Do you need a deck permit in Tennessee?
By Mario Bailey Last checked
- Always required
- 2
- of 3 jurisdictions
- Conditional
- 1
- depends on size or scope
- Not required
- 0
- exempt outright
Deck Permit rules nationwide, beyond Tennessee.
Requirements and size thresholds for deck permits vary by locality. The table below compares what each Tennessee county or city requires. Always confirm with the local office before starting.
Comparing states? See deck permit rules across every locality we cover.
The application steps and inspection sequence for deck permits come from the model code rather than from Tennessee law, so they read the same wherever you build. We keep that walkthrough in one place: how a deck permit application and its inspections work, start to finish. What changes between Tennessee jurisdictions is below: who requires a permit, what they charge, and which office you file with.
Swipe sideways to see thresholds and confidence.
| Locality | Permit required? | Typical threshold | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memphis | Conditional | 200 square feet of deck area, taken with a 30 inch height above grade at any point, no attachment to the dwelling and no service to the exit door required by Section R311.4 | Confirmed on official page |
| Nashville | Yes | Not specified | Confirmed on official page |
| Williamson County | Yes | Not specified | Confirmed on official page |
| No localities match your filter. | |||
What a deck permit costs in Tennessee
3 Tennessee jurisdictions we cover publish a fee figure for this work. Each line is quoted from that office's own schedule and linked to its citation. The figures are not comparable to one another: some are flat minimums, some a percentage of job value, some charged per fixture, so what you pay depends on which schedule applies and on your job's valuation.
CONSTRUCTION/REPAIR/ALTERATION TO DECKS, SPAS AND SIMILAR STRUCTURES $50.00, plus the APP. FEE for ALTERATIONS, REPAIRS, ACCESSORY of $25.00, per the 2022 Fee Schedule, Building Section, Residential Fees. Construction Enforcement states the one and two family plan review fee does not apply to decks. All fees exclude an administrative charge of $4.00 and a residential surcharge of $1.00, so $5.00 is added to the residential total, per the 2022 Fee Schedule.
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Billed as a residential building permit at $5 per $1,000 of total valuation plus a $25 zoning examination fee and a 10% codes tech fee on the valuation fee, per the Metro Codes fee schedule (Dec 2025)
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Deck permits follow the county's general building permit valuation table: no fee for construction valued at $1,000 or less unless an inspection is required ($15.00 per inspection); $15.00 for the first $1,000 plus $5.00 for each additional thousand or fraction thereof, up to $50,000 (Schedule of Building Permit Fees).
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Jurisdictions not listed publish no dollar figure we could quote. Absence does not mean a permit is free.
Common questions about deck permits in Tennessee
- Do I need a deck permit in Tennessee?
- In most of Tennessee, yes. Permits are issued locally, so the answer comes from your Tennessee city or county rather than a single statewide rule. Of the 3 Tennessee jurisdictions we have verified for deck work, 2 require a permit outright, 1 depends on the size or scope of the job, and 0 require none.
- Is there a deck permit exemption in Tennessee?
- 1 of the 3 Tennessee jurisdictions we cover sets a threshold rather than a flat rule, so the same job can be exempt in one Tennessee county and permitted in the next. The table above lists each Tennessee jurisdiction's published threshold in its own words, with the source and the date we verified it.
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