions. We look at the structure before quoting: sound bones earn a re-deck in composite for meaningfully less than a teardown, while an undersized frame gets a straight replacement recommendation on current-code structure — in writing either way. Our inspection guide shows what we check.
Two permit counters, sorted for you
Inside town limits, the Town of Larkspur's building department (run through SAFEbuilt) issues the permit. Perry Park, Sage Port, and most Larkspur addresses are unincorporated Douglas County — the county Building Division, same as our Castle Rock and Castle Pines work. We confirm which counter your parcel answers to, then prepare, file, and run inspections through sign-off. Background in our permit guide.
Thirty minutes from the shop
Larkspur is about thirty minutes down I-25 from our Centennial headquarters — a routine run, with the same guarantee behind the work. Start with the cost calculator for a real planning range, then tell us what you're planning.