I Can Laugh About It Now

klucrezi

Was reading some posts and was reminded of the electrical inspector on my house. Sorta long story.
I wired my own house to save some money but hired our electrician for a few days to get me started and to insure I was following the codes. He told me that our old inspector retired and the new guy is a bit "funny". I spent a month wiring, (its a 4000 sq two story) I went a bit nuts, puting multi media every where. The house looked like a friggin space ship, and I was a bit nervous about the inspection. The inspector shows up and I have two dogs, (a puppy, and an old three leged toothless dog who used to chase cars), who run out to "greet" him. They bark like all dogs do, and I notice he isnt getting out of the car. I went out to tell him to ignore the dogs and he tells me that if I want an inspection I need to lock the dogs up. I knew right there this was going to go badly. So I lock up the dogs, and he comes in. He stands in the foyer looking around for a minute or so and says, "when I come back I want to see" now I really know things are going bad. He was there for over an hour and picked the job apart. He called me on stuff my electrician did. I talked to my electrician buddy and he told me that there are things that code says that know one does because its trivial. Things like, the romex needs 3/4 inch of insulation left inside the box. No more, no less. There were many little things that he didnt like that had to be redone. So I redid his list and called to schedule the inpection. I felt comfortable passing so I scheduled my insulator for the next day. My insulator called me the night before the inspection and told me he had a cancellation and he could start mine after lunch. The same day as the electrical inspection. I figure the inspector will be done by then so I say ok. Well the insulator showed up at 6am, and had alot done before I got there. They had most of the down stairs done by the time the inspector showed up.Most of the corrections were inside the boxes any way so I thought it would be ok. I fiqured I would pull the insulation back for him where the other items needed to be reinspected. Well the inspector wasnt happy to say the least. After telling me all the things he could do, I offerd to pull the insulation so he could see. He agreed to have a guy pull what needed to be reinspected and he passed me, but not with out an earfull on how electrical work may be legal to be performed by the home owner but should be left up to the professionals. Of all things he called me on only one was a safety issue, the rest was stuff that I thought could be done after drywall, including things like the alarm in the septic tank. The fact that the house was overwired didnt count for anything. My electrician agreed the house was over kill. I have every room on its own circuit. All outlets are 20 amp 12 gauge, every room has its own lighting circuit with 15 amp 14 guage. I have 5 seperate circuits for the kitchen, Every bedroom has a isolated ground circuit for the computers, There are three entertainment areas with isolated grounds, The house is a very open floor plan so I have three and four way light switches everywhere. Like I said its a mountain of wire. I built all the exterior walls with double 2x4 so I have a 7 inch bay for insulation, its a sound wall design, and it allowed me to make swiss cheese of the framing without compromising the integrity. So the cartoon of the deceased inspector with the carpenters standing around not seeing anything is understandable.

nap

the only thing I have a problem with is you being miffed because the insopector insisted on having the dogs penned. I have run across too may dogs where the owner says, somewhere in life," well I'll be. Old Yeller has never bitten anybody before. I don;t know what got into him"

always always always pen the animals when a stranger comes over and could be in contact with the dogs.


as to overkill? Maybe but not bad. I actually like a lot of what you did.

One thing that helps an inspector be comfortable with a homeowners work is a very neat, tidy, and detailed job. If your ran your cable and wire in a extremely neat (like in anal level) manner, they tend to become slightly impressed and that often helps them trust what they can't see a bit more. You have to understand, when an inspector looks at my work, we chat and talk about things that have happened since the last job I saw him on and the hundreds before that. He has learned he can trust my work. A homeowner is usually a one time customer and the inspector has no idea what you know and don;t know so he has to look much closer at your work than mine to be comfortable with giving you a green tag.

Your electrician needs to get his butt kicked. That is poor reasoning to not follow the code. Who determines what is trivial and not needed.

btw; I have seen inspectors require sheetrock to be removed so he could inspect because the rockers got stupid. He has that right, that authority, and that duty to inspect as he sees fit.

Magnettica

Nonsense. The NEC calls for a minimum of 1/4" of sheathing in the box, not 3/4".

WarnerConstInc.

My towns Building inspector stopped by when I was deciphering the spagehtti nightmare of JB's in my basment, while re-wiring my kitchen. He stopped to see if I had a piece of composite decking for something or other, walks in looks around and says, "Well, I dont need to hold your hand, see ya Sunday for a few beers!"

You guys can yell all you want at me, but damn its great to live in a small town and have that kind of reputation with the building inspector after 4 years or so. Trust me, he beats on the guys that shouldn't be doing what they are. Actually he goes and stops it, and when they come into the building Department he tries to explain somethings to them to help them do it right and safe.

I dont think I could handle a big city invironment.

klucrezi

I tried to find the 3/4 and couldn't. I was told its a local code and wasn't enforced. Like nap commented, the electricians get to know the inspectors and the inspectors get to know the electricians work, I know the old inspector would ask who the electrican was and certain guys never had there work looked at. Its that way with all the trades. In fact now that the work load is less the inspectors actually walk around and chat. Before they had such a overload of work they would blow through. Right or wrong its a fact that happens more than you think.

Magnettica

It's in there. I'll look it up in the morning and post the proper article.

Ivinni

Punctuationion and spaces between paragraphs

__________________
its not going to get better with straps, or new footings or even aroma therapy.

Magnettica

klucrezi -- see NEC 2005 314.17 (C)

nap

what about a metal box Mag. 314.17(C) is nonmetallic boxes


just yanking your chain. That would be 314.17 (B)

Dan V.

I'm in a very similar situation here. My town is only about 5,000 residents. We're on our 3rd inspector since I've lived here and the first inspection the latest guy had to do was one of mine. It was a deck footing inspection. I am also the Chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission. The guy came out, shook my hand, stuck a tape down 1 of 12 holes, and gave me the green light.

I always build to code anyway, but I couldn't help but be amused.

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