posting this because it cost me a delay and I want someone else to avoid it.
we had a deck built in 2019. decided to extend it this spring, went with the same contractor who did the original. inspector came out and flagged the existing railing height as non-compliant - apparently the 2024 OBC update changed the guard height for residential decks above certain grades. our old section was built to the old spec, new section was built to the new spec, and now they don’t match and the old section needs to be brought up.
the contractor didn’t know. which I’m still kind of annoyed about but also - I should have verified this myself before assuming code hadn’t changed in 5 years.
the fix wasn’t that expensive, around $800 to rebuild the railing on the original section. but it added three weeks to the project because we had to wait for re-inspection.
point is: if you’re extending, adding to, or modifying something that was originally permitted years ago, don’t assume the original work still meets code. building codes update. what passed in 2019 might not pass today. ask the contractor to confirm before they start, and if they don’t know, that’s also useful information.