A member here recently shared a post that stuck with me. He wasn’t venting. He wasn’t even being critical. He simply said that he submitted eight pages of drawings for a new covered deck and roof extension. The permit was issued right away. No questions asked. No plan review. Other than the plot plan for zoning, the building official didn’t even look at the rest.
That is exactly the kind of casual negligence that sets the stage for the next deck collapse.
He mentioned that there was no ledger involved in this case. But even he noted that ledger issues are behind a lot of the failures we see. This is where I stopped reading and thought to myself, we are headed right into another season of deck collapses across the country. And when it happens, everyone will ask how it could have been prevented. Well, here’s how. Start with the people who were too lazy or too disinterested to do their jobs in the first place.
Let’s be honest about something. This profession has a problem. It is not the codes. It is not the contractors. It is the building officials who sit in small towns with no oversight, issue permits without reading the plans, and have somehow convinced themselves that the job is just administrative. These are the same people who create issues when other officials ask questions or request plan corrections. They do not engage. They do not enforce. They just exist in the role.
They are not protecting public safety. They are protecting their own convenience.
This post is not about being nitpicky or overly strict. It is about calling out the complacency that erodes everything we are supposed to stand for. When you are in this role, your stamp has power. It has consequences. It also carries responsibility. If you are issuing permits without reviewing structural details, you are setting yourself up to be the subject of the next lawsuit. And when the deck collapses, you will not be able to say you did your job. Because you didn’t.
What frustrates me even more is how this makes the rest of us look. Those of us who ask for beam calcs, fastener spacing, or proper flashing details are labeled as the difficult ones. We are seen as the roadblock. The ones holding up the process. Meanwhile, the ones who sign off on everything without reading it are praised for being easy to work with. That is, until something fails. And when it does, it reflects poorly on all of us.
This is not a minor issue. This is structural. It is life safety. It is the reason people end up in hospitals or worse.
If a building official can issue permits without reviewing plans, what else are they skipping? Are they reviewing truss layouts? Are they verifying wind design in coastal areas? Are they checking load paths and foundation connections? Or are they just hitting print, stamping the approval, and moving on?
Too many people in this industry treat the code as a nuisance instead of what it is, a minimum standard for life safety. And let me say this clearly. If reviewing eight pages of deck drawings feels like a burden, then you are in the wrong profession. You should not be holding that title. You are not just phoning it in. You are failing the public you swore to protect.
We have already seen deck collapses this year. I just posted one in another thread. A child’s birthday party turned into a mass casualty event because a deck gave out under the weight of a few people. These things do not happen because someone missed a single nail. They happen because no one checked. No one asked the right questions. No one verified how the ledger was attached, or if it even was.
And here is the worst part. The public has no idea how close they are to disaster. They assume someone like us has done their job. They assume the permit meant it was reviewed. They assume the inspection meant it passed. But when the permit is issued without a plan review and the inspection is a walk-by at best, all of those assumptions go out the window. And the minute something fails, the lawsuits start flying and fingers start pointing.
Those of us who care, who study, who enforce the code the right way, we are not the problem. We are the reason most things work. However, I am tired of watching careless and complacent officials create the mess and then disappear when everything goes wrong.
If this post upsets you, then maybe ask yourself why. If you are doing your job and taking it seriously, then you already know who I am talking about. But if you read this and feel a little uncomfortable, maybe it is time to rethink how you are handling your responsibilities.
Public safety is not optional. The code is not a suggestion. And your job is not just to issue permits. It is to make sure that what gets built has a fighting chance of standing up to the real world.
Stop blaming the contractor. Stop blaming the public. Start looking at who approved the work in the first place.
Notice the books still wrapped in plastic.
That is exactly the kind of casual negligence that sets the stage for the next deck collapse.
He mentioned that there was no ledger involved in this case. But even he noted that ledger issues are behind a lot of the failures we see. This is where I stopped reading and thought to myself, we are headed right into another season of deck collapses across the country. And when it happens, everyone will ask how it could have been prevented. Well, here’s how. Start with the people who were too lazy or too disinterested to do their jobs in the first place.
Let’s be honest about something. This profession has a problem. It is not the codes. It is not the contractors. It is the building officials who sit in small towns with no oversight, issue permits without reading the plans, and have somehow convinced themselves that the job is just administrative. These are the same people who create issues when other officials ask questions or request plan corrections. They do not engage. They do not enforce. They just exist in the role.
They are not protecting public safety. They are protecting their own convenience.
This post is not about being nitpicky or overly strict. It is about calling out the complacency that erodes everything we are supposed to stand for. When you are in this role, your stamp has power. It has consequences. It also carries responsibility. If you are issuing permits without reviewing structural details, you are setting yourself up to be the subject of the next lawsuit. And when the deck collapses, you will not be able to say you did your job. Because you didn’t.
What frustrates me even more is how this makes the rest of us look. Those of us who ask for beam calcs, fastener spacing, or proper flashing details are labeled as the difficult ones. We are seen as the roadblock. The ones holding up the process. Meanwhile, the ones who sign off on everything without reading it are praised for being easy to work with. That is, until something fails. And when it does, it reflects poorly on all of us.
This is not a minor issue. This is structural. It is life safety. It is the reason people end up in hospitals or worse.
If a building official can issue permits without reviewing plans, what else are they skipping? Are they reviewing truss layouts? Are they verifying wind design in coastal areas? Are they checking load paths and foundation connections? Or are they just hitting print, stamping the approval, and moving on?
Too many people in this industry treat the code as a nuisance instead of what it is, a minimum standard for life safety. And let me say this clearly. If reviewing eight pages of deck drawings feels like a burden, then you are in the wrong profession. You should not be holding that title. You are not just phoning it in. You are failing the public you swore to protect.
We have already seen deck collapses this year. I just posted one in another thread. A child’s birthday party turned into a mass casualty event because a deck gave out under the weight of a few people. These things do not happen because someone missed a single nail. They happen because no one checked. No one asked the right questions. No one verified how the ledger was attached, or if it even was.
And here is the worst part. The public has no idea how close they are to disaster. They assume someone like us has done their job. They assume the permit meant it was reviewed. They assume the inspection meant it passed. But when the permit is issued without a plan review and the inspection is a walk-by at best, all of those assumptions go out the window. And the minute something fails, the lawsuits start flying and fingers start pointing.
Those of us who care, who study, who enforce the code the right way, we are not the problem. We are the reason most things work. However, I am tired of watching careless and complacent officials create the mess and then disappear when everything goes wrong.
If this post upsets you, then maybe ask yourself why. If you are doing your job and taking it seriously, then you already know who I am talking about. But if you read this and feel a little uncomfortable, maybe it is time to rethink how you are handling your responsibilities.
Public safety is not optional. The code is not a suggestion. And your job is not just to issue permits. It is to make sure that what gets built has a fighting chance of standing up to the real world.
Stop blaming the contractor. Stop blaming the public. Start looking at who approved the work in the first place.
Notice the books still wrapped in plastic.
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