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Let’s say , hypothetical of course, that when the inspector went in the house to give a structural inspection, that his truck got flipped on it’s roof by a Bobcat that was convienently parked running beside the driveway when he arrived. When he came out, his truck was on it’s roof, the Bobcat is in it’s original position(not running)and no one is around. What is the worst that could happen to the contractor? This would be the second structural, after a turndown for no bolts in a post to I-beam connection in a basement(could be checked on the final with an ok to insulate in the meantime costing the contractor at least 2 days of lost time and the subs a delay as well) JUST WONDERING?
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Probably nothing.....but he'd just start poking around while he waited for the wrecker! Think more along the lines of a quick oil change and tire rotation......trick him into thinkin' yer a nice guy....maybe he'll tread lighter! .....I've found if ya shoot 'em, they just send more! Jeff
*Nobody messes with Montgomery Schraff!
*Screw it. How much trouble can you get into? I say do it; report back and tell us how everything went. (ya know, he might even go for it)
*Your insurance premiums were too low anyway
*smoke salmon and A shoe shine work for me.
*Let's see....the worst thing that could happen...You are never, never, NEVER going to pass an inspection again. Not on that job, not on your next job, not ever again. You are going to need another line of work.
*And the poor schlub who had a footing inspection scheduled afterwards is out major bucks because he couldn't pour, and then it rained the next day, putting him way behind schedule. Not to mention having the trucks show up for nothing.
*Guess you'll have to settle for just flipping him the finger like the rest of us.
*We want pictures Keith.blue
*We have a county inspector that has made many a contractor see red.He isn't making up these code violations, but can be way to literal in the interperation.My favorite was when he was going through a house (not one of mine) for the final inspection (so the builder could close with the bank and customer that afternoon). The painter had removed the handrail to do some touch up painting. The hand rail was sitting on the stairs, the brackets were still mounted on the walls.The house failed the final because of a lack of a handrail.When the builder got there, the inspector was gone and left a note that there would be no charge for the re-inspection, just call and set up a new appointment.I keep thinking he is going to come up missing someday - probably on a day he is doing a back fill inspection.Me. I do my best to keep on his good side and save my grousing till he is out of earshot.TLE
*Is this the worst inspector story thread now? My favorite was a county guy who failed the framing because the rafters were bird-mouthed to let in the studwall. He said cutting the rafters weakened them and they would need calcs from the engineer.Amazing.
*We're not all bad.
*Well............. some are bad.
*So this is a hypothetical question..... right?
*Like I said....wait until he goes under the house, then come around the corner and screw the crawl door shut. With square drive screws....so when he finally attracts someones attention, they will not have the right bit to get him out! Be prepared to move after this, because none of your other jobs will get passed.
*I think the best thing you can do is find his home address, then put in add in the local paper that he is having a Garage Sale next weekend.
*Hey, Here's a novel idea.How about using some of that vast amount of free time you have and instead of posting here, make sure the house is READY for inspection? Huh?Works for me . . .
*wow....anyone think maybe he was kidding? Jeff
*Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm surprised that no one picked up on my post about Montgomery Schraff though. Did you ever see the movie 'The Money Pit'?
*Unfortunately no matter how hard you try everyday is filled with threats, lies and requests for noncompliance. Getting the truck flipped is no joke. Try the job sometime, you will hate it too.
*Yep. Kind of thought he might be joking too, unfortunately, this does happen. A state electrical inspector here got put in the hospital one night by some disgruntled contractors for some minor reinspection issue.
*As a independent testing technician for a local lab, we hear stories like this daily, even if this was a total accident. Our insurance and workman comp policy would force us to notify the local police department. How would I explain to my company our the roof got caved in on their pickup.
*Had an jerk for an inspector get hired as I needed my next inspection...He really beat me up with pages of items...I checked around in disbelief and before I could do much...I heard another builder literally picked him up and tossed him off a porch. And suddenly the old to be retiring inspector was back on the job like nothing happened...I think that new inspector lasted less than a month.near the stream,ajBe good to inspectors! Theyb are GOD. Treat em well!
