The job is an electrical service upgrade and PV. It is not unusual that nobody is there to meet me.
I find notes.
If the occupant happens to be home I am sometimes told, "He went to Home Depot. He should be back soon. He left everything open."
Yesterday I made the sixth inspection for a PV only job. I was stood up on the first three trips.
On the fourth inspection I wrote corrections and the occupant was not home so I couldn't get in to verify the smoke and co alarms.
At the fifth inspection, corrections were not done. But as a bonus, the occupant was home so I could get the alarms out of the way....But hold on.....
When I asked the kid that represents the contractor if the owner was there he said yes. Then he said, "Are smoke detectors required in bedrooms? There aren't any in the bedrooms. Most inspectors will pass it anyway if I promise to go to Home Depot and get smoke detectors."
On the sixth inspection I walked down the long driveway. There were several cars with nobody in them, or so I thought. I went to the door and the lady that lives there let me in. She does not speak English but she knew why I was there and led me to the hallway and bedrooms. Alarms were installed....wrong. I wrote a correction explaining how to install the errant alarms and left the way I came.
It is exasperating considering that I gave the worker a sheet of paper with a drawing and explanation of how to install the alarms. We staple that sheet to the permit. I stuck several on the gate whenever I was stood up at the first three inspections. That sheet arrives with the alarms.
Consider the irony....they are entrusted to install PV....service upgrades.....but can't figure out how to install smoke alarms. Did I say exasperating? I think I meant ******* dumbfounded.....Ya that's it.
So now I'm a hundred feet away, walking down that long driveway when I hear, "Hey! I'm here". It was the worker and apparently he was asleep in one of the cars....... He wants to start the inspection.
I average a couple PV inspections per day. There's always at least one and sometimes five. I get stood up a lot. The mistakes are always numerous. Toss in a service upgrade and the mistakes become voluminous.
The truth be told, it's shocking what goes on out there. Few people are aware of just how bad it is and few of them bother to care. That is a sad reality that doesn't need to exist. It is not too difficult to get it done right. If only the jurisdictions had the will to see it through.