Building Inspector Pulls A Fast One - Room Additions
It doesn't really matter, whether you're building a new
house, remodeling an old one or putting a room addition on, building
inspectors can create problems for you, especially if you're trying to
do the best job possible.
I was building a room addition near my house, when I had just finished
forming the room additions foundation. It was now time to call the
building department to schedule an inspection. The inspection was
scheduled for the next day and I had everything installed correctly,
like usual. I rarely had problems getting my inspections past the first
time.
The inspector arrived around 10 o'clock in the morning and he didn't
look like he was in a very good mood. This never seemed to bother me,
because every building inspector that I dealt with, had a different
personality and I never knew how they were going to react to mine. I
always like kidding around and this usually creates problems for
inspectors that are serious about their job.
The building inspector spent about 45 minutes looking at the project and
this was unusual, because it was probably about a 10 minute inspection.
I knew that I was in trouble, because I had installed everything
correctly and this particular building inspector wanted to find
something wrong, so that he could fail the inspection.
He kept asking me questions and I kept answering his questions and I
could tell that it was irritating him, that I was effortlessly answering
them. Even though he couldn't find anything wrong, he told me that I
might have problems with my soil and was going to need a soil's report,
before I could pour the concrete.
I told him that the city building department didn't require a soil's
report for this particular area and the size of the room addition. This
didn't seem to matter to him, because I had somehow rubbed him the wrong
way and he was going to see to it, that I didn't pour that concrete slab
until I had a soil's report.
I went down to the city building department and they told me that the
building inspector could actually request a soil's report and I was
going to need one, before I could pour my concrete.
These are the kinds of problems that contractors and developers run into
on a regular basis, with city building departments and their inspectors.
This contractor pulled a fast one on me and it cost me quite a bit of
money and time.
I'm sharing this story with you, so that you know what to expect,
sometimes while you're remodeling or constructing a home. Even if you
have everything built correctly, a building inspector that isn't in a
good mood or as having other problems, can make your life miserable.