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Quick question real simple

You wrote, “I saw a house” later you write, “it’s my sisters house”.


You wrote, “to get an occupancy permit do I have to fix it”. Meaning do YOU have to fix it. You asked and I answered.


You wrote, “they went through a lot of trouble hiding those cuts”. If you had to dig into the house to find those issues then would be plausible the other inspectors would not have seen it either?!?!


Have you spoke to the inspectors or city?

As suggested by others, hire an engineer.

Your frustrated but don’t misplace it.
 
From what I have gathered from the conversation, seems you are confusing HOME inspectors with BUILDING inspectors. Up until last year in my state any joe blow or julie bow for that matter could say I'm a home inspector with no experience or testing. Building inspectors on the other hand should be trained and tested and certified in their fields. The only time AHJ inspects a home is if permits for work are pulled, not for real estate sales. So it would be prudent of you to determine the type of inspector before you throw mud at people. Does seem to be a problem. Without pictures hard to tell. 20-25 years ago may not of had a building code or inspectors in that area. To hard to tell. So again not a simple question.
 
What about damage assessment? no permit required due to acts of nature that warrant an inspection to verify the safety of the structure, in this case a SFD, is safe to occupy, partially safe to occupy, or not at all...
 
While it is unclear exactly what the situation is , it is clear that a professional engineer should be involved. Not a house inspector, not a realtor, and not an inspector from the local building department. You want an engineer with experience with wood construction. House inspectors, realtors, and building inspectors doe not have the technical knowledge to evaluate the risk.

Once the engineer has looked at it you can then decide how to proceed.

Whether the building should be occupied until the engineer has evaluated the problem is a personal choice but if the situation has existed for many years it is likely not a major risk to occupy the building for a few days before your can have an engineer look at the problem. In the interim just do not invite a lot of people over or stack a lot of weight in any one place.

From the description I expect that there are code violations which will mean that a permit will be needed. This is another reason to hire a registered engineer.
 
While it is unclear exactly what the situation is , it is clear that a professional engineer should be involved. Not a house inspector, not a realtor, and not an inspector from the local building department. You want an engineer with experience with wood construction. House inspectors, realtors, and building inspectors doe not have the technical knowledge to evaluate the risk.

Once the engineer has looked at it you can then decide how to proceed.

Whether the building should be occupied until the engineer has evaluated the problem is a personal choice but if the situation has existed for many years it is likely not a major risk to occupy the building for a few days before your can have an engineer look at the problem. In the interim just do not invite a lot of people over or stack a lot of weight in any one place.

From the description I expect that there are code violations which will mean that a permit will be needed. This is another reason to hire a registered engineer.

And now I officially disagree with you. If this home is framed with nominal lumber then there is a prescriptive code that can be followed to determine if the structure is in compliance. The prescriptive tables and methods exist because of engineering, not because some inspector held their thumb up and said "looks good." Your disdain for building departments, inspectors and plans examiners has always been evident but this time truly shines through.

Any type of construction that is not prescriptive does need a design professional to evaluate the situation, but not for typical platform framing under 4 stories with nominal, graded lumber.
 
it is clear that a professional engineer should be involved. Not a house inspector,, and not an inspector from the local building department. r.
Mark you might be correct at the end game, but the reason i proposed a qualified inspector was cost and time efficiencies. He can get an experienced person who has seen many similar situations for a reasonable price, and that person can tell him it looks normal, or that he needs a lot more help. He needs someone to look at it who doesn’t have an emotional / family relationship with the house.
 
While an inspector may render an opinion whether something is in compliance with prescriptive code provisions, we are likely dealing with something that is in distress and by implication not in compliance with the proscriptive provisions. The concern is also whether it is safe enough to occupy while repairs are made.

The prescriptive provisions make a lot of assumptions. If those assumptions are not valid for this case, which is likely the case for this building, then any engineering used to justify the proscriptive provisions is not relevant. You need to apply engineering knowledge to the non-standard situation that you are likely faced with.

Since it is not likely that the problem can be easily or economically solved by making it comply with the prescriptive provisions you need somebody who can develop a non-prescriptive solution. Building inspectors, in my experience, do not have the ability to determine if a non-standard situation is unsafe or to develop a non-standard solution..

Building inspectors know a lot about a lot of things but as a result they do not have the detailed knowledge to evaluate a non-standard structural problem. We all need to understand the limitations of what we know. This is true of engineers and it is true of building inspectors.

If you have a home inspector look at it and he says that it is not normal the next step is to have an engineer look at it. So now you have paid for both a home inspector and an engineer. It now costs more and it takes longer before the occupants know if they have a serious problem. Is calling on a home inspector really the cheaper solution.

While the City will likely be involved eventually they are not in the business of evaluating buildings and if they believe there is a code non-compliance they will likely tell the home owner to hire an architect or an engineer. By hiring an engineer first you speed up the process and allow the homeowner and his consultants shape the discussion about what needs to be done to assure code compliance.
 
Well then Mark, my experience has been that if you get an engineer more than a few feet away from a drafting table she needs a seeing eye dog. Shirley you are old enough to remember a time when we built plenty with no plans at all. The days when we met at a coffee shop and scribbled plans on place mats. Now we can't paint a house without rules. So Mark, to hear you bagging on anyone that is not an engineer falls flat....like five pounds of hamburger slapping a kitchen floor. I know that sound .... I don't need to hear it again.

Let's take a moment and look at what the OP stated about the condition of the building:

floor joist are rolling 2 are at 37 degree angles
yes they are not connected and they have gaps between the beams and they are rolling and the floor is sagging, there are cracks throughout in frames of doors and it has walls that are bowing, and the ceiling is cracking at the seams . its not an old house and its not trashed by any means. But she needed some baseboards fixed I saw some issues kept looking the more i look the more i find. Oh and the basement half finished they went through a lot of trouble hiding those cuts. And they arent on the beam they are back a bit from it"

The baseboards were more than they could put up with. But all is not lost because they have insurance. Now all they need is a professional to explain that they have a pile of building materials that are not necessarily assembled correctly.
 
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, we are likely dealing with something that is in distress

We don’t know that. All we know is that the homeowner and her brother don’t know what they are looking at, and they are concerned.
 
The poster hasn't been back since Wednesday and 20 or so posts ago. He didn't like the answers he got. Then some of us started picking on each other.:confused:
 
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