"rck" wrote in message
link.net...
They did this in a county in Kentucky and afterward the homeowner could no
longer do a quality job himself. Instead he had to accept sub-standard
work
from protected contractors who had little incentive to do a good job. It
is
good to have the pro's in competition with the homeowner, it keeps the
pro's
on their toes doing a good job. Many codes are not about quality, they are
about protecting the financial interests of selected groups. I think you
already surmised as much.

I am not a contractor and it will affect me because I own/maintain a few
apartments in PA. I think it is too much government interfearence. But I
don't agree that all homeowners know their limitations and are capable of
doing a quality job. There were 2 serious deck failures in my area last
year. One created a quadraplegic. Both were because the ledger board was not
correctly attached. They how about the guy who set a complex on fire (with
fatalities) because he didn't understand combustible clearance requirements
when installing a wood stove. How do you address this?