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  1. jim baird

    Handling workmanship issues

    I fought hard with a contractor assigned to finish a bank-owned where a front stoop had been filled and poured in concrete in an alcove between two walls, right up over 2-3 courses of siding. First contractor quit the job, 2nd contractor tore them out and rebuilt leaving 6 inches or so shy on...
  2. jim baird

    Handling workmanship issues

    I have to grit my teeth, hold my nose, and bite my lip all the time. At another AHJ I used to hold forth about workmanship, and all it ever did was p*ss everybody off and make ME the bad guy for calling attention to the elephant in the room.
  3. jim baird

    Baghdad to Kabul

    Best of luck to you.
  4. jim baird

    Receptacles at balconies

    Eight inches of depth would not even let my size ten shoe fit at right angles to the building...thinking it might be a smokers' refuge or something. Otherwise, if it has a floor I would think it would serve mostly as a water retention structure to guarantee weather penetration into the wall.
  5. jim baird

    Shoestring Toilet

    Mark, you been sneaking around here snapping pics of me and my brothers?
  6. jim baird

    Wonderful Woodstove

    I read a book a yr or two ago, can't remember the author's name, called "My Grandfather's Finger", about the piney woods of east Texas. Don't suppose that would be your area? The author's grandfather was a logger who came home one day with one of his fingers in his pocket, and no details on...
  7. jim baird

    Rang Hoods for residential cooking equpment

    Funny, as a private inspector of a new home for a buyer I found a downdraft exhaust whose duct went no further than the next bay in the base unit.
  8. jim baird

    interim exit plan

    Thanks FM Burns. This project is not exactly a rehab one, it being strictly an addition, like a caboose being put on the end of a train, the end being where the required exit is. I had been ready to post the following about the mysterious Chapter 43. Forty-five years ago I spent the summer as...
  9. jim baird

    interim exit plan

    thanks gt, those bases were tagged on the way through, still do not see chapter 43.
  10. jim baird

    Raising the roof to fit insulation

    LOL. Here we have a common bird that loves to build on ledges a nest of mud and moss. If the birdhouse has enough overhang and weather protection it would do sans openings. Eastern phoebe, a flycatcher species, catches bugs on the wing all day long.
  11. jim baird

    Raising the roof to fit insulation

    A neighbor who is a civil engineer built her house this way, but left out the raised plate. Added a plywood gusset to tie rafter to joist. She also made an exterior cladding to a wainscot height by setting fieldstone in little slip forms sized 8X8X16. Three faces were flat except for an...
  12. jim baird

    interim exit plan

    Thanks for replies. I assume that the designer did not know what time frame the job would occupy, and whether building would be occupied during progress, ergo no sheet for temp exits. I think contractor was looking for expedience. It should not that difficult to throw together something akin...
  13. jim baird

    interim exit plan

    I have done a lot of plans review, but have not seen any that include an "interim" exit plan where a building addition will occlude existing exits for some duration. Building is a school, in session. Local fire chief contacted me re contractor's query about the permissibility of interim...
  14. jim baird

    Joining lots vs. Subdivision

    Your local regs should clarify. Here, if the split creates under three parcels it is considered "minor", and does not fall under major subdivision regs, which require extensive improvements. A recombination is not considered a subdivision as long as the total number of parcels is not...
  15. jim baird

    What's the point?

    I have dealt with DP's in plans review process who were just as willing as any of us to stretch things for expedience, or shall we say, to whittle the square peg as needed to fit in round hole?
  16. jim baird

    What's the point?

    "...If you need more money or power, find a different job..." Like, run for office or whatever, I guess. Lucky for us Handler doesn't post the stories about the crooks in other lines of work...
  17. jim baird

    Deck Stringer - just hangin out...

    Yes. I once flagged stringers like this on a return to check corrections left by another inspector. I did not think I could let it go, and carried the owner around to show it. The closing was that afternoon. Everybody got mad at me, and I was officially reprimanded, with the CO being issued...
  18. jim baird

    Jack studs continuous from header to sole plate?

    One reason for all that extra wood is to give nailing surface for casings etc. Long ago I worked with an old carpenter who always put his door header jacks all the way to the floor.
  19. jim baird

    Access to Service Panel

    They might make those seniors score bingo to get their dinner!
  20. jim baird

    More from the IPMC

    I think that's what they call a quarter-bath.
  21. jim baird

    How would you handle this?

    TBZ, You are the guardrail guy, right? You are being asked to bid on something to code? No design? Our state controls accessiblilty, and is very easygoing on existing buildings. Basically all the owner has to do for existing is claim that retrofitting is impractical or a hardship and he is...
  22. jim baird

    Are You ADHD

    My tendency at planning stages of projects, even yardwork and gardening, is to see too many steps to follow and to think too much about sequencing etc. I am slow, but I do get it done. "Sloppiness" in performance is what I cannot stand. When Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were trying to help Jim...
  23. jim baird

    B3 Commercial Plans Examiner test

    I never did like tabs, but use index first, then contents table. I brought my own calculator then found they provided one. Since being subbed out to private testers, access/availability really went down. As with other tests, monitor your progess in time. I finished B3 about 20 min early but...
  24. jim baird

    Nail salon exhaust-capture at source?

    Sure doesn't win any prizes for looks!
  25. jim baird

    Good News

    Thumbs up!
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