building codes for a patio on the side of my house

I don't know about in your area, but in most you should be able to go to the county website and look at the ordinances for your county. (If they don't have a website try to call the the planning and developement dept for the county, that's where the code violations for our county are located) You might be able to find a whole list of code violations. My husband and I have had neighbors call about us a couple of times (the 1st was someone on the other end of the neighborhood that was selling their house, we never called about the 2nd) The officer that showed up the 2nd time told me they were doing a sweep of the whole neighborhood and if we noticed anything our neighbors were doing wrong for us to call about it; he said we all had to work together to keep our county beautiful...although I see many of my neighbors with the same things we were warned about, I guess I'm suppose to call about my whole neighborhood?? I won't, but I will mention it if they come back to me. I hope this helps.