*I was not kidding. I realize as well as everyone else that no house built could pass the code to the letter. Do I always space the nails in edges of floor sheathing 6" or the field at 8", well no, mostly it's more, alot more. But this could be a violation, to many is sloppy and weakening. It could kick out an inspection. This guy was trying to make a point with me because my mason had an inspection turned down, and both these idiots threw fists over it.( it was something the inspector wanted but is not written code, and it cost the mason a day of pouring footers) The inspector started the fight, and he got whipped by a 70 year old bricklayer. I got his point, but this was MY work, not the masons. So I parked the bobcat beside the driveway, and loaded the house with all my crew and the siding crew. He came in and everyone strared him down, arms crossed, no smiles. He went over to the card, put the green sticker on, and left without even checking the bolts in the basement,said nice work to the boys, and have a nice weekend(it was friday). It worked with no damage to any tissue or trucks. My question is though, why do they have to prove there points by slowing down a job, and costing money? Was I right by intimidating him? No, but he was not right for the turndown on something that could be corrected before final, and was not needed before insulation. A simple "hey note" to say "do this before the final, I'll check it then." Power is a dangerous thing, it can get you hurt. I'm not some barbarian, who uses muscle to settle all problems, but I'll use it when that's all that will get the point across. Keith C
*Well Keith....you are a barbarian...be proud....Sharing a coffee and building without violating is not that hard to do...Only been in a bad situation once years ago when I was green...I don't expect another problem for the rest of my career...And it's just more fun to get along with em for me than to threaten them and then wonder how that may come back to haunt me...near the stream,ajNot pickin on ya...just disagreeing.
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- brick-layers and plasterers...gotta wicked right, or left depending on the trowel-arm. That's old- school, anyone ever see that movie Mac? It was about three Italian brothers that start a construction biz when the ol' man dies, My favorite scene was when they are lookin for a mason and they see a classic mason/hoddie riff on the job......after some cursing and throwin' sh!t, the hoddie storms off an the mason finishes the job himself....one brother says to the next" I think we found our brick-layer"......classic! Sonds to me like they were destined to meet up......
*A wee story about a personal experience with inspectors: When we built my sunroom addition, we had to get a variance from the town because my lot coverage tipped over the 33% requirted in this area (we went to 37%). During the variance meeting, it was pointed out by the town's bylaw officer that the plans showed an access door, but that it was 4' above ground and didn't go anywhere. The Four Season's architect turned to me and said: "What are you going to do there ?", I replied: "I guess I'll build a deck."; so, the architect took a pencil out of his pocket and drew a free-hand rectangle beside the sunroom and wrote in the words: "deck to built by home-owner at a later date". We got our building permit.About 8 months later the sunroom is finished and a building inspector shows up for final inspection to close the building permit. Not so fast he says, where's the deck ? I told him that I planned to build one the following summer, but hadn't quite decided what it will look like yet. "Yes you have" he replied, taking an architectural scaling ruler from his pocket, "it will be exactly {forgot number} wide and {forgot this too} long and will be within 7" in height below the door-sill as there are no steps shown". "If it's not completed within 1 year, I will null the variance and you will have to re-apply for a permit to build your sunroom."The following spring he dutifly showed up for the holes to pour the piers and later the support framing; then after demanding an inspection of the deck frame, he was off sick on the inspection day and another inspector came in his place. He asked why I wasn't building a bigger deck to better match the bulk of the sunroom; I told him about he previous inspector; he said a few unkind things about the other inspector's ancestry and left without ticking off compliance, but said he'd be in touch.After about a week I was getting worried and called the inspection department and asked for my usual inspector; they informed me that he no longer worked for the town; I asked about my permit and was informed that it had been closed as completed and in-compliance.My wife rides the bus with a lady whose husband works in the town's planning department and got the rest of the story: there had been a number of complaints about this inspector, but nothing was done; the second inspector that came to my home turned him in for what he did at our place and he was fired for "forgetting who he worked for". Bottom line, I don't think the towns want jerks for inspectors either.
*Same as in my case Phill as I posted above...We don't need jerks in society period.near the stream,aj
*I'm getting more pieces to my puzzle everyday also. Inspector was a bricklayer also, journeyman, lost his company in the early 80's. Hard on all the trades, especially masons. I think the straw that broke the camels back was when he demanded my mason trowel to poke at a cell in a block that he thought was not filled, but merely capped, and my mason threw the trowel about 20' away and said "you're not qualified to touch my trowel" then out came the inspectors fists, boom boom boom, inspector wimpers away to the truck. This was not a scheduled inspection, he was just stopping because he was driving by. Then started poking around. Man I just stood there with my jaw on the ground saying to myself" this CAN'T be good" PS. yes the cells were filled, to the top, with a #4 rebar top to bottom. Every 24" around the whole foundation, which in the back and down one side was 26 courses high.
