When I was in college, I was visiting as I often did, Athens, GA, which is a pretty wild town. Went to a freak party/rave at a three BR house that had a huge deck on the rear, over a ravine, at the bottom of which was a RR track. The party I attended didn't get (too) out of hand, but the owners were a bunch of freaks that I think were drop outs and were distributing large amounts of blotter lsd at Dead shows. About a year later, my Athens connection called me and said the guys had a rave and the deck collapsed with 120 people on it, killing three UGA students. It pulled away from the house and fell into the ravine Glad I wasn't there--but I would like to think that if I would have been, I would have gotten off that deck, because it was probably 20 feet off the ground at the highest point, and way too small for 120 people.

Whoa, if I wasn't such a gentleman, I'd say... Natural Selection.

But I won't stoop that low. Sound a bit like the deck collapse in SF, the party disaster I spoke of. So I looked it up and now I should apologize, not that I offended any of the people involved.

Turns out the real story was that this deck too had much dry rot and that it was holding 12 people who were not dancing when it collapsed -- inspectors said it should have been good for 15.

Still, I'm going to be real conservative concerning decks and more than a few people in few-chuh!

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

cmac

I was living in the city (Twin Peaks) at the time, I remember that well, it was on Franklin near Calif. Street - a heavily traveled artery.

How did that turn out - in the end?

The SF building inspectors are very over-represented in the Chinese American segment of the community (who are the majority of the property owners in many neighborhoods there) and there have been whiffs from time to time there of "expediters" and very strange actions- and inaction

I wouldn't want to deal with them - have you read any Kafka lately?

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

That's one big woman!

Seriously though, in our county I'm pretty sure you're only allowed 100FT2 without a permit. You may not have to worry though since you're not building a covered structure.

I much preferred living in KY, where a permit consisted of the scrap of paper that you drew out your plans and measurements to take to the store and buy parts.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

Yeah, but she has a great personality.

It's a tough one. I dislike inspectors and permits for the most part, but w/o them, we'd be on a long slow slide to Shantytown, USA.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I don't know Berkley ( except by reputation), but I do soils and foundation engineering in MD, DE, PA and VA.
Frost is a real concern here, and the minimum detph from the ground surface to the bottom of the footing is 30". Obviously, your frost design depth will be a lot less. This information is easily available from the local Building Official--make an anonymous call.
How much is the permit fee? Is it worth NOT getting one? The other side of the issue is that while she may save a little money, and not have it show up immediately for tax purposes, is that the home insurer may decline any protection to the home owner if there is any claim.
There are any number of books on deck building that take you step-by-step thru the process of designing the footings. It isn't rocket science.
As far as Guard Rails go, according to the International Code, they are to be able to sustain a 200lb force at any point, in any direction. I've seen many that would not.
I can't imagine that the cost of the permit is greater than the benefit and protection it offers--especially since you will be liable if anyone gets hurt on a non=permited structure. Its HER money and YOUR liability--get the permit, and get the plans approved.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

What is a pillow block?

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Just go down to San Diego and look across the border to see the difference between haveing permits and not. Not a pretty sight.

Having said that I think CA goes way overboard and the fees are like all other fees in CA - way to high.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

You don't have a downloadable copy of the International Property Maintenance Code you want to share, do you ?

Er, seriously.

It's a quick, easy, and generally substandard way to put in a quickie foundation. They're generally shaped like a pyramid with the top lopped off. About 12 to 16" square at the base, maybe 8 to 10" tall. The square part at the top might be around 6" square. Sometimes, a square piece of 2x6 is recessed into the top. Made of concrete, of course.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

That is what I thought you meant too, but when I first saw the thread I was confused, because a pillow block also describes a device that holds a shaft in place (like a drilling shaft, ect....) so that it will have support in the middle instead of just being connected at both ends (sorry for that horrible description all you engineers ).

No,

I only have the Internation Residential Code and the International Building Code, and they are both hard copies, sorry.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Thanks. I didn't know that's what they were called. We have some of those. FWIW, at the place that gets a lot of snow, one was used to support part of an outside stairway. Last spring it was hanging about an inch in the air (roughly 8 years after it was put in place). I dug out a foot under and backfilled the hole with concrete. Other blocks used to support part of the deck have shown signs of sinking. At the place that doesn't get a lot of snow one has been in use to support an outside stairway for about 20 years and hasn’t moved a millimeter, far as I can tell.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

That is the formal definition. My usage is very slang-like, unfortunately. Unlike me, don't you think?

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Who puts out the international residential and building codes? My guess is that they are suggestions and not mandated?

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone