Arrogant Building Inspector Changes His Attitude
If you have ever had to deal with a building inspector
that isn't in a good mood, going through a divorce, having problems with
their children or in general an extremely arrogant person, you might
find this story interesting. If you haven't, you're definitely going to
find this story interesting.
I was remodeling a recreation center for an apartment complex that I was
working on, but I wasn't ready to call the building inspector yet. The
building inspector decided to show up unannounced one day and introduced
himself to me.
I could tell that this building inspector was pretty full of himself and
for whatever reason, wanted to show me how intelligent he was. Before I
could blink, he was telling me about all of the structural reinforcing
hardware that would need to be installed, before he would pass the
inspection.
I could hardly get a word in edgewise, but finally did. I told him that
I was only going to do what was required by the structural engineer and
architect. The building plans had already been approved by the building
department that this particular individual worked for.
This didn't work out like I had planned. The building inspector said a
couple of more things to me that I'm not allowed to write in the story
or even repeat to anyone else. I went in to the superintendent's office
and told him what had happened, so that he would be prepared in the
future. He reassured me that this building inspector wouldn't be a
problem and to continue on with my work.
When the dreaded day finally arrived to get my building framing
inspection, I was instructed to be somewhere else. The superintendent
said that he would take care of the framing inspection himself. I was
expecting the worst and had been in this situation before, but to my
surprise, the inspection passed. I couldn't help it, I needed to ask the
superintendent about what had happened.
How did you get the building inspector to change his ways and thinking?
He told me about the day that I came into his office, complaining about
the unnecessary building inspector’s requests and the fact that I didn't
think this was fair to me or the owners of the project.
He contacted the owners of this extremely large apartment complex and
they called the mayor of the city and told them about what had happened.
They told the mayor that they wouldn't be interested in remodeling any
more old rundown apartment complexes if this was going to be how things
worked.
The mayor assured them that this would never happen again and it didn't.
It wasn't long before this particular building inspector was my best
friend. Sometimes we really don't know how things are going to work out
or what causes certain people to change their minds, but we definitely
know what changed this building inspector's mind.