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Inspector you are thirty minutes late

but it is 20 minutes from one side of my municipality to the other.
The area that I cover is about the same. With a dozen inspections I can lose 1.5 hours getting from one to the other if I plan an expeditious route. That could balloon if I let the public create my route. Then there’s the limited amount of thought given to it. On a hot day I’ll give roofers priority so they can beat the heat. Inclement weather plays a role. Oh well, I can give my brain a rest and let the public decide.

So they get to pick the hour. How many can have the same hour? Who was first to claim that hour? Am I going to be the referee?
 
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My window is even bigger morning inspections are 930 to 1230 and afternoon is 130 to 500, I rarely make the contract stand the inspection and I do building inspection only, electrical and plumbing are handled by separate inspectors
I am a on man shop office, plan review and field inspections. I have an Administrative assistant who answers the phones.

Same as the Cable guys!:)
 
I like my small town.

Contractors/homeowners call me directly, and we set up whatever time works for both of us. If I'm real busy you might not get the exact time you want, but if I tell you I'll be there at 2:00 then I'll be there at 2:00. If we ever grow enough/get busy enough that I'm scheduling inspections in a cable company kind of window, then somebody else can do it and I'll be searching for my next small town.
 
On a hot day I’ll give roofers priority so they can beat the heat. Inclement weather plays a role. So they get to pick the hour. How many can have the same hour? Who was first to claim that hour? Am I going to be the referee?

Here the priority is a pier or footing inspection, they usually have the mud on order and need the inspection in the AM.

No re-roofing permits are issued, so no roofing inspection.

Not sure I would like the public controlling my day.
Already have issues with walk-ins messing with scheduled inspections. I wear other hats and sometimes called to meet the dudes with badges at a location, what happens to that controlled inspection?
 
Not sure I would like the public controlling my day.
Already have issues with walk-ins messing with scheduled inspections. I wear other hats and sometimes called to meet the dudes with badges at a location, what happens to that controlled inspection?

I wear those hats too, and sometimes the controlled inspection has to wait. I'll call and say, "Hey Mr. Contractor/Mr. Homeowner, I've got ________ that just came up and I've gotta' push your inspection back to X:XX".

Which is another benefit of my small town - in that those situations are rare, and when they happen, no one pitches a fit.
 
We give a three hour time frame.
Occasionally, we need to call and say we are running late.
I am currently tracking 1,500 projects in plan check and construction.
 
The area that I cover is about the same. With a dozen inspections I can lose 1.5 hours getting from one to the other if I plan an expeditious route. That could ballon if I let the public create my route. Then there’s the limited amount of thought given to it. On a hot day I’ll give roofers priority so they can beat the heat. Inclement weather plays a role. Oh well, I can give my brain a rest and let the public decide.

So they get to pick the hour. How many can have the same hour? Who was first to claim that hour? Am I going to be the referee?
I think the major difference is that my group of contractors are relatively static. We don't have many out of town'ers coming in for the one-off jobs. When we do, they are usually commercial and managed by actual project managers. Our processes are relatively well documented, so I can just give them a flow chart and they are up and running in no time. Most of the time, the flow chart is posted in the jobsite trailer/board the next time I stop by the site.
 
We will be starting a new software and they can REQUEST online but that does not mean you will get that time. We will of course try but Sh!t happens. Sometime get PD or Fire calls and those are priority. Sometime takes a while to write out corrections or explain them. We don't allow the public to control our schedule.

Our State inspectors on the other hand give you between 8am & 5pm and someone better be there or its a failed inspection and $120 re-inspection fee and the soonest you will get that is next week when they are in the area.
 
I can clearly see that many of us live in completely different worlds. I have worked in a few areas and systems from one extreme to the next. How the BCO handles scheduling of inspectors can vary greatly.
Some of you are a one stop shop or work in a small town that gives you the flexibility and freedom to accommodate your contractors and others, not so much, especially if you are assigned 20-30 inspections in day. You have to pick the best route possible and the stops "are what they are," making it impossible to keep everyone happy.
I for one work several municipalities, including a county school district and there are some days where I will put on over 150 miles on the car going from one end of the county to the other then from north to south and back again.
Whatever your situation is, realize we all have unique situations in which we work.
 
Scheduling concrete before passing inspection is not a good idea. Calling me with the news that you have truck loads coming at whatever time is attempting to put me on the spot. That doesn't work with me and I don't know why anyone would do that. I wouldn't have even considered doing that. The closest I ever cut it was the next day. I always managed to pull it off but the inspector was not aware.
 
Agreed, as a contractor back in the day.....never would I have scheduled any subsequent action until I had passed the necessary inspections to move on. In reality, everyone "assumes" they are going to pass..........moving along. Sometimes......does not work out.
 
It's not like I never try to accommodate a request for a time frame that fits them. Last week a man called me and asked when I was coming to his house to inspect the furnace. I told him that he is first on the list. He said that he can't be there because he has a doctor appointment for his six month old daughter. Now I don't know about you but I figured that he has his hands full so I said, "When can I be there?". He said that he would be back by 10:00 so I offered to be there after 11:00. I rerouted my day and hit the bricks.

