An average day

[linnrg]

ICE - if you have recirculated hot water systems the expansion tank should be installed, I wonder sometimes if the contractors bother to study the principles/logic behind some of the code language. Here in cold country the rule that is interpreted that a T&P must go to the exterior is ignored with approval.
On a past commercial project I found a water heater installed in a closet where the T&P was dripping to one of those little 1/8 hp condensate capture pump and a small hose to a drain receptor Everything in that closet was covered by layers of dust. The leaking T&P had been sending wasted hot water to the sanitary for years. Because the (Outside of the building sewer) line had a sag in it and was shallow when the leak was fixed by an expansion tank properly installed (and T&P replaced) on that circulated hot water line the building sewer froze up! The previous tenants had moved out they were medical offices - needles to say the new tenants pay somewhat less to the gas utility. The building owner had at least saved from having to dig up his sagging sewer line for years!

 

[ICE]

linnrg,
I had not thought about re-circulation systems. That makes sense. I see several in a year.

The contractor relies on code that requires the expansion tank if the system is a closed loop. They claim that a pressure regulator creates a closed loop. My AHJ has never taken that position with SFR. Some apartment buildings have enough pipe in a hot attic that an expansion tank is warranted. Commercial properties generally have a check valve on the potable water system and therefor the expansion tank is required.

 

[SCBO1]

Commercial properties generally have a check valve on the potable water system and therefor the expansion tank is required.

Here, the residential properties are required to have a check-valve on the potable water service line requiring a pressure controlling devise, like an expansion tank. P2903.4.2

Also there are numerous expansion tanks available for under $100.00.

We will NOT allow PVC pipe (unless rated) or PEX (insert fittings make it smaller than 3/4-inch).

 

[classicT]

Now and then a homeowner will ask me if the code really requires the expansion tank.

As stated above, generally in a SFD, an expansion tank is unnecessary; commercial always. Exceptions would include re-circulation systems, a PRV, a booster pump, or a water meter with integral backflow preventer. Each of the aforementioned systems prevent the release of pressure within a system. Locally, 2 cities use water meters with a integral backflow preventer (and properly require an expansion tank), and 1 does not unless warranted.

 

[Mr. Inspector]

No Data Manipulation at NOAA


By Vanessa Schipani

Posted on February 9, 2017 | Updated on September 25, 2017

press release — “Former NOAA Scientist Confirms Colleagues Manipulated Climate Records” — as part of an ongoing dispute over the validity of a paper published in the journal Science in June 2015 by NOAA scientists.

The NOAA study was one of several peer-reviewed studies published in recent years that found the so-called global warming “slowdown” did not occur. The studies countered the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2013 assessment report, which suggested a slowdown in global warming had occurred.

The Republican press release was issued a day after John Bates, a former NOAA scientist not involved with the study, published a blog post that accused the paper’s lead author, Thomas R. Karl, former director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, of having “his ‘thumb on the scale’— in the documentation, scientific choices, and release of datasets—in an effort to discredit the notion of a global warming hiatus.”

Prompted by Bates’ blog post, the press release issued by Republicans accused Karl and his co-authors of data manipulation. “I applaud Dr. Bates’s efforts in uncovering the truth of this data manipulation,” Illinois Rep. Darin LaHood, chairman of the oversight subcommittee, said in the press release.

The committee also repeatedly tweeted about the incident, citing a misleading articlepublished in the British tabloid the Daily Mail that made the same accusations, and retweeted similarly misleading articles by Fox News and the National Review (see update below).

But in interviews with the Associated Press and E&E, an online energy and environmental news outlet, Bates said he had not accused his colleagues of data manipulation.

Bates told the AP on Feb. 6 that there was “no data tampering, no data changing, nothing malicious” involved with his colleagues’ study. “It’s not trumped up data in any way shape or form,” he said.

Read more at https://www.factcheck.org/2017/02/no-data-manipulation-at-noaa/

 

[linnrg]

my days are the opposite average of ICE's.

Yesterday while doing a Final Inspection, the client (a State Trooper) was walking the home with me. His nice wife walked up behind us and said "I am going to the store - do you need me to get anything?" I quickly said "yes get beer!" Lots of laughs (they have know me for quite a few years). I think it was last year while I was writing a check to get my fishing & hunting license when this voice from behind me said "I WOULD not take a check from that guy!" - the very young clerk looked up at me with genuine concern. I turned around and said to the clerk - " don't mind him he is just a state trooper".

 

[SCBO1]

The T&P drains to the pan. I wrote a correction to extend the T&P to the exterior. It isn't far or difficult and will be hidden by foliage.

Would you allow that copper discharge pipe to be that close to the FF? 6-inch rule?

 

[ICE]

Would you allow that copper discharge pipe to be that close to the FF? 6-inch rule?

No. Never in a pan and between 6” to 20” above grade .....outside.

