Hello all, I am in the final stages of designing a deck for my house using the IRC 2012 guide (some changes to 2015 IRC), and am about to submit for permits. This is the first time I have had to deal with a building inspector and permitting process so I am unsure how in depth I should be taking this. I have designed it adhering to code thus far, however I am now seeing areas were the code is a inconvenience. My thoughts are that I may be overestimating the level of scrutiny the inspector with apply, and how much leniency they give to slight inconsistencies. I am in New Jersey, and my district has adopted the 2015 IRC code. I feel as if when I am looking through pictures of decks online, I see so many code violations that would make my life so much easier. Such as...
-After looking through many documents, it appears you are quite limited in the amount of step down you can get from the door to the deck. When adhering to the allowable ledger bolt patterns and the band joist bolts, without completely changing the size of your joists, you are stuck with practically no step down. I am using 2x10 joists for the deck, and house band joist is 2x10, which by code would only allow a .75" step. That is not great for snow in New jersey. Check out link to confirm
2015 IRC Deck Ledger Bolt Placement | ProTradeCraft
-Another area where I wish I has some room was the footings 5ft from the foundation rule. Unless you intend on digging your deck footings to the elevation of your house footings (unrealistic), than you have to space the deck off further than 5ft. This confuses me as the none of the maximum allowable joist overhangs in the code can reach span that 5ft distance. In my case this is not critical, as I am right on the edge of 5ft, however if I could cheat a little I would. Do inspections measure from the footer to the house? Pier to the house? Post to the house? Or, are they quite strict about the footer to the house distance?
-Stairs landing on concrete pads. Code says stairs must land on an area with footings of proper size and below frost. I have seen countless pictures of stairs landing right on concrete slabs, sometimes, just concrete blocks. ?
-How does an inspector, inspect your ledger attachments if he/she cannot access your interior band joist? Obviously, an owner w cannot demolish the floor to access the band joist? How does he very you are attaching the ledger to the right spots on the band joist (edge distances, no drill, no pass zones, esc)?
Thank you guys, I really need some advice here
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