On Wed, 27 May 2015 05:14:53 -0700, trader_4 wrote:

...snip....
I also know of a whole condo complex that was built with just
a shovel of concrete thrown under supporting posts for deck footers.
And that was inspected...... Some years later, the FBI arrested
the mayor and found $50K in his attic, which gives you an idea
of what was going on.....

That's just sad. In San Jose, CA downtown area is a 'short' bank building,
near Taylor and 1st Street. Architecture is just NOT right. The story
behind it is that a well-known builder/developer, who shall remain
nameless, just started building it! Got the first story done and FINALLY
someone in the city permit department stopped the building process. The
builder wanted six stories, but only got one, so the building has a
strange look to it.

Same builder on a VERY large building did not have proper drains in his
planning, so he told one of the workers to just chop a hole between
parking floors to let the water drain down through !! , several floors.
Even that employee knew better.

I once went to City Council meeting whhere this builder was obtaining huge
residential building construction, six buildings of four stories each. The
plans of each 'residence' he presented to the Council showed really nice
floor plans, with even a 'Den' for the resident's home office. And of
course a pool to service the large complex. Being an Engineer, I started
scaling the drawings to see what each 'home' would look like and found the
Den was approximately 7 ft by 7 ft !!! I have walk-in closets bigger than
that. EVERYTHING was scaled to be tiny!

Oh, well, the complex was built, but of course no pool, the pool was in
the plans to get the site approved. No intention of building it there
because there was a municipal swimming pool soon to be built two blocks
away, so why bother? The residence can WALK to the city's public pool, the
exercise will be good for them, eh?