First your builder should know the building codes. I found the connecticut building codes at town hall. Try there. As far as i know the width between the joist is 16" standard.

We should have learned our lesson from the fiasco we had with out family room but we didn't I guess. This guy came highly recommended by my sister and brother in law. I have seen his work and seen him do it at their house. But maybe my brother in law was more of a task master than me. We told this guy what we wanted, asked for a diagram, told him it had to be up to code and he gave us a price. We know now that we need to specifically ask if he is going to haul away the old deck! It is still laying in our back yard, nails exposed and all. I'm just glad that we don't have kids back there. He is supposed to come tomorrow and do that.

Back in 1980 we started making out unfinished basement into a finished one. Our goal was to have it done in time for our daughters 1 year birthday party. Well we got the paneling up, half the ceiling and carpet. We did get baseboard and most of the molding done. But we had the party and that was the end of the work! So I am not buying any furniture for this deck until my DH and DSIL get the sides done correctly!

Maybe I can actually learn how to grill and make good use of this huge deck. When we had the house built it was about 8x8. We rebuilt it to 12x12. It is now about 16x16.