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Fly in the ointment

ICE

ICE

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Joined
Jun 23, 2011
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13,920
Location
California
A percentage of all residential construction is bootlegged and never gets inspected.

Think about…kitchen and bath remodels… furnace and A/C… water heaters… re-roofs… el. services… complete rewire… copper re-pipe… patio covers… window replacement... additions… retaining walls… interior reconfiguration… water and gas mains… even spas and swimming pools.

Those are a few examples but anything, right up to entire houses can be included and has happened. The percentages will be all over the map. For example, water heaters probably top 75% and room additions are at 5%.

A conservative estimate is that 30% of everything goes unseen.

70% is inspected and as in any occupation, some practitioners are better at it than others. Using a range of competency of inspectors of 1 to 10. Levels 1, 2 and 3 equate to little or no inspection. Levels 4 through 10 are competent to excellent. Here again, the percentages will vary according to jurisdiction.

21% of everything gets less than a competent inspection.

30% do not get a permit.

21% do not get a reliable inspection.

51% of all residential construction falls through the cracks.

What conclusions can be drawn other than 30% will save money, both large and small?
 
And add to that there there are States where not every town (or even CLOSE to every town) has a building office, and single family dwellings just get BUILT, with no permits or inspections whatsoever, and that is . . . perfectly normal.

Come to think of it, probably 90% of all houses standing around were built pre-code adoption.
 
My house was never inspected. It has lasted 256 years. It has survived the Revolutionary and Civil wars as well as many nasty storms and is still in good shape. I guess they just don't make em like they used to.
 
Most of the ones they made like they used to haven't lasted. The ones that were built better than necessary are the ones that have survived.
 
Here is an example of bootleg work that would not pass plan check unless an engineer justified it. The guy that designed it must have been an engineer or he missed his calling.

It's in it's 25th year and seen many a birthday party.

Where the tarp hangs is where the patio roof used to be. The roofing had failed and the sheathing was rotten so it was being replaced.

Failed roofing was what got me out there to begin with. The house was being re-roofed and some helpful Harry called it in.

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I thought that I would get a few more replies with this thread. That didn't happen. So I will just ask. Are we a Fly in the ointment?

Has society gone down the wrong path with respect to regulating the built environment? If more than half of all construction stays unfettered by the bureaucracy, is that considered success?

Knowing that no codes would have resulted in building anarchy, is there an approach that would provide a higher degree of compliance and a lessor degree of contempt?

Could changes be made that encourage construction?

Can you see room for changes?
 
The easier it is to get a permit, the more permits will be applied for. The more complicated it becomes fewer people will apply, especially for the work that can't be seen.
 
The process which some have to go through to get a building permit is overwhelming to most people. My dad had to produce an up to date survey (his was 2 years old), indicating all buildings, setbacks total sq ft of impervious surface, storm water review, wait for a code enforcement officer to verify there where no outstanding code violations. Provide a section detail for his 20 ft x 18 ft concrete driveway. 3 trips to the bldg dept and 28 working days before the permit was ready to issue. This was a concrete driveway to his existing carport for a SFR.

Building departments become the catch all for the other departments. Don't issue a permit without all the other departments approval. Don't issue the CO because the landscaping doesn't meet the approved plans or the sidewalks not to city standards or any number of items that do not mean a thing to the construction and safety of the build and its occupants.
 
Working for a small Town makes it easy for me to assist the applicant, I will often fill out the applications and just have them sign them rather than answer multiple phone calls. They return the application along with the documents I listed for them and I am seeing more permits on the small but important jobs.
 
As the focus shifts more and more away from the structural core of the IRC, and more towards the IECC and IGC, I would tend to agree. What we do is of little consequence. Structural stability is no longer a consideration. I firmly believe that unless we drink the 'green' kool-aid, we're obsolete. No one cares about structural safety, egress, etc. All we do is draw the ire of planners and administrations. The best we can hope to do to maintain our existence is to help the grocery shoppers -- I mean, Firefighters -- in requiring sprinklers in everything, including the dog house. Otherwise, the position of Building Inspector is as dead as the horseshoer.
 
Code Neophyte said:
As the focus shifts more and more away from the structural core of the IRC, and more towards the IECC and IGC, I would tend to agree. What we do is of little consequence. Structural stability is no longer a consideration. I firmly believe that unless we drink the 'green' kool-aid, we're obsolete. No one cares about structural safety, egress, etc. All we do is draw the ire of planners and administrations. The best we can hope to do to maintain our existence is to help the grocery shoppers -- I mean, Firefighters -- in requiring sprinklers in everything, including the dog house. Otherwise, the position of Building Inspector is as dead as the horseshoer.
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You and I have disparate worlds. I do see a lot of green on the horizon but green will never be paramount.
 
Daddy-0- said:
My house was never inspected. It has lasted 256 years. It has survived the Revolutionary and Civil wars as well as many nasty storms and is still in good shape. I guess they just don't make em like they used to.
Click to expand...
about 8 miles up the road from me we had heavy damage an 1819 Plantation home that has been in same family since built to the earthquake
 
There is a trade off--- it has to be easier to comply with the law than to avoid it.

If it is too difficult, expensive, or burdensome to comply avoidance becomes a viable strategy.
 
No jurisdiction is ever going to get 100% compliance for people pulling permits for everything. The I codes exempt some things; local jurisdictions exempt some; owners chose to exempt themselves from the process. Title searches will catch some of the issues when these owners try to sell the property (although it's usually limited to additions).

It's not a perfect world - not a perfect profession. Like Roseanne Rosanadana used to say "whaddya gonna do"
 
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