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An average day

It has looked like this for a long time. There is a building permit from early 2016 for a room addition. I was there for a requested framing inspection.

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At first glance the place looks vacant. But as soon as you enter through the hole for the front door you find the original house.

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The room addition enveloped the entire original house.

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This pile of debris has been there for two years......and nobody has complained. I was here for the first and only time about eight months ago. I told them to clean their site then. There is no excuse. I'm convinced that they ran out of money and can't finish the construction. The latest inspection request was an effort to keep the permits alive. I'm in no rush to expire the permits but there is no excusing the trash pile.

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I had no part in this but gosh I felt sad.

R311.3.2 Floor elevations for other exterior doors.


Doors other than the required egress door shall be provided with landings or floors not more than 73/4 inches (196 mm) below the top of the threshold.


Exception: A top landing is not required where a stairway of not more than two risers is located on the exterior side of the door, provided that the door does not swing over the stairway.
 
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The dwelling burned. The inside was gutted. I was there six months ago for a framing inspection. I did not go back because the address is in another inspectors area. I was there today for the final inspection.

The island has two receptacles. One at each end under a counter that protrudes 13". Six inches being the limit, I wrote a correction. The contractor already had an inspection the day before and had a few corrections so he was upset that I was writing more corrections. He was adamant that the entire island counter was existing. It survived the fire unscathed. I told him that I was in this house long ago and I know that's not the case. He would not give up. I finally said existing or not you have a correction to deal with. The nerve of some people.

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ICE said:
when I confront them they tell me that they did it wrong again because the didn't know that I was the inspector.
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:mad::mad::mad:, so keep doing it wrong until its for you I hate that. Construction industry changes all the time. Don't believe any of us do things the same as we did 30 years ago, I know I don't. It's hard to keep up with the new materials, fasteners, systems etc.!!!
 
Somebody thought that I would scurry up that ladder. And that's asphalt shingles with air temp. of 116°. The ladder is probably too hot to touch. The bed cover on my truck could fry pork chops and eggs.

On a calm, soothing, winter day you're gonna need a crane to show me the top roof of that house.

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You see why none of our inspectors are allowed to climb, were I your CBO I'd fire you and send yout to work for MH, you'd spend the rest of your working life measuring the heights of handicap signs.
 
The contractor is a Mechanical contractor (C-20). The job is a new furnace, a/c and electrical service upgrade.
The panel is 4' 4" from the pool. The minimum requirement is 5’. There was a flush mount panel located at the same spot previously. The enclosure is mounted over a hole in the wall. I requested that a licensed Electrical contractor take out the electrical permit.

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Never saw a pool so close to a house. Would you make them bond the rain gutter and window frame to the pool bonding system now or only when the pool or rain gutter or window is new?
 
Rick18071 said:
Never saw a pool so close to a house. Would you make them bond the rain gutter and window frame to the pool bonding system now or only when the pool or rain gutter or window is new?
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It would be a hard sell to ask for bonding the windows, weep screed, and gutter after the fact. The new service panel will be relocated.
 
Could somebody please tell us what is wrong here? A code section would be great.

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The contractor told the lady that this might be a problem. "Let's see what happens with the inspector".

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#2826
t&p to a drain
washer to piping that does not have a trap (is that some form of an
extension threaded pipe drainage?) possible undersize of a vent.
Where does the condensate pump discharge to? Outlet is not
GFCI.

Appliances are elevated, so must be a garage. Do you require
the other appliances to be elevated as well (I see gas piping, so
I assume gas dryer). We have had some differing opinions about
that.
 
Looks like a basement to me.
The P&T relief valve does not comply with IRC P2803.6.1:
1. Not to be connected to drainage system
2. Discharge through a air gap
7. Discharge in a termination point that is readily observable
8. Not be trapped
 
linnrg said:
Do you require the other appliances to be elevated as well (I see gas piping so I assume gas dryer). We have had to differing opinions about that.
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I suppose the code would support raising a gas clothes dryer. I don't enforce it that way. I'll ask around and see what other inspectors are doing. My feeling is that I can approve what I inspect and the laundry equip is not part of that. Well heck...maybe it is....part of that I mean. I'll find out....if I don't forget. What was I talking about just now?

Garage doors work like an explosion vent. I had a case where a father and son turned the two car garage into a spray booth. By the look of the laundry sink, I think it lasted a long time. But one day it blew up. Junior had just stepped out the man door when it went. The door flattened him and the blast knocked the walls off the footing. When they built it back I made them demo the laundry sink. They had been draining paint and who knows what for years. Funny thing is that the neighbors didn't complain and I found over-spray in a lot of spots.
 
Some jurisdictions accept a document in lieu of inspecting smoke and CO alarms. And by the way, they are not detectors.....don't say smoke detector or Co detector. A detector isn't going to wake you up. Well anyway, I have seen a few of the documents stapled to a job card like I will inspect whatever and not need to go inside. I have said no because I detected dishonesty and found no alarms. I just wanted to use the word detected in a sentence. I would never accept a document. I've even see them with a Notary seal. It's only been a handful of times and each time there was no detectors....or alarms either.

Today was a good example of the level of competence found in the solar industry. The guy handed me this with all the confidence in the world that I would just move on.

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Tiger:

So the solar contractors are giving the owners these forms telling their customers to fill them out and attach them to the permit cards to avoid liability?
 
Form looks super official as the first word is missing the first letter. Starts off well....

Aside from the fact that this should never be accepted, the form documents a non-compliant installation - 3 floors yet only 2 alarms?
 
The plan was to remove the screw to show me that the pipe is filled with water. He said that it's just a vent so a dab of glue will fix it.

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A lot of mistakes in a small space. The worst of which was not bringing along a neutral conductor.

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The owner said that the contractor chose this spot to place the unit because there was a plumbing vent close by.

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I'm not so sure that the label behind the disconnect is all that important but the panel that it is mounted to is meant to come off for access to the innards.


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The contractor is a large outfit. They have salespeople at Costco. An affiliation with a big box store is a red flag. As soon as the owner says that ***** or **** ***** is the contractor I know that a recent parolee might have been doing the work. You know, there's training available in the penal system. Ok so I exaggerate. I doubt that many are parolee's....work release is more likely.

It was 105° in the shade and hotter on that roof. I should have not gone up there....nope, I should have said, "The disconnect is located in the wrong spot. Move it and call for inspection".

Next time out, when I got to the top of the ladder it should have been, "You can't use a plumbing vent for a condensate disposal. Do that over and call for inspection".

The next time out it could have been, "That's the wrong screw for the dead front"....and on it goes.

Perhaps that would teach them to not send inexperienced workers to do the work. But obviously I can't do that so I write a dozen stupid corrections. They can't even install a lock ring correctly.

Yes I know that it's my job and I am paid to do this. So who am I to complain? The issue for me is the knowledge that slipshod work passes inspection in most cases. That's not because the work was done correctly. It is because the inspector didn't know or didn't look or didn't care.

I don't make such a statement lightly. I have first hand experience. I have witnessed that many times. It is getting worse.
 
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