Well I'm a dummy when it comes to remembering this sort of thing and I got there at 10:47. I was alone.....alone in my thoughts for thirteen minutes as I waited for 11:00. The man called me the next day. He was falling all over himself with apology. I started out with, "I hope it went well with you daughter." He said, "She just wasn't having it and traffic was a bear." Having lived with more than one high maintenance female, I understood.

I convinced him that I didn't care about the missed inspection....I get paid either way.
 
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Things I don't like.
Inspections have to be scheduled the day before at the latest. They are told to call the inspector between 7-8a to get a time frame once we have our route figured out. I often get phone calls at 8am asking me what time I will be there and when I say you are first, I will see you in 15 minutes I get this "I am about an hour away," or " can you come in the afternoon?" This is when I ask why they bothered requesting an inspection for today at all. Someone has to be first.
 
Each contractor-inspection is special, the only one for each day, they expect I am just wating for their call as their job is the only one in town. No one comes to the office justs as I am about to leave and ask a simple question, or once I get into the field there are no questions, no one working with out a permit that needs a educational stop, or another inspection that the contractor wants me to tell them the code requirements for the next step or complain about the other town, let alone the dumb looks.

Planning ahead, leaving some time for corrections, no the xx is coming, I have to get done, just this one time can you let it go? I though you would come here last, or first, I know it was not ready when I called for the inspection, the xx didn't show up.

yep, I stand by the 930 to noon and 130 to 5 window.
 
Well it's seven months since I mentioned Ipads. I now have the Ipad....or I should say that my wife has it. I have been told that the Planning dept. gave Ipads to the field personnel who promptly gave them back.

Years ago there was an attempt at modernization that involved laptop computers. Ipads didn't exist but Oracle corp. did and my AHJ handed Oracle millions for a software program that would take us to the next level. It was suggested that I be a test pilot. I asked a few questions and never heard from the computer squad again.

I'm pretty sure that there was no refund from Oracle and now they have another hole in their pocket. Instead of attempting to help inspectors by initiating programs at the top of the food chain they should start with us.....let us tell them what we need. But no that's not the way it's done because all of the smart people are at the top.

Oh sure, they come around and form a committee to poke and prod....after they are too deep into it to have much success in tuning it up. Perhaps they know that had they started with the bottom feeders we would have chewed it up before it was built.

All those years ago the first question that I had was "is there a drop down menu of common corrections?" The answer was no. I asked if we could create one. The answer was no. Well then, look at these pictures:





Among other mistakes, there is no protection from nails. So this is the correction, "provide nails plates to protect el. cable and conduit that is stapled or the edge of a hole is closer that 1 1/4" away from the face of the framing". I have to write that correction often. I can't just say, "protect the cable" because they won't know what I mean. And then there's the plumbing with 1" away and 1 1/2" past each side of the pipe. Sometimes these corrections require a drawing.

Hell's Bells it's 2020 and we still can't have a drop down menu. My phone has dozens.
 
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Well it's seven months since I mentioned Ipads. I now have the Ipad....or I should say that my wife has it. I have been told that the Planning dept. gave Ipads to the field personnel who promptly gave them back.

Years ago there was an attempt at modernization that involved laptop computers. Ipads didn't exist but Oracle corp. did and my AHJ handed Oracle millions for a software program that would take us to the next level. I was chosen to be a test pilot. I asked a few questions and nobody ever heard from the computer squad again.

I'm pretty sure that there was no refund from Oracle and now they have another hole in their pocket. Instead of attempting to help inspectors by initiating programs at the top of the food chain they should start with us.....let us tell them what we need. But no that's not the way it's done because all of the smart people are at the top.

Oh sure, they come around and form a committee to poke and prod....after they are too deep into it to have much success in tuning it up. Perhaps they know that had they started with the bottom feeders we would have chewed it up before it was built.

All those years ago the first question that I had was "is there a drop down menu of common corrections?" The answer was no. I asked if we could create one. The answer was no. Well then, look at this picture:



There is no protection from nails. So this is the correction, "provide nails plates to protect el. cable that is stapled or the edge of a hole is closer that 1 1/4" away from the face of the framing". I have to write that correction often. I can't just say, "protect the cable" because they won't know what I mean. And then there's the plumbing with 1" away and 1 1/2" past each side of the pipe. Sometimes these corrections require a drawing.


Yep agree

The systems are good for some things, but not others

I could see a system with a mix,,,,

Common violations

But

Also a stylist so you can write stuff

and all is saved in never never land
 
When I did plans review many moons ago I used Autocorrect to insert words or phrases for words I started with ` or ~ (right above the Tab key). Unfortunately Micro$oft changed the format for storing Autocorrect every time they put out a new version of MS Word, and by the third upgrade it was too much to retype the 100 or more phrases I had so I went back to typing the whole phrase.
 
My window is even bigger morning inspections are 930 to 1230 and afternoon is 130 to 500, I rarely make the contract stand the inspection and I do building inspection only, electrical and plumbing are handled by separate inspectors
I am a on man shop office, plan review and field inspections. I have an Administrative assistant who answers the phones.

So, how small is Carlton?
 
44 square miles, 14000 residences, 500 permit of various types and sizes, 80 new home a year some commercial projects.

Since the OP I now have an local inspector that does all the residential work, I do commercial and zoning, answer questions
 
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