City inspectors

[Kevin]

The kitchen remodeling is coming along just fine. They finished up the electrical work and the city inspector came by this morning.

I should have timed him, but he spent less than 3 minutes inside the house. He walked back to the garage, saw the new sub panel and left. He didn't touch anything at all.

The contractors we are using are reputable and I do have faith in them that they are doing a good job and not cutting any corners, but I am left with zero faith in th city.

Shouldn't his job as an inspector be to protect a homeowner against shady contractors who don't do work which meets basic building codes? Or is that simply asking too much?

 

[gramps]

The inspector knows who is doing your work. There are only a few places that a screw up occurs (junction boxes). He checked those places, and left. IMO
gramps

 

[coach]

An experienced inspector should be able to tell fairly quickly if the installation is done correctly. Residential work isn't that complicated. A contractor and reputation they are familiar with counts for a lot too.

 

[jgt]

Don't get me started on city electrical inspector. As a retired electrician I can recall countless examples of the inspection process being incompetent or downright illegal. The only thing worse is no inspection process at all.

 

[Dave P.]

Shouldn't his job as an inspector be to protect a homeowner against shady contractors who don't do work which meets basic building codes? Or is that simply asking too much?

Maybe if you live in Utopia.
Locally the inspection and permit departments exist mostly to extort additional fees/taxes
from their subjects.
Some .... "inspectors" ....are dumb enough the TSA wouldn't hire them.
Dave

 

[Kevin]

I did happen to think the inspector might know the contractors and which are better than others.

A friend of mine who lives in another town, not Dallas, remodeled his house last year. They didn't get a permit for any of the work. Why? There is no fine, he would simply have had to go down to city hall and buy the permit. I suppose then he also did not have any inspections. I'll have to ask the next time I see him.

The permit in Dallas was right around $2000 for this work we are doing.

 

[Fox Mike]

Stupid 'regulations' also can be involved. A case in point is my garage vs my next door neighbor's garage. We bought them the same week from the same maufacturer. They are basically identical. I installed mine on crusher run; my neighbor put his on a concrete pad. He needed a permit as his was considered a "permanent structure" since it was on a solid foundation. I didn't need a permit as mine was considered a "temporary structure" since it was not on a solid foundation.

 

[Jeepnik]

Inspectors are a necessary evil. You get good ones, you get bad ones (don't stand for a bad one, report them).

What bugs me is that they really nitpick the DIY'er. Many of us can and in fact because it's ours, do a better job than many pro's.

What I've seen fairly frequently is homeowners actually over building things.

My home had old two wire (no ground) when I bought it. Some circuits had very small breaker, as well. And my panel had no main disconnect.

The last is primarily what motivated me to install a new panel. I now have a much larger service. Better wiring (by nature of it being much more "modern"), modern circuit breakers. In short a very robust safe and efficient wiring system.

So, even though I bought top of the line panel, wiring outlets etc. And it is real obvious at even a casual glance the workmanship showed attention to detail, the inspector looked in every nook and cranny.

When he signed of and congratulated me on how well done it was I took the paper and thanked him for wasting, literally, hours of my time.

I work on systems daily that business owners have their own people install. A quick look at the power connections is all I need to know the quality of the work.

I've worked on large buildings where journeyman union electricians have done the job and found gross errors. Green does not mean put the go juice on that line. Yet the inspector completely missed it. Why, because a pro did it and he didn't even look.

Okay, I'm done, but this is one of my buttons.

 

[WAYNO]

I was an industrial Fire Chief, pipefitter, plumber, and sprinkler fitter for many years. I dealt with contractors, and I dealt with inspectors. The inspectors I dealt with regularly learned to trust my work, and inspections were quick and simple. Not so much with inspectors that did not yet know me, or with contractors that were not yet trusted by the inspectors.

 

[32shooter]

We have no electrical inspectors in the county I reside in and everything seems to work just fine.

 

[Pierow]

Inspectors are a necessary evil. You get good ones, you get bad ones (don't stand for a bad one, report them).

Jeepnik,

If one were to report all the bad or more precisely corrupt inspectors in Cook County Illinois, one would never build or re-model anything in the city of Chicago.

As a matter of helping a client settle an estate, I assisted in the updating of his deceased mother's home in Chicago. We had to pay a guy who knows the system in order to pay other guys before our paperwork would even be looked at. A pre-bribe then the primary bribe then the "can you come and please inspect our work" bribe and on and on.

Hey, at least we put our politicians in jail right?

