Jim Baird

Before it was so easy to pick up a phone and order some trusses or maybe a glue lam beam the site carpenter had to make long spans somehow, so he did it this way. Have been seeing these in brick ranches lately. Anybody else here?

I appreciate the replies. It's what makes this forum better than the other ones. I see my role here as an advocate, just like a lawyer that takes a stand based on a certain rationale. I have seen lots of little nestlike cubbies in ag type buildings in this county that were just called barns or whatever. OP erred saying permit was still active. It was done and signed off as the letter points out. When you say negative, Bill, do you mean AHJ won vs individual? In this case AHJ is off base by demanding permit yet refusing to inspect as its part of permit process. I think their standing in terms of written policy is really shaky. Land use regs will always be contentious.

...who dat? If corporations are people I guess households can be too.

I could not certify the building for a house. AHJ is being goofy, charging owner with have changed permitted use and therefore due to permit as residential, but AHJ refuses to inspect any existing buildings, which leaves them a little short on service. Don't see how they could charge for permit and refuse to inspect. Here is the letter I issued him, told him to swing it like a stick at Magistrate's. Jim Baird Inspection Services Jim Baird • 584 Hawksview Dr., • Comer, Ga. 30629 • Phone 706 783 5568 Inspection Report November 06, 2017 At the owner’s request I visited the subject property the morning of November 06, 2017, to inspect part of a building. The building was a multi-purpose agricultural building, permitted, inspected, and certified for occupancy of the permitted use. The original building layout included buried plumbing systems for bath and utility locations, and included service installation of a 200 ampere service. After its occupancy under its use, the utility space was fitted with amenities to make the occupancy more accessible through the duration of time and weather. Back in the day, when it was so desirable to have a space in the ag setting where an occupant could bathe, prepare meals, and rest without leaving the property, it was called a “break area”, where the sweated brow might find some relief. In such light the enhanced use of the multi-purpose space’s availability only more fully expresses the permitted use. My inspection found a well made habitable space that missed the mark on some code requirements for a dwelling space like a house, where all the building is put to residential use. As part of a building made for the multiple purposes of agricultural needs the so-called dwelling space is not intended for permanent dwelling use. It could be called the “comfort zone” of a barn. Inspection for Martin (Continued) The owner showed me his documents on the septic system installation. The plumbing, electric, and heating work was done by licensed practitioners. It is a clean and well done rest area. You can even do laundry there. I don’t think it is fair, however, given its location on the site of a working agricultural operation, to describe the building as a “dwelling”. Sincerely, Jim Baird Certified Inspector

Thanks for the replies. I preached the gospel of separation to the owner/occupant, whose use of this space is to be temporary. Remaining space is in fact not a garage but a multi-purpose work space associated with ag use. (It replaces a DWMH that was there and was sold and moved, so there isn't a zoning issue as to number of dwellings per parcel. Owner would rather not jacket the party walls with drywall to satisfy IRC garage separation, which actually is not included among rated wall assemblies from IBC. Local AHJ has a policy (a strange one IMHO) of not inspecting anything existing. I will just visit, write about what was done, and bill by the hour. I will call it "habitable space" to punt the labeling of the building down the road.

I know most here inspect existing buildings mostly, as do I, but sometimes I inspect new work. I live in an area that is sparsely populated and mostly agricultural use, but is covered by standard codes and a fairly standard zoning regimen. Sometimes use, which is classified in our state by NFPA 101 Life Safety, clashes with ICC codes. Life safety does not address separation of uses, but it does define them. ICC codes do address rated construction but do not define use (in our state anyway). I have a client who has added habitable space to an agricultural use building. The local AHJ has refused to "sign off" on the habitable space because it is regarded as outside the use category of the building (a "shop" space associated with a chicken farm). Because the habitable space was only noticed by the AHJ after it was completed, yet still under permit for the ag use, they want the owner to hire me to conduct an inspection of the habitable space. I am fine with that, but I have to tread the tightwire of description by not calling the space a "dwelling" to avoid use issues. I also want to avoid separation issues that the ICC would call for if the dwelling were to be attached to a "garage". Does anyone here do deal with new work have to do this kind of hopscotch?

As an amateur grammarian I don't get it either. I do have subject verb number agreement, and one person household is a modern entity, so I don't know why a householder should be denied the use of "I". After all, in modern America corporations are regarded as individuals, with all the rights, but none of the accountability, (like jail time), that individuals have to bear. We all fell for the idea that the phone company owned all the equipment and owed us rent for the clumsy corded product they provided, until competition and the angelic free market reared its ugly head in court, where it struck a victory (in its estimation) for the people's benefit by delivering the benefits of competition.

