11-10-2007, 03:09 PM
I am going to say that dealing with the Hawaii COunty Building Department IS different, both from my own midwest experience, and friends of ours that have moved from other islands.
This is a county that does not keep copies of building plans - so you will never know what actual work was permitted unless the plans have stayed with the structure. Many buiding dept. (even on other islands) do keep the plans on file.
The counter people have only can answer very basic questions & if you make an appointment to talk to the inspectors, you may not get much farther
(sample: currently have a dining area that is adjacent to kitchen. Before we go further into this idea, can you add an eating counter onto the shared walled, under a 6' window without installing outlets every 2'. To answer this question (this is a fairly common thing in design magazines & had a picture of a similar installation) you will need to bring in plans....but if we have plans drawn, we have gone into $$, just to find out if we need the outlets...something that would not be feasible with the window.... still can't answer without a drawing
Although this might seem to make sense to require plans, this was just a hypothetical, before we would have plans drawn up.... Does this encourage the use of the building dept? Did it waste both of our time?
But you are right, they do charge hardly anythying, but they also make so that many do not even bother with them.
That is the sad part, because the purpose of the building dept is to encourage safe building practices, and far too many just don't even bother with them here.
(I have posted in other threads about some of our other experiences....none bad, most slow, and one very quick action. All to our benefit, but I can see how many just look at the dept. as a bother....
As for the $$$. Most building dept.s charge to get copies of the filed plans. It costs, usually dollars per copy page....but here you can get the permit pulled information for free, but it only has the codes, applicant & dates, nothing about the work actually done. It is hard enough to track down work done a few years ago, impossible for 3 decades & multiple owners ago... I would gladly pay a fee to get the permitted plans. I have talked to a number of trade guys (that was a discussion topic at a remodel job today) who agree, to actually have the original plans when doing remodel work would be helpful.
Edited by - carey on 11/10/2007 19:18:09
This is a county that does not keep copies of building plans - so you will never know what actual work was permitted unless the plans have stayed with the structure. Many buiding dept. (even on other islands) do keep the plans on file.
The counter people have only can answer very basic questions & if you make an appointment to talk to the inspectors, you may not get much farther
(sample: currently have a dining area that is adjacent to kitchen. Before we go further into this idea, can you add an eating counter onto the shared walled, under a 6' window without installing outlets every 2'. To answer this question (this is a fairly common thing in design magazines & had a picture of a similar installation) you will need to bring in plans....but if we have plans drawn, we have gone into $$, just to find out if we need the outlets...something that would not be feasible with the window.... still can't answer without a drawing
Although this might seem to make sense to require plans, this was just a hypothetical, before we would have plans drawn up.... Does this encourage the use of the building dept? Did it waste both of our time?
But you are right, they do charge hardly anythying, but they also make so that many do not even bother with them.
That is the sad part, because the purpose of the building dept is to encourage safe building practices, and far too many just don't even bother with them here.
(I have posted in other threads about some of our other experiences....none bad, most slow, and one very quick action. All to our benefit, but I can see how many just look at the dept. as a bother....
As for the $$$. Most building dept.s charge to get copies of the filed plans. It costs, usually dollars per copy page....but here you can get the permit pulled information for free, but it only has the codes, applicant & dates, nothing about the work actually done. It is hard enough to track down work done a few years ago, impossible for 3 decades & multiple owners ago... I would gladly pay a fee to get the permitted plans. I have talked to a number of trade guys (that was a discussion topic at a remodel job today) who agree, to actually have the original plans when doing remodel work would be helpful.
Edited by - carey on 11/10/2007 19:18:09