Pierow

 

[BearBio]

Had two new ceiling fans installed (heaters, lights & fans) in the bathroom. Inspector looked at it-knew what I had done and what the electrician had done; said it looked like I knew what I was doing (simple stuff=moved the bathroom light and put a junction box in & changed some switches). Signed off. Took 15-20 minutes.

 

[pisgah]

Inspections are a complete joke. As a Court Reporter I have handled scores of disciplinary hearings at our State Builders Commission involving homeowners' complaints against builders, roofers, plumbers, electricians, etc.. Some of the things these people have done are hair-raising and nowhere near being in compliance with Code -- yet, in nearly every case the city and county inspectors have passed the work. Of course, the property owners have legal recourse against the licensed contractors -- but absolutely none against the inspectors.

 

[RoninPA]

When I had my garage built I did all the wiring and the sub panel. Inspector came out, glanced around (everything was still exposed) and asked if Earl Smith did the wiring. I told him no, why? He said he knew the way Mr. Smith did wiring and this looked real close to being exactly the same, in the sub panel and the way the wiring was run. Told him that Earl Smith was my uncle and I learned from him. He didn't look any further, said everything looked fine, signed off and left. Guess I learned okay.

 

[Kevin]

And then home inspectors! They are even worse When we bought our house, the home inspector said it was (is) a good house without any real issues.

What a joke that was. We've done a few upgrades and with each upgrade we had to do more to bring the house up to the current code. We bought the house 5 years ago so it's not like the codes have changed.

 

[Kevin]

And I'm glad to see my feelings for inspectors aren't off base.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Before Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, The "inspectors" would pull up to the curb, never leave their vehicle and sign all the documents handed them (along with some cash). That's the reason so many homes suffered so much damage. People I knew said you could look up at the roof trusses from the attic and see how many nails in the plywood MISSED the Trusses, the Roofs were NOT properly fastened down to the walls which is another reason so many blew off. Of course these were the same contractor that were using the CHEAP Chinese sheet rock with all of its problems.

 

[jimd441]

Hey Kevin,

I too am having a major kitchen remodel going on right now. The issue where I live is the opposite of your situation. I live in a small town where the inspector was fired from a larger city for enforcing his own set of standards. For example, during a kitchen remodel he has been known to walk into an adjacent room and note that light bulbs are not LED's and fail the inspection, which is legally out of the scope of his inspection. Fortunately, my contractor is skilled in managing him and assured me he will not be trolling my house.

Jim

 

[Kevin]

The A/C inspector is supposed to come over today. It will be interesting to see if he actually even goes up into the attic space to look at the work or just sort of glance at it from below.

We had a vaulted ceiling installed and had to re-route the ac duct work and install a couple new vents and move the returns etc.

 

[Kevin]

The AC inspector came over just now. Some big fat guy, shirt all disheveled and looked rather annoyed.

Total time inside my house? 2 minutes 20 seconds. I timed him with a stopwatch. He did not go up into the attic space and look at the quality of work up close. He saw they moved two new vents (really it was 5 vents and two returns) and said "ok."

I'm not very happy right now. Some lazy city employee who can't or doesn't want to do his job properly is an annoyance.

 

[Taterman]

Jeepnik,

If one were to report all the bad or more precisely corrupt inspectors in Cook County Illinois, one would never build or re-model anything in the city of Chicago.

As a matter of helping a client settle an estate, I assisted in the updating of his deceased mother's home in Chicago. We had to pay a guy who knows the system in order to pay other guys before our paperwork would even be looked at. A pre-bribe then the primary bribe then the "can you come and please inspect our work" bribe and on and on.

Hey, at least we put our politicians in jail right?

Pierow

I've experienced similar as a union electrician in Crook County for 15 years. Reporting an inspector will do nothing but cause you more problems around here.

 

[Kevin]

We lived in Palatine for 4 years, my favorite news story was about the Chicago city water department. The leader of that organization had a new house built, and then years later it was found out he never had a water meter installed, in effect, not having a water bill for years. His reply was something along the lines of he didn't know about it since he didn't build the house himself.

 

[powder smoke]

OP stated;
Shouldn't his job as an inspector be to protect a homeowner against shady contractors who don't do work which meets basic building codes? Or is that simply asking too much?

Short answer YES!

Been in the Building Trades for all my adult life.
The inspectors know all the contractors in his area, and know what kind of work they do!
A Contractor earns trust with suppliers as well as inspectors seeing the inspector
was not concerned rest assured you have good people on your site.
Someone who the inspector is not familiar with will get more scrutiny and he'll
spend more time looking things over. At least that is my experience. ps

 

[dougader]

I had to hire an attorney to get after Portland inspectors.... over a darn fence! I swear, if it was in the 40's someone would have chased them off the property with dogs and buckshot.