As a rare household that still has a landline phone I lose a cordless phone adapter every cpl of yrs when lightning strikes nearby. Would this kind of protector save the adapter? It is plugged into one of those cheap surge strips.

Our POCO is quite notorious for its boondoggles, especially in nuc power generation. They are years behind and more than double their budget on a new set of reactors. Their contractor for the project went bankrupt, yet our state public service commission keeps granting them rate increases and continues to let them bill customers for reactors yet to be finished and put on line. I see their "offer" as another way for them to scrape up some money from somewhere. Re the rental idea our internet service provider started "leasing" their modems at 10 bucks a month, which forced me to give theirs back to them and buy my own for about forty bucks.

Local POCO sends out brochures offering install of whole house surge protectors. They want 10 bucks a month for the rest of your life. Anyone here have experience with this kind of thing?

...thanks for posting that, Jim. I spent a little more time with it and see that "customer in fact" meant a long term customer relationship. My favorite line from the ruling: "HouseMaster's reports strum the chord of high hopes on the part of those consumers who, having already committed themselves, yearn for confirmation that they have made a wise decision." It's a report that we could reasonably call "benign". The catchpans in the attic were the most startling findings, and findings I have made more than once. Erby the sister's deal was a done one by the time I learned about it. There were a few issues with the house, but nothing big, and she unloaded the place last summer after improving it over almost 20 yrs.

I looked up Herner and noted there that the realtor was the "customer in fact" of the inspector, so that the realtor paid him. When my sister bought a house in a nearby city the realtor, knowing the sister worked a 56-hr week and lacked the time to shop and hire an inspection, hired one for her, and paid him after his inspection, according to the realtor, found zero problems. No need for a report.

Put me right to sleep. My complaint with checklist formats has always been too much space occupied and too many dead words. Narrative format lets you say just what you found, not everything else that you did not find. The repeated calls for licensed review of just about every item raises the question of why did the inspector look here at all.

No prob here with the term "benign", which googled first defines as gentle, then kindly. We don't don't have to set up polar opposites for every term we use. As for Pablum, that is a brand name and the judge risks a nasty letter from manufacturer's lawyer for its unauthorized use. Aspirin was once a brand name till it was lost by popular takeover of the term. They say Coca-cola has a six pack of lawyers defending the word Coke. Reports I have issued that were most critical (my opposite of benign) have usually gotten replies from listing agents, when there is a reply, that the report is "too technical", hard to understand.

...the inspectors that realtors in this area like most are the franchise outfits that anyone can buy, take a few weeks of "training", and then hang out their shingle with all the support that the franchise offers, like coupons, warranties, canned software, published info and brochures. They wear the logo ball cap and the knit shirts. They like to break their offerings into "packages". I have been behind some of these and seen their reports, which are a lot like what Marc describes.

...for those irregular surfaces the painter has to use a long nap roller of course.

"Creative" framer with payday approaching and short on needed lengths.

There is a fire station near here that has a wood framed floor like that. It made it into historic preservation when a bigger building was built around it. I knew an eccentric owner builder who formed his floor frame and poured it with concrete. He did not include central HVAC and had a system of floor fans he move around to circulate heat from a wood furnace in the basement.

The material popular here is formed by local supply houses that buy the forming machinery and then get the enameled steel in rolls. Thus there are no "manufacturer's instruction", because the material is not designed for particular use. To screen the ridge you have to figure something out. I was called too early once to inspect a greenhorn spec builder's pre-sold house. He had applied the stuff with no solid decking, as code required at the time. The insulator showed up while I was at the site. Their blown fiberglass fell like snow all around the perimeter of the house escaping through the metal profiles at the eaves.

Enameled steel roof panels, mostly used on ag buildings until their recent raging popularity in our area for houses, fall short of residential needs if you just buy the panel supplier's stuff. Their ridge vents are wide and open and not screened at all. This attic has a deposit of autumn leaves enough to carry up a rake when you stow away the Xmas decs.

I think I set a personal record with this one. Who here has stooped so low?

That is what we call exposed NM. It is not rated for exposure to physical damage.

...I just use my Stanley ax to make the big chips. No battery or plug-in needed, tho they tend to just fly and fall where they may.

Right, Jim, but larger planers, like the ones in commercial grade chippers used to grind up limbs, make the big chips.

Pix look to me like a coarse grade of planer chips.