In this article we study a construction of compactly supported frame expansions for decomposition spaces of Triebel-Lizorkin type and for the associated modulation spaces. This is done by showing that finite linear combinations of shifts and dilates of a single function with sufficient decay in both direct and frequency space can constitute a frame for Triebel-Lizorkin type spaces and the associated modulation spaces. First, we extend the machinery of almost diagonal matrices to Triebel-Lizorkin type spaces and the associated modulation spaces. Next, we prove that two function systems which are sufficiently close have an almost diagonal “change of frame coefficient” matrix. Finally, we approximate to an arbitrary degree an already known frame for Triebel-Lizorkin type spaces and the associated modulation spaces with a single function with sufficient decay in both direct and frequency space.