A permit reviewer is not judging your deck. They are not deciding whether the layout is nice or the railing suits the house. They are answering five specific questions, and if your drawings answer all five clearly, the review is short.
Most rejections are not structural problems. They are missing information. A site plan without setback dimensions on it. A framing plan that shows joists but never says what size. A deck drawn against a brick wall with no note about how the ledger attaches.
This guide covers what deck permit drawings have to show, in the order a reviewer looks for it, plus the Metro Nashville rules that catch people out. The specifics here are for Davidson County, though the five questions are the same nearly everywhere.
The Five Questions Your Drawings Answer
Every sheet in a permit set exists to answer one of these. If you can point to where each answer lives, your set is probably complete.
1. Is it allowed to sit there?
This is a zoning question, not a structural one, and in Metro Nashville a zoning examiner reviews it before anyone looks at the framing. Your site plan has to show the deck footprint drawn to scale on your actual lot, with the distance from the deck to each property line written on the drawing.
It also needs to show easements and existing structures. A utility easement running along the rear of a lot can rule out the deck you wanted regardless of how far it sits from the property line, and the drawing has to make that visible rather than leave the reviewer guessing.
2. How does it hold itself up?
The framing plan carries this. Joist size and spacing, beam size and how it is built up, post locations, and footing diameter and depth below grade. Every one of those gets checked against the span tables in the residential code.
The most common omission is depth. A footing circle drawn on a plan with no depth note next to it does not tell the reviewer what they need to know, and in Davidson County exterior footings are placed at least 12 inches below undisturbed ground surface.
3. How is it tied to the house?
On an attached deck, this is the connection that matters most, and it gets its own detail drawing rather than a note. The detail shows fastener type and spacing through the ledger into the house rim, the lateral load connectors, and the flashing that keeps water from running down behind the board.
If your house has brick or stone veneer, this is the drawing that has to explain what happens. Frequently the honest answer is that the deck goes freestanding instead, which removes the question entirely at the cost of an extra beam line.
4. Can people get on and off safely?
Guard and stair geometry is tightly prescribed, and the elevation drawing is where it gets shown. Deck height above grade, guard height, the spacing between balusters, stair rise and run, and handrails where the stair has enough risers to require one.
Stairs cause more correction cycles than anything else in this category, because rise and run have to be consistent across the whole flight and the numbers have to appear on the drawing rather than being worked out later on site.
5. What is it built from?
Material notes belong on the drawings or attached to them. Lumber species and the treatment use category, hardware ratings, and manufacturer specifications for any composite decking or manufactured railing system.
That treatment category matters more than people expect. Above-ground rated lumber and ground-contact rated lumber look identical on the rack, and posts landing in footings need the ground-contact rating. If the stamp on the end of each board is unfamiliar, it is worth understanding before you specify anything on a drawing.
The Metro Nashville Rules That Catch People Out
Davidson County has a few local specifics that regularly surprise homeowners, and all of them affect the drawings.
A roof changes the setback
This is the big one. An uncovered deck in Metro Nashville can use a reduced rear setback of ten feet. A covered deck has to meet the full rear and side setbacks.
The practical consequence is worth sitting with. On a shallow lot, a deck sized to the reduced setback cannot later have a roof added over it without a variance, because the covered structure would violate a setback the uncovered one was allowed to use. Deciding about a cover after the deck is built is expensive in a way nobody expects.
Full side setbacks apply either way. The reduction is rear only.
Not every deck job needs the same paperwork
Metro draws some useful lines around what triggers a permit.
- New deck or full replacement. Permit required.
- Footing or framing replacement. Permit required, regardless of how small the section is.
- Deck board replacement over 100 square feet. Permit required. Resurfacing a large deck is not a no-paperwork job.
- Demolition only, with nothing built back. No permit required.
Overlays add a second review
Historic preservation overlays, urban design overlays, and specific plan districts all trigger review beyond the standard building permit, and Davidson County has a lot of them. Metro’s parcel viewer will show the zoning and any overlays attached to your property, and checking it early is a five-minute task that occasionally changes the whole project.
Five satellite cities are not Metro
Belle Meade, Berry Hill, Forest Hills, Goodlettsville, and Oak Hill sit inside the Davidson County boundary and run their own codes departments. If your address is in one of them, your permit does not go to Metro. Submitting to the wrong jurisdiction is a common and entirely avoidable source of delay.
The Site Plan Is Where Most Sets Fail
Homeowners spend their drawing time on the framing plan and treat the site plan as an afterthought. Reviewers do the opposite, because zoning is checked first.
A workable site plan shows six things.
