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A Story About a Failed Inspection That Passed Anyway

jar546

jar546

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I was hired by a family to oversee a single-story townhouse under construction for their elderly parents. In this case, I was hired privately and was not acting as a third-party inspector as this was not in any of the jurisdictions I was contracted with. I contacted the builder and asked him to call me when he was having his code inspections scheduled so I could be there at the same time. When it was time for the framing inspection I arrived on time, the third-party inspector was running late so I had a chance to get photos and get a good assessment of the framing. This is what I found.
  • The 2x6 pt sill plate on top of the CMU foundation for the demising wall had missed every single anchor bolt.
  • At the opening of the crawlspace where they used joist hangars, the hangars were just tacked in with 2 nails and one of the joists had already dropped about 2" and had separated from the subfloor, you could see the space, and the nails sticking through.
  • There was a 2x6 load-bearing wall close to the center lined up with the roof ridge to help create cathedral ceilings in the open areas. This 2x6 load-bearing wall was offset 21" from the main girder in the crawlspace. The floor joists were 2x10 to put that into perspective.
  • And of course, the main girder was found exactly as you see it in the photo below. Judge for yourself.
As I was working my way towards the crawlspace opening to come back up into the first floor, I heard a voice say to the contractor "Where do you want the sticker?" It was the building inspector from the third-party agency. When I emerged from the crawlspace I asked the inspector if he was passing the framing inspection to which he said yes. I asked him if he looked in the crawlspace and he just looked at me. I knew he did not go in there because I was down there by myself and he arrived after me. I then showed him my digital photos and explained the problems I found. He just looked at me and then walked out the door after placing his green 'PASSED' sticker on the window for the framing. I then turned my attention to the contractor and all he did was point to the green stick and say, 'All I know is that the city passed the framing." I reminded him that may be the case, but it is obvious some defects need to be addressed and my client and their attorney would be notified and given my report along with the photos. It was my turn to walk out the door.

In the end, the repairs were made and I reinspected the job to verify compliance. So how many other jobs did this inspector completely botch when there was no one watching over him? Another true story from the bowels of northeastern Pennsylvania.

BadEndBearing.jpg
 
Our province has not required AHJs to have trained building inspectors. For the longest time, small villages simply appointed the CAO as a building inspector.

In my brief career I have had the dubious distinction of assuming responsibility for no less than six jurisdictions, most of which had untrained people doing building inspection. In some cases, construction has been partly complete. The list of critical violations I have discovered that were 'passed' by the previous inspector(s) include
- improper/missing fire separations; including a church that has two floors and not a sheet of f/r drywall anywhere
- exit doors swinging the wrong way
- a barrier-free bathroom where a person in a wheelchair couldn't actually open a closed bathroom door from the inside
- a 4,000 square-foot storage/office building constructed without plans.
- a warehouse expansion, that required either sprinklering or a firewall due to footprint/size, and had neither
unsupported point loads
- three basement suites in an apartment that only had one exit; a fuel-fired furnace open to a public corridor required to have a fire separation and said fuel-fired furnace was under an apartment suite, no fire separation, no soundproofing. The previous inspector approved the alterations.

And that's the big stuff. Throw in
- missing radon pipe rough-ins
- improperly spliced beams
- improperly installed windows
- decks built with fenceposts
- decks held together by wood screws
- missing carbon monoxide alarms

The lack of concern/attention to detail is alarming. I'm not that spectacular: the problem is that we've had too many years of ill-trained inspectors who didn't give a crap.

Sometimes I wish I could drag a few politicians along for a ride and show them the horrors I see through my eyes.
 
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