 

[gramps]

My boss built a large barn of cedar, with cooper roof and trim on a thick concrete base for weddings, reunions etc. then the County found out he had it, and sent some guy out who had no degree ( my boss has an degree in architecture), who stated the building was unsound, needed to be torn down and rebuilt. That inspection cost $2,000. Boss called city hall and requested an second opinion - another $2,000, a new inspection, and voila! Everything was a ok? Sheesh.
gramps

 

[Taterman]

We lived in Palatine for 4 years, my favorite news story was about the Chicago city water department. The leader of that organization had a new house built, and then years later it was found out he never had a water meter installed, in effect, not having a water bill for years. His reply was something along the lines of he didn't know about it since he didn't build the house himself.

Small world. I lived in Barrington, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates... now a bit further west.

 

[Kevin]

Taterman:
As much as I didn't like the FOID cards and all the bad mouthing of Illinois gun laws I do have to say some of the best guns stores were right there in Illinois. GAT Guns for one. I had to drive down to Peoria to get my Cooper rifle from another great mom and pop gun shop. And I really liked Barrington, it's a nice little town.

Oh and back to city inspectors. Dallas REQUIRES an "environmental inspection" BUT!!! They don't have environmental inspectors, so contractors have to go hire a third party inspection company. What a joke!

 

[Taterman]

Taterman:
As much as I didn't like the FOID cards and all the bad mouthing of Illinois gun laws I do have to say some of the best guns stores were right there in Illinois. GAT Guns for one. I had to drive down to Peoria to get my Cooper rifle from another great mom and pop gun shop. And I really liked Barrington, it's a nice little town.

Oh and back to city inspectors. Dallas REQUIRES an "environmental inspection" BUT!!! They don't have environmental inspectors, so contractors have to go hire a third party inspection company. What a joke!

WOW! I live near GAT Guns, and bought my 10/22 and shotgun from them 25+ years ago. They expanded several years ago too. Much much larger.

 

[Pierow]

Taterman:
As much as I didn't like the FOID cards and all the bad mouthing of Illinois gun laws I do have to say some of the best guns stores were right there in Illinois. GAT Guns for one. I had to drive down to Peoria to get my Cooper rifle from another great mom and pop gun shop. And I really liked Barrington, it's a nice little town.

Oh and back to city inspectors. Dallas REQUIRES an "environmental inspection" BUT!!! They don't have environmental inspectors, so contractors have to go hire a third party inspection company. What a joke!

WOW! I live near GAT Guns, and bought my 10/22 and shotgun from them 25+ years ago. They expanded several years ago too. Much much larger.

Door to door I'm about 10 minutes away from GATT. Thirty-five years ago it was a restaurant with a train theme (you could eat inside box cars) and went there for prom. It was an awesome memory because my date was pissed (stepped on her foot when dancing) then my buddy, eating enormous ribs lost grip and like a watermelon seed shot it across the table landing and falling down the chest of his date which was my dates sister. Calamity can be fun.

Oh, back to inspectors..................Illinois is corrupt

Pierow

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

I've got good and bad stories about inspectors, too. This thread and today's app't book remind me of one from a client some of you in the trades will certainly enjoy:

The gentleman I'll be seeing later today was in construction for decades. One city he did a lot of work in had "one of those" inspectors who was just an absolute PITA. A dirty fingerprint on an electrical box that's soon gonna be covered by drywall and a cover plate would cause a problem with him... yeah, "one of those" guys. Many of the cities around here no longer have their own in house inspection depts, so they hire people from some kind of a "rent an inspector" company. This fella was a "rental."

After a number of complaints from the contractor, the inspector got transferred to another city and my client said there was a cheer on his job site when that news hit. As it turns out, the client's company was doing work in the new city, and guess who they got? Client got a call from one of the guys on that job, telling him the bad news, plus some good to go along with it. Bad news: inspector had irritated a couple of the electricians--guys with a reputation in the company for their top notch work--really badly. More bad news (for the inspector, at least): it was a multi-story building.

Good news? After he'd given those two electricians yet another hard time, on one of the top floors which was still wide open to the world below, they grabbed him by his wrists, picked him up, and dangled him over the edge long enough to get his attention, as in "We will NOT have any more trouble with you, right?" Before they pulled him back in, everyone on the job site knew what was going on and was watching. The two electricians pulled him back in and sent him packing. He left to a huge cheer from the entire crew.

That was the last day anyone ever saw that guy on a construction site...

Rick C