*What about when the superintendant of the builder you work for thinks he is the inspector and tells you all kinds of stupid things he wants that have nothing to do with code?
*The golden rule? Um, he who has the gold makes the rules. (Unless I misinterpreted your situation.)
*Wow, Wood Doctor --You have an inspector who actually goes into crawl spaces? With the dirt and the spiders? When I had my building re-piped, the inspector didn't even look in the crawl space. I wish he had, because the ABS was sloped 1/4" per foot -- but in the wrong direction. Here in the big city, it looks like the main problem is not enough inspectors to really cover all the work.-- J.S.
*I have a great Inspector and I feel sorry for him. He works for a city with the most insane building rules you can imagine. City staff know that they are doing a great favor to let a property owner do anything so the first form they handout is a variance permit application. When the owner fills in the form the most attention is paid to the explaination of the unique hardship this site presents that requires a variance. If the proper humble attitude is displayed and sufficent documention presented of every attempt that was tried to resolve this without a variance then after paying a really large fee the item will be put on the agenda for a meeting sometime in the next month. Planning commision then gets the home owners so riled up they are ready to spit nails. they usally drag another few months out of the process. Once they have decided how they like your house,and a few more meetings roll by. Then the city council takes over and tells the home owner how, where, and what color the house. The poor architect redraws the building 10 times to make everyone happy. (meter running of course) at the final meeting, months and months later everyone decides if they should let him build it at all. They harass the poor home owner until he is ready to commit homecide. By this time the house doesn't look anything like what the owners wanted, but they might get a permit. Enter the poor inspector into this situation....
*Yeah, but the poor bastard building inspector still applied for the job, and had to have some experience with construction and inspectors in the past, so we can say he DEFINITELY knew what he was getting into right. I read in JLC that some in Colorado are waiting weeks to get inspections, and if they want they can pay an extra large fee to get bumped to the top of the list. I think I'd get a flamethrower at that point to get results, but hey...some think I can get a little extreme....I'm looking into help with the anger management situation. Keith C
*Reminds me of an inspector we had about 20 years back when I worked in the bowels of NYC:Said "I will not go into that crawl space" and held out his hand, expecting us to put in it some sort of compensation. We said "Then I guess you're done". So he left. Inpection complete and passed.There's just nothing like pride in one's job. Rich.
*Biker Party... in the Alternative Paper... and handbills at the Harley shop/Liquor Store, etc...Just hypothetical.
*Keith, two points to ponder.One, Inspectors are "overhead"... and no Jurisdiction will incur extra costs just because there's a "temporary" upswing in permits.So, there's a backlog.Two, the by-product of this is:a) A cooling effect on the building process, and a control of growth/sprawl/development without the whole legal process to changezoning, establish Conservation Districts, or have a "building moratorium".b) Graft and Corruption. As those few, who control the lives of the many, may exploit opportunity, as it's KNOCKING LOUDLY.This, of course is best handled by procecutions after the building boom slows, as it's in the best interest of the public to seek justice.Far better than to say... spend the same amount of money (spent on procecution) on another full or part-time inspector.Which, while perhaps lessening the opportunity for abuse of power, would speed the processes, and have none of the desired effects as detailed in (a).Go to the root of the problem, wether the Planning Board, or Town Council.
