If it’s important to you- insist the contractor pull a permit and withhold your final check until he does so and gets it successfully passed. Was he a licensed contractor? Did your contract specify a permit? (Not scolding just trying to get bargaining chips for you!)

Depends on your code requirements. Our footings need to be 48" below grade with a certain size base at the bottom based on size. There'd be no way to see that without a lot of work exposing them.

Contact your contractor and request he get it inspected, better him than you...

You have to submit drawings indicating this is a direct replacement. Show existing footings to remain, indicate what materials were used and submit them for approvals. When you get your permit call for final inspection. Being this elevated deck they can inspect subframe from underneath and all of the connections i.e post to the footing, girder to the posts, etc.

We do this all the time when a homeowner gets caught with a deck that was done with no permit, or when the house is sold and there is a deck but there is no record that permit was issued, etc. In some cases, if the deck to low, they will ask to remove a few decking boards so they can inspect ledger and make sure everything is proper flashed and hangers properly attached.

Good luck

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I appreciate your professional input.

I believe this was not quite a complete replacement in that the ledgers attached to the house were not replaced. I apologize for my lack of knowledge of terminology, construction, etc. New footers were poured, however. The old ones were improperly done - it appears that the deck that was torn down was not permitted.

At this point, whats done it's done... Just get the drawings approved and file for the permit and call for inspection and see what they say. In most cases, they will inspect the deck and as long as the permit was filed most of the time they will not make an issue out of it that the footings already been placed... I mean they not gonna make you dig them up. Worst case scenario you will have to hire someone licensed to provide a letter that footings were properly done so they can attach that letter with the permit for the record in case there is a problem in the future.

Good luck

Thanks for responding! The contractor is filing for a permit and will get the deck inspected. Hopefully there won't be too much of an additional fee for doing this after-the-fact. I appreciate your patience with my questions. This is the first experience like this for me.

Permitting procedures differ from city to city and can be difficult to know about. However, it is a contractor's responsibility to know/find out what is required. The only problem that may happen is the depth of the footings, and that should not be a problem if the previous footings were passed and used for the replacement.

This was/is the contractor's problem and any costs should be handled by the contractor. The cost of the permit should have been included in the cost of the deck.

I agree that the contractor should have known that this was required. I got no definitive answer as to why this was omitted.

The previous deck footers were actually not done properly, but were passed. New footers were done, but these are actually more substantial.

Thank you for your response. This has been a learning experience.

It really doesn't make a difference as the permit fees go, being this cost included in the price or not the customer still pays for the permit.

I personally never include permit fee into the project cost because every town has different fees, so when the permit is issued, they let me or the customer know the cost of it and customer cuts a check directly to the township.

As any additional costs go, I agree the contractor should pay for because she should know better that permit is required for this job.

Good Luck

Thanks again for your comments. The request for the permit is to be filed today.

Update?