Lew Hodgett writes:

Your tale reminds me of my first supervisor, a brilliant engineer who
designed and built his own home.

snip of lead in

This was not a knob and tube job since my supervisor did the work.

This obviously raised a red flag, but so be it.

As the story was related to me, my supervisor so totally overwhelmed the
inspector with information that it was unnecessary to baffle him with
bull****.

Today, in locals with good building inspection departments, a PE can sign off
on almost any building job and the inspector will OK it. Depends on the locale
and its rules whether or not the inspector has any options, but in many, he (or
she) is simply considered outranked, I guess.

Personally, I've seen PEs design things that are wondrous to behold and work
perfectly. And the next guy up designs something I wouldn't let my neighbor's
cats live in. But mostly they end up signing off on truss designs for site
built items, etc., at least in residential and light agricultural construction,
which is all I am familiar with.

Charlie Self
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the
people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." Thomas Jefferson

Wes Stewart writes:
On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 20:50:32 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)

|Oops. Instant fire code violation. There are reasons that the garage
|must (per NFPA codes) have:
|
| 1) 5/8" or thicker fire-rated drywall between garage and
| living areas.

Done. 5/8 FC on the garage side, 3/4" (1/2 + 1/4) on the house side.

| 2) Fire-rated, self-closing door(s) between living areas and garage and

Done.

| 3) No openings between garage and living areas, especially ductwork
| which can carry both fire and fumes from the garage into the living
| areas.

Not quite what I was told. I should have added that the SOB inspector
would have allowed thicker sheet metal ductwork and a fire operated
damper on the laundry side. This was way too much hassle and expense
for the limited use I would have made of it.

Which was why I didn't mention it in (3). Typically only used in
commercial and industrial settings.


My main bitch was that I wasted a coupla hundred bucks on sheetmetal
and compromised the cooling in the shop by not optimally locating the
cooler because of the screwed up inspection department.

Yes. Someone goofed if they told you the ductwork was ok without
the fire damper.


I should have just bribed them like the developers do and been done
with it.

Is it worth the risks (both to life and property as well as your ability
to go where you want, when you want)?

scott