*Kieth, Sometimes life gets you into situations that you can't realisticly get out of. (He's not that far from a well deserved retirement) and as I've said, he is NOT the problem. You couldn't ask for a more co-operative inspector. When he looks at your work, it's with concern for a good job rather then any personel critism. He's careful to wonder by and make any suggestions before you get too deep into something so there is plenty of time to correct the problem before the inspection. He's friendly, smart, willing to listen, and explain. When I presented him with something he wasn't familar with instead of bluff and B.S. he asked for help ( from me) to show how what I wanted was correct. I know two sitations where he helped a home owner out. The first was when the owner was between a rock and a hard spot concerning bank finance and an inspection that he couldn't pass because of shortcomings. The guy explained the jam he was in and the inspector politely explained he just couldn't sign ....sign...a inspection form that was required.. Somehow the correct form fell out of the inspectors notebook and landed right at the feet of the owner while he (the inspector) stared off into space. Yeh, when the project was done one signature didn't look right, but no-one complained and everything was done right so what did it matter? The second involved me and I'd rather not go into it, thank-you Believe me, I know that not all inspectors are like that. I had one women inspector that showed her knowledge off by requireing 3/4 plywood walls be covered with 5/8ths firerock. Over that I had to put the vapor barrier. followed by that darn cement board siding. Reading her the UBC didn't do any good, logic nor were two well respected contractors able to change her mind. Got to give her credit, she had some pair of stones. all 5'3" of her stood there surrounded by three big guys speaking in loud voices and she never blinked once. She just said NO!..No!..NO!. and stared us all down. The worst one involevd another woman who required engineering drawings and signatures to replace the rafters that were rotted in my old house with larger rafters. her arguement was that the thicker rafter would weigh more and cause the roof to sag. UBC, Lumberyard tables, and a architect's phone call weren't enough... No signature by an engineer and I couldn't pull a permit. Got around it by a fake drawing. Took me a whole weekend to do.
*Take in specifications by the apa and the inspecter says " nope need an engeneers stamp. said the city atourney worryed about liability. about to go in third time with a set of plans to solve our space problems. for fairness if the city is so worried about liability is ballance the scales. make them prove it won't stand before a court of 3 engeneers one of yours one of theres and one indipendant. by unamous agreement if the city wins you pay the fees and cost of the home owner wins the city pays twice and the inspecter pays once more to the home owner.
*After finding that it was going to cost $5-7,000.00 to have the utility company come in and install an electric pole for me, (200 watt), and right about the same for any contractor to do the same... I decided to do it myself. Roughly $1,300.00 later I was finished. Bought a pole. Had to dig the hole, lay the pole beside the hole, and wait for 3 weeks for an inspector to come by and give an ok to put the pole in the hole.Then installed all the equipment on the pole. I had to put on a 200 watt breaker box with meter plug. The mast and wires, etc. Had to install a 15 amp gfci at the pole. Etc. It's officialy an RV pole, but now that it is in, they said there is no problem with running undrgound from it to a new breaker box in the cabin. I found that out before I started and that was the reason I decided on an RV pole instead of a temporary. When everything was ready and done according to the code instructions I was given... I waited another 3 weeks for a final, before they would come and strike the pole for me. I failed the final. Reason... the guy said that I had to replace the gfci box and it's bubble with all-metal, plus had to add solid blocking support for it. This was not code, and he said as much, but said that the inspection would not go through unless I complied. I Flipped him off (When he was out of sight, of course. I still wanted to pass. LOL) then called his office to ask for suggestions on how I should do what he had asked. He returned my call later and was nice enough to tell me where I could buy the materials, (Not available at any big-box, etc.), plus explain exactly what he meant by the extra bracing.Went out the next morning to do the job correctly. The box I had installed according to code was dangling from it's wires. There was black sticky hair all over it and all over the lower portion of the meter box. The local black bear had used it for a scratching post. When I was finished that day I called for another inspection. When the inspector returned in a couple days, he told me that he had seen the hair before, and that was why he had insisted on the extra strength, etc.
*So that's why some of those code items are there; lions and tigers and bears!Who woulda thunk it?
*LOLI have a lion (puma, mountain lion), and a bear. If I ever see a tiger, I'm outta here. Those things think people are food !!!
*Uh, Luka -- I may have to borrow your puma. I've heard the inspectors in my county are right ornery about getting inspections done -- on their own time. I've put off building a porch and pergola due to the horror stories of inspectors. Shiver!
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Let's say , hypothetical of course, that when the inspector went in the house to give a structural inspection, that his truck got flipped on it's roof by a Bobcat that was convienently parked running beside the driveway when he arrived. When he came out, his truck was on it's roof, the Bobcat is in it's original position(not running)and no one is around. What is the worst that could happen to the contractor? This would be the second structural, after a turndown for no bolts in a post to I-beam connection in a basement(could be checked on the final with an ok to insulate in the meantime costing the contractor at least 2 days of lost time and the subs a delay as well) JUST WONDERING?