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aemeijers aemeijers is offline
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Default Don't upset the inspector

wrote:
On Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:36:47 -0500, "DanG" wrote:

(snip)

Have you talked to them and figured out what a permit entails.
Hopefully they will just double the permit fees (or whatever the
regular spanking they do) and inspect what you have but some places
(Florida in particular) will want engineered plans with raised seal
and are generally a pain in the ass if you try to draw them yourself
(I am in that quagmire as we speak)
I have just about decided to abandon the project and live with what I
have after about $500 in bureacratic bull**** without moving a shovel
of dirt. They still want "one more piece of paper" as they did in my
last 5 trips downtown.
Worst case is they will fail your foundation or something and you will
be tearing it down or doing serious remedial repairs to make them
happy. Again you may need an engineer.

Rueful chuckle. About 15 years ago, my father (a residential designer of
40-some years experience at the time) tried to set up shop in Hartford,
CT, to be near his new-at-time grandkids up the road in central MA. He
found the permitting and approval process in both CT and MA to be so
onerous, that he could not get enough work to get by, and had to move
back to Louisiana (where he had had a thriving practice) within a couple
of years. It is pretty much a guild situation around there- they wanted
AIA and/or certified engineer stamps for the most trivial of remodeling
projects. Getting something stamped basically required the customer to
pay for the work twice- once for him to do the design (which the
customers always liked- he is good at what he does)- and then again for
someone with a stamp to look over and approve his plans. Guess what
priority reviewing 'outside' designs has in most design/engineering
shops? The time delays and added costs just made the whole thing
unworkable as a business model, which was pretty clearly what the locals
wanted. Do it all Their Way, or don't do it.

He went back down to Louisiana, which is thankfully less civilized, and
now, at the age of 81 (and half blind) still has more work than he can
handle designing mansions for rich doctors.

--
aem sends...