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[antkmom]

Do you have to get a building permit in your town to build a deck?

We were stuck having to do this because my husband was on the town council and didn't want to get caught without a permit.  It ended up costing us a fortune because then the came and reassessed the value of our house! 

Would you get the permit, or try to build a deck without one?

[Lissy]

I think a permit is required here where we live, but we did not have to worry about it since we were building out house and put in the deck right away. I think it's more difficult to do when you want to add one later on.

[antkmom]

Our problem was that we had our deck built when we had out home built, but then we added on to the deck to make another deck around our pool.  I thought that we could get away with just adding on, but my husband went and got a permit, so up went the taxes.

[DianaR]

I think a permit is required, here, only if you sink something in cement, or build a retaining wall that is more than 3 feet tall.

Glad you asked the question, though.  We got a permit for our pergola, but didn't have it looked at afterward as the building inspector said it really didn't mater.

I hope we don't get appraised unless we decide to sell!!!!!

[puffie224]

One thing I don't undersand is that you must have a permit to build on your own property. What exactly does the permit do? Is it like your getting permission to alter the existing structure of the home?

[bammer]

good question there! whats the use of asking permits when you are just building some improvements in your own home and/or yard? I believe that so long as you would not disturb in any way any of the neighbors as well as the nature, radically, securing a permit would be done away with.

[KrisNY]

We had to as well. We even told them we were just rebuilding the deck that was already on. They said because we were tearing it down and starting over we had to have a permit.  Our assessment did not go up though. We have a gorgeous bigger deck now.

We are putting up a new garage and need a permit for this too.

[ekmallette]

Oh yeah we need a permit for building a deck.  Hubby and I were just talking about decks last night as we'd like to build a wrap around deck on our place.  You need a permit for a lot of things around here but we live in an historic district and everything has to be run through the preservation committee as well to make sure it fits in with the historic theme.

[spiders]

Its better to have permit for your deck unless if you are not doing it your own place. It will end up with problem in future.

[mscott]

Anytime you build you need a permit. Stuff like putting on new shingles doesn't require one but putting up a deck or even adding to one requires a permit. A builder told me he doesn't always get one though. If you get caught they could fine you but the fine is less then the permit anyway. What you really need to make sure of is that you are building where you can build. There are many rules and regulations about distance from property lines, putting in post and ice walls, spacing between rails ect. You would hate to build something and then find out it wasn't up to code.