Wilson Lamb wrote:
> Sorry, I don't consider them reasonable and I don't have to accept them!
>
> I built a garage, with a little frame breezeway (10X14) between it and the
> house. The jerk doing my final inspection said I had to have 5/8" bolts
> through the band joists into the house and garage every three feet, because
> it was a "deck" and decks have their very own code here. They have their
> own code because a shyster contractor built an apartment house near a
> college nearby and didn't attach the decks properly. As has happened more
> than once, the college kids loaded the (second floor) deck with 50 or so
> people and it separated from the building, with predictable results!
>
> When I got the head man out and asked if he thought a judge would consider a
> floor supported on two sides by buildings a deck, he agreed with me and
> passed the structure.
>
So, the system worked.. you disagreed with the first inspector, referred
it up a tier, and it was resolved. I don't see the problem.
(around here, if you have a 2 story house and you want to put a lattice
patio cover up, and it's below any windows, you have to design to
support the weight of some number of people on it, because it might
serve as an emergency fire exit.
One could argue that you're never going to sell the house, and you're
smart enough to remember not to go out that window in an emergency, but
history says that's not the usual case.
It's pretty cookbook for this kind of design, anyway. In fact, the city
and the county BOTH have standard construction drawings for this.. plug
in the spans, and it tells you the size of the wood you need, how many
bolts, etc.
> Electrical? Have you ever heard of GFCI breakers? They tried to make a
> friend wire his whole shop, concrete floor, with them, at about $60 each!
> BS, that was about $1000 worth of hardware easily replaced by common GFCI
> receptacles! IMHO, the electrical code serves primarily the manufacturers
> who help write it and the many inspectors who live by enforcing it.
Who is this "they"... The code allows either approach: GFCI breaker in
the box or GFCI outlet as the first one in the string. There are reasons
one might choose one or the other, but the basic rule is that garages,
kitchens, bathrooms,outdoors, etc need GFCI (basically anywhere it might
get wet). How you get there is pretty much up to you.
If you're wiring lots of individual circuits, or more than the usual
15Amp 110V branch circuits, the rules get quite a bit more complex.
Wiring in shops and garages has a whole set of rules about height of
receptacles above the floor, whether or not you can use flex conduit,
etc. because of the potential hazard of gasoline or solvent fumes.
>
> OK, I didn't intend to extend my rant and I'm very aware we are way OT, so
> I'm not going to say more. Just please resist ridiculous and intrusive
> regulations whenever you can.
Code compliance is somewhat on topic for this list, I would think. And
when it comes to the latest strategy for the anti-tower folks, rigorous
enforcement of building codes is the easiest way. The courts have
said, time and again, that aesthetics isn't a great way to try to ban
towers. But bona-fide safety issues can be.
That said, any one amateur doesn't put up a lot of towers every year, so
they tend to remember what was "ok" last time they did it, which could
be 10-20-30 years ago. Codes change, a lot, often in response to some
egregious problem, and the average amateur doesn't spend their time
reading the latest code and updates, much less the minutes of the code
making committee meetings which gives all the reasons why the code is
the way it is. Or, for that matter, reading not just the code, but the
code handbooks that provide supplementary information about how and
why.. even if you find the "code" online for free, the handbook is
almost never free. (The code *should* be free online.. it's a regulation
you're subject to.. but that's a slow battle..)
As a result, the average homeowner/amateur/casual builder gets
surprised, especially when it costs a lot more than they expected.
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