Building Inspection

[David M]

QUOTE: " I thought,inspectors "have seen it all".


Nope. At our final, the inspector spent half the time there looking at our fireplace, asking about its venting and looking at the specs. Said it was the first of its type he'd seen.

David

Ninole Resident

[StillHope]

It reminds me of one judge in the traffic division who has to take time off to read about the regulations on the scooter speed limit in the city (the overzealous cop ticketed the guy for going 5 miles over).

[Carey]

You have to remember that new housing products are being added all of time... (I made my living on this aspect for the decade I worked for UL...) There is no way that anyone can be expected to know-it-all... the inspectors here are very knowledgeable about systems & plans that they see on a day-to-day basis, AND they are willing to look at newer systems (much more than in some areas) BUT they should not be expected to do the research on something that is not common, that is a job for the designer & contractor (and/or you, if that is were the idea originates)

[pslamont]

Hey everyone. Like with Dave, our inspector spent a lot of time on the fireplace. He wanted all the instructions and paperwork that came with it and he stood there and read it word for word. He actually asked our carpenter a lot of questions. We were all polite and it was fine.

Also, my contractor made it a habit when the inspector made a statement about something to just say, "Hold on a minute". He would walk over, strap on his tool belt and ask "What do you want done?". I think the inspector got tired of that in a hurry and cut to the chase, eliminating little whiney stuff!! LOL.

[StillHope]

Kathy,LOL - the sob is a significant one,but he is the dog.

[FNG]

The only problem I had with my inspections is one inspector showed up three hours early. Nobody was here narturally, and the neighbors dogs were barking at her, so she left a note saying she couldn't get access, why she didn't walk around the gate is still a mystery to me, probably the dogs.

A word of caution to those with lani railings. The height minimum is 36 inches. I routed all of the 2x6s on this job, and I noticed some boards were light as a feather while others were markedly heavier. When the inspector came for the framing inspection, the first thing he did was measure the railing height and failed us because we were one eight short of 36 inches. Almost all of the railings were 1/8 low, so the builder took his crow bar and pryed them up. The inspector barely looked at them when he returned, no problems. The moral of the story is, always make your railings 36 and 1/4 because the wood will shrink a tad as it drys.

The one issue we had on final was the railing on the sprial staircase needed to be an inch and a half from the wall. If anybody has ever erected one, they know the staircase is strug tighter than a harp. My builder just wedged a few blocks of wood between the railing and wall, which gave us the inch and a half, and the inspector gave it a pass, Bob Smelker produced his letter the next Monday, and we were approved on Tuesday.

I got my final exactly 8 months and 3 days after leaving Atlanta, not too shabby, eh.

FNG

[StillHope]

Thank you so much,FNG!

There will be a spiral stairwell in my house.I am going to pass this info to my builder.

[EightFingers]

"... failed us because we were one eight short ..."

That is nothing short of amazing.....

[Kapohocat]

SB just ran into this on a foundation inspection --- using 2x12's. They just dug it out a little and made sure that at no point was it less than 12" and got letter from arch.

[StillHope]

quote:

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Originally posted by EightFingers

"... failed us because we were one eight short ..."

That is nothing short of amazing.....

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I thought you were 2 short[]