Deck permit

We have a deck that came with our house when we bought it 13 years ago. I few boards are rotting so I was considering a DIY project for the summer of ripping off the top and making it bigger, at least double the size. Now I'm getting worried about permits and fines, etc. I'm not sure this deck is legal. We bought our house "as is" so I don't want to call the town and open a can of worms.

Does anyone know if you already have a deck, can I expand it without a problem?

Any other advice is welcome. TIA!

Re: Deck permit

If there is no CO for the original deck, then the town doesn't know about it.
So if you rip it down and put a new one, they won't know about it either and for all they know it could have been there when you bought the house.
If you mortgage company didn't make a stink about it, I wouldn't worry.
Just fix it however you want.

Re: Deck permit

You will most likely need a permit. I just had to get one for the deck that was there when we bought the house. For some reason it didn’t come up as an issue when we bought but here we are 7 years later and I had to pay $1300 for the town fees and $1200 for an architect to draw up the plans for the existing deck and file for me.

ETA: On the other hand, my Inlaws have done so many projects like a deck, pool, pool, fencing, and other things without permits. They say they’ll worry about it later. To me, that’s a big waste of money, time, energy later on. What if something comes up and you have to sell? This could be a headache.

Message edited 6/3/2018 7:18:10 AM.

Re: Deck permit

Thanks for the replies. After digging a little I discovered the deck WAS in the plans when we bought the house. So now I just have to consider what to do about making it bigger. From advice I'm getting here and elsewhere I think I'll risk moving forward without the permits. Thanks!

Deck permit

We got a permit to add a small deck and it was a prettt straight forward process and did not cost a lot of money. We preferred to do it legally so it wasn’t an issue if we wanted to sell.