1. The property lines, to scale. With the lot dimensions written on them.
2. The house footprint. Positioned accurately relative to those lines.
3. The proposed deck. Drawn to the same scale, with its own dimensions.
4. The distance from the deck to every property line. Written as a number on the drawing, not left to be measured off the page.
5. Easements. Utility, drainage, or access easements shown and labeled.
6. Other existing structures. Sheds, detached garages, pools, anything already on the lot.
The shortcut most people miss: if you bought the house with a mortgage, you probably have a mortgage loan survey in your closing paperwork. That document works well as the base for a site plan, and it saves either drawing one from scratch or paying a surveyor. Find it before you start drawing.
How the Submittal Actually Works
The mechanics in Davidson County are straightforward once you know the path.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Check your jurisdiction | Confirm whether the address is Metro or one of the five satellite cities |
| Check zoning and overlays | Metro’s parcel viewer shows base zoning plus any overlay districts |
| Assemble the drawings | Site plan plus construction drawings covering framing, elevation, and details |
| Homeowner or contractor route | Homeowners can self-permit with notarized affidavits; registered contractors submit through ePermits |
| Zoning review | An examiner checks the site plan against setbacks before structural review |
| Permit issued | Fees are based on project valuation, so they scale with the job |
| Inspections | Footings before concrete, framing before decking goes down, then final |
Process details are current as of publication. Metro Codes publishes requirements directly, and confirming before you submit is always faster than a correction cycle.
One detail worth flagging: the self-permit route requires notarized affidavits. That is a trip to a notary, not a checkbox, and it catches people who assumed the whole thing could be done from a laptop in an evening.
What Gets Drawings Sent Back
Correction cycles are the real cost of an incomplete set, because each one restarts a queue. These are the recurring causes.
- Setback distances not written on the site plan. Drawn to scale is not enough. The numbers have to be on the page.
- Footing depth missing. A circle with a diameter but no depth note.
- No ledger detail on an attached deck. Or a detail that does not address what the house wall is actually made of.
- Stair rise and run absent. Or inconsistent between the elevation and any stair detail.
- Guard height and baluster spacing not dimensioned. The elevation shows a railing but never says how tall it is.
- Drawings shrunk to fit a letter page. If the reviewer cannot read the callouts, the set is not reviewable.
- Wrong jurisdiction. The whole submittal goes back with nothing reviewed.
Most of these are omissions rather than mistakes, which is encouraging: they are cheap to fix before submitting and expensive to fix after. Working from a complete drawing set rather than a downloaded diagram catches the majority of them, because the four standard sheets exist precisely to hold this information.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do deck permit drawings need to show?
A site plan with setback distances, a framing plan with joist and beam sizes plus footing size and depth, an elevation with guard and stair dimensions, a ledger connection detail, and material notes including the lumber treatment category.
Do I need a permit to build a deck in Nashville?
In most cases yes. New decks, full replacements, and any footing or framing work require a permit from Metro Nashville’s Department of Codes and Building Safety. Deck board replacement over 100 square feet also requires one.
Can I draw my own deck permit plans?
For a standard residential deck, generally yes. The drawings have to be legible, dimensioned, and complete. Complex or tall structures are more likely to need a design professional.
What is the rear setback for a deck in Nashville?
An uncovered deck can use a reduced rear setback of ten feet. A covered deck must meet the full rear setback. Full side setbacks apply to both. Your parcel’s zoning determines the full numbers.
Do I need a survey for a deck permit?
You need an accurate site plan. A mortgage loan survey from your closing paperwork usually works well as the basis for one, which is why finding it first is worth the effort.
What inspections does a deck require?
Typically a footing inspection before concrete is poured, a framing inspection after the structure is complete but before decking goes down, and a final inspection once everything including railings and stairs is finished.
How long does a deck permit take in Nashville?
It varies with volume and whether your property sits in an overlay district. Historic and design overlay reviews run on their own schedule and add time. Correction cycles are the biggest variable you control.
What happens if I build a deck without a permit?
Beyond fines, an unpermitted deck becomes a problem at resale, because it is not on the official record. Bringing it into compliance afterward often means opening up finished work so an inspector can see the footings and framing.
The Bottom Line
Deck permit drawings are a communication problem more than a technical one. The reviewer has five questions. Your drawings either answer them on the page or generate a correction letter asking you to answer them. Nearly every rejection traces back to a number that was known but never written down.
The practical next step is to work backward from the five questions before you submit anything. Point at where each answer lives on your drawings. If you cannot point at it, the reviewer will not find it either. And confirm your jurisdiction first, because the experienced deck builders near Nashville who do this weekly will tell you that submitting to the wrong department is still the fastest way to lose two weeks.
Then go find your mortgage survey. It is in the same box as the closing paperwork, and it will save you an afternoon.