I need to get in touch with the town codes department. I think they may be part time though as I only get an answering machine each time I call.
The ground does freeze and we get a lot of snow. I have no idea if floating decks are against local regulations. The contractor said he does a lot of them.
The main thing I want to avoid is adding a ledger board to the house. The back just had new cedar siding put up because the old siding was cupping and splitting. I don't want to mess with it. I just want a deck that is self supporting and will stay level and not come in contact with the house.
My deck is elevated because the property slopes off dramatically. The deck comes out on a 45 degree angle to the house. The highest point of the deck I can just reach with my fingertips when standing on my tip-toes. My stairs are 6' wide and start on an area of the ground that is pretty much level. Yes, this is hard to envision. My support posts are in the ground with footings that are at a 48" depth. I poured a small slab for the base of the stairs and that slab is sitting on the ground. No footings, I just dug about four inches deep and put down sand before I did the pour. The deck has been in place for 22 years and I have had no issues with the stairs heaving.
It makes one wonder why footings below the frost line are even required. It's because ground heaving due to frost is unpredictable. With footings, my posts have not heaved but without footings the slab has not heaved. Twenty two years so far but who knows what I'll come home to next spring?
I'm not trying to confuse you, I'm just relating my experience.
I'm going to venture a guess that a permit is not required for deck construction where you live. That was the case when I originally built mine 22 years ago. A deck, a shed, the township did not care. Now they only care about a shed over a certain square footage in which case a permit and an inspection is required. But a deck must be permitted and inspected. The reason is that deck failures with loss of life and personal injuries are big news across the nation these days. There was one this past summer if I recall correctly.
My deck is elevated, requires railings and I can understand the need for permitting and inspection these days. If yours is going to end up 10" or 12" off the ground, does it need to go through that process? Perhaps not.
Your HOA is recommending footings 48" below ground because IMO they would like you to build a "permanent" structure. One that will withstand the ravages of time. I think you will end up finding that a permit is not required and as such a floating deck is legal. It's going to come down to how long do you plan on living there and to what degree are you comfortable in rolling the dice regarding frost heaving. Obviously the price will factor in too when it comes to footings versus floating. Your choice of material costs will be a big factor also. Composite decking material is exponentially more expensive than wood products.
Off on a tangent, the requirements for decks being built in my area now have added thousands to the cost of a deck. We are no longer allowed to have a deck that is not attached to the house and there must be an unbelievable amount of hardware that connects through the ledger board into the floor joists running many feet into the structure of the house. Different hardware is required depending on whether the joists run parallel to the deck joists or at right angles to the deck joists and more structure may need to be added inside the home. No more 4 x 4 support posts they must be either 4 x 6 or 6 x 6 minimum depending on the height off of the grade. There are restrictions on fasteners used, their placement, bracing and the method by which they are fastened, etc., etc. The wild, wild west of deck building is over here.
I re-skinned mine this summer. New composite deck boards with hidden fasteners, new maintenance free railings and I had to make all new stringers for the stairs. They were quite rotted because the wolmanized lumber available at the time was just little more than a surface application. Wherever the stringers were cut for treads and risers the surface was essentially untreated and the horizontal surfaces had rotted out. The posts and the supporting structure were in excellent shape. The ledger board was in excellent shape as was the wood siding it was attached to. I was amazed. I expected the worst.
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