In order to obtain a building permit your plans must be reviewed to be in compliance with the IRC.  The International Residential Code (IRC) is a comprehensive collection of the specific rules that apply to residential construction and that is administered by the International Code Council (ICC). 

If you are a contractor this book is a must have.  You can buy a copy online at www.iccsafe.org.  This code has been adopted throughout most of the U.S. except for parts of California and Hawaii. Many States are still using the IRC from previous years like 2000 and 2003.  They often lag a few years behind the ICC but there are rarely any significant changes for deck building.  This is a large technical book, and only a few sections apply to deck building.  The most important sections related to decks are requirements for frost footings, guardrails, stairs, and structural framing. 

The building inspector’s job is to interpret and enforce the rules as they are stated in the IRC.  In other words inspectors are not allowed to make their own rules; because of this building codes should be fairly consistent from city to city and State to State.  If your building inspections department has a handout it should cover most of the basics otherwise check out our articles covering deck pertinent codes.