Which building code applies to decks in North Carolina?

The 2018 North Carolina State Building Code — still, today, and for an open-ended period the legislature has deliberately left undefined. The 2024 code exists, it is for sale, and it is not the law: this is the single most misquoted fact in the trade right now, and deck owners are the ones who pay for the confusion.

The details

What the regulator actually said. 2018 NC code remains the enforced standard; 2024 Code delayed: the 2024 North Carolina State Building Code is not yet in force — the State Fire Marshal's letter of March 31, 2025 explains that one session law first delayed it to July 1, 2025, and a second, enacted March 19, 2025, pushed it further, to twelve months after the State Fire Marshal certifies publication, distribution, and full constitution of the Residential Code Council. Until that to-be-determined date, the 2018 code remains in full force as the enforced standard, and the 2024 code may be used only as an alternate method of construction at the building owner's or agent's request.

Why the confusion is so durable: the 2024 book physically exists, and a code publisher's storefront will happily sell it to you with a date on it. The enforcement date, though, is set by the regulator and the legislature — not by the publisher — and the regulator has said, in writing, that the date is not yet. Any bid, blog, or brother-in-law that tells you the "new code" governs your deck is describing a book, not a law.

What is actually in force. 2018 NC codes effective 1/1/2019: the 2018 North Carolina State Building Codes — Building, Residential, Energy Conservation, Existing Building, Fire, Fuel Gas, Mechanical, Plumbing, with the 2020 Electrical — took effect January 1, 2019, built on the 2015 International Codes with the state's own amendments. That is the code your deck's footings, connections, railing, and stairs are inspected against in Dare County today.

And what the 2024 edition is, for when its day comes. 2024 NC Residential Code = 2021 IRC: the 2024 North Carolina State Building Code: Residential Code is a fully integrated code based on the 2021 International Residential Code with North Carolina amendments, viewable free through ICC. Nothing here is a criticism of the newer book — it is simply a book whose effective date is a future event, and the owner's request is the only mechanism by which it can touch a project before then.

Plan, permit, and build against the 2018 code, and treat any contractor quoting "the new code" as a contractor who has not read the Fire Marshal's letter — the enforcement standard is a fact, and yours is not the project to discover it on.