 

[ICE]

The job is an electrical service upgrade and this is the service entrance conduit. Sun glare prevented me from seeing clearly. It appears as though there is no roof jack. So I wrote a correction to install a roof jack. Shirley seeing clearly in a picture makes a difference.
So now the correction will change to “install the roof jack correctly”.

Several more inspections were requested and nothing new took place. I finally asked for a re-inspection fee which was paid and another inspection requested. As before, the contractor insisted that the flashing is installed correctly and is over the lower tile. A piece of tile was removed to show me.

I asked to see a little more. Another piece of tile was removed. Now I can see that sheet metal has been added to make it look like the flashing runs over the lower tile....which was an effort to make it look less wrong but not right..



There was but one tile to go. And there I find exposed wood.



The work was done by a sub-contractor to a solar contractor. Both contractors have mounted a campaign to have me banned from inspecting their work. I reckon that they deserve each other and if it wasn't for the owner I would agree.

What I don’t understand is how they stay in business. Granted, most of the corrections that I hand them are electrical in nature and nobody sees them but me and a few other inspectors. So in the long run, those corrections don’t make much difference but the damage they do to roofs is out there for all to see.

 

[ICE]

The job is solar install. The inverter is at the right of the door. There is a disconnect to the left of the door. It is 4' from the water's edge.

The switch, receptacle and nmc is energized. The extension between the meter and the socket is where a line side tap occurred. It has Edison's lock and tag. The installer had to move the hanging switch out of the way to complete the work. The service drop is 10' above the pool.

The Governor wants to do this to a million homes. He must not like homeowners. Considering the property tax the state hauls in you'd think he would show a little more respect.

 

[ICE]

Here’s two ways to get it wrong.



It isn't a code violation but I did mention it. I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks so I will never know if it was fixed.

 

[ICE]

Owner builder wanted to know if this is okay.

 

[SCBO1]

Is this okay?

Not if it's a bearing wall and the Cripples and header are missing?
Return air if that's a heat run, wall receptacles meeting the 12-ft rule? Light switches?

 

[cda]

t

CDA:

We already have it, the top two candidates from today's election will that appear on the November election ballot. You're right, it is a disaster, a few of the candidates propose getting rid of it if they are elected. The big proposition here was a proposal to require a vote to premit virtually any new building, the city is on the right side here and put a competing measure on the ballot so votes on permits would only occur if someone proposed permiting a building on designated open space or parks. Lots of the measures are as confusing as building codes, yes becomes no. For instance, the state is raking in a fortune in these carbon credits, a proposition portends to limit that money to transportation, in reality it sends it to bicycle trails, the governor's stupid train to nowhere, and more new BART cars, the reality is that they have removed most seating from the new cars to make room for more bicycles and wheelchairs with only a couple of seats in each car.

Poor Oakland

In the news again. Maybe they should let another city take them over

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...eless-mans-camp-lake-merritt-video/694005002/

 

[conarb]

It does look like junk, but I'm sure the guy will be arrested for throwing it into the lake. I've built a lot in Oakland, even apartments that rented for under $100 a month in the 50s and 60s, but nothing with codes and regulations like they have now.

 

[ICE]

 

[ICE]

A couple times each year I will be called out for a plumbing inspection where the pipe is not glued.

 

[ICE]

2/0 wire




The contractor kept referring to the guy that did this as his electrician.



When I got to the closet he told me that his electrician assured him that this is legal as long as they agree to not use the closet.

There's a kitchen and two bathroom remodel going on. I wrote 29 corrections and thought of two more while looking at the pictures. The so-called electrician won’t be back.



Another inspector wrote a correction to expose the underfloor plumbing that was installed and covered without inspection. So they removed the floor sheathing. The plumbing is smothered in concrete. The rest of the house is raised floor framing.

 

[ICE]

The inspection was for windows. I knocked on the door and nobody but a pack of dogs answered. I rang the doorbell. Still nothing. I started to write a slip when the doorbell said, "Can I help you?" I introduced myself. The doorbell said, "Hold on, I'll call my husband". Three minutes later the doorbell barked to life with, "I have been trying to call your office to find out when you will be there. I'm only twenty minutes away. I'll leave right now."
The barker said that I can see the windows from the outside If I will just go in the back yard. So I did that.



I wrote a correction or two. I put it at the front door. I was ten feet away when the doorbell said, "Hey! I'm still here. What happened"?
The doorbell has an eye as well as a mouth.
I started with there is no flashing when the doorbell cut me off........
"Not the window, the framing is what you are inspecting".

Perhaps I'm selfish but I just didn't want to explain corrections to an angry doorbell.

 

[ICE]

The permit states "Replace the forced air furnace located in the garage". This is the front door.




This is the furnace:

 

[ICE]

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.



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.



The room addition enveloped the entire original house.



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.

 

[ICE]

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.

 

[ICE]

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.

 

[my250r11]

when I confront them they tell me that they did it wrong again because the didn't know that I was the inspector.

, 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.!!!