Some of the most stessful times during the building of the house was going through the
the inspections that are required in order to get our Occupancy Permit. Since neither
one of us were professional builders we didn't know what to expect. Would the inspectors
be harder on us since we "didn't know what we were doing" or would they be more forgiving
because we "didn't know what we were doing".
This is the piece of paper that let us officially start! This is the building permit
In the area where we are building there are 13 required inspections. The only ones that we
would not be responsible for would be the plumbing, heating, insulation and septic system as
we were doing the rest of the work. That however only eliminated four inspections leaving
us responsible for nine more.
The footer inspection was the first one and gave us a taste for how we thought they all might
go. The inspector pulled up to the basement in his car, looked down at the footers, said
they looked good, gave us an approval slip and left. He didn't measure to make sure we had
tall or wide enough forms, didn't check the amount of rebar or any other items that we thought
the inspector would check. The same thing happened when he came back to inspect the
foundation. Drove up, looked it over, and approved us.
The next inspection was for temporary electric. We had to have an electric meter mounted on
a pole according to the specifications provided. Once that was approved, the local electric
company would hook us up to the power lines at the road. Electricity is very helpful when
building a house! This inspection was done by a different inspector and the first pole that
we set up did not pass the first time. We had to move the 2x4's that braced the pole up two
more feet. The inspector came back the next day and approved us.
They next inspection was the rough plumbing which we didn't have to worry about as the
sub contractor we hired had to take care of that.
The rough plumbing permit
The next one we had to worry about was the electric service inspection. The service inpection
is when you are getting ready to switch over from the temporary electric pole to the breaker
box that is located inside the house. Both the local utility company and the electric inspector
(The same inspector that inspected the temporary electric pole) have to inspect all of the lines
going to the house. A mis-communication between the local utility company and the electric
inspector almost prevented us from being approved the first time, as we had already filled in
the underground trenches that contained the electric cable based on the instructions from the
local utility company.
We needed to dig out the trench and put in a red plastic tape that has the words "Buried Cable"
printed on it before we could fill in the trench. The inspector approved us on the condition that we
correct this problem before he came back for the rough electric inspection. By this time we were
starting to get more comfortable with dealing with the inspectors and what they expected. We also
discovered that they were more than willing to spend time with us and explain what we had to do to
pass the next inspection. We started taking advantage of this and asking lots of questions when
they would come out.
The septic system was installed, inspected and approved after the service inspection.
We sub-contracted out the installation of the septic system and that sub-contractor was
repsonsible for the inspection.
The next inspection was the rough electrical. Same electrical inspector. We had learned from our
previous mistakes, (or the inspector gave up on us) and we passed the first time.
The next inspector was the rough framing inspection. This was a big one for us. We would
see how well we had built the house. By this time, the house was under roof, the siding was
on the house, the plumbing and electric were installed and the basement was poured. It
would not be easy to change much if there was anything wrong with the house. Needless to say
it was a long day before the inspector got there. When the inspector did arrive, he was one
that we had not seen before. It turns out that the inspector that inspected our footers and
foundation and should have conducted the rough framing inspection, had died, so a new
inspector was hired and he was going to be our inspector for the rest of the project.
Overall we did fairly well for doing it ourselves. We only failed 5 things which only 1 was
a major problem. The easy things were that 1) we only put 2 nails instead of 4 nails in all of
our hurricane clips (the clips that attach to the wall and the roof trusses). 2) We did not have
OSB behind our Kitchen soffit so that if a fire would be inside the walls of the kitchen, it
would not spread out into the soffit. 3) Some of the walls were not solid walls anymore because
the heating contractor cut the walls to run their heating ducts, so we had to nail metal strips
across the top edges to re-join the two halves of the walls. 4) We also had termite strips
under the wood beam where it rests on the concrete block walls in the basement, we should have
put metal plates. The problem was solved by jacking up the beam high enough to slide the
termite shield out and slide the metal plate in place of the termite shield.
5) The big problem was the glass block windows in the basement. We had three glass block windows
along the back of the house where the tops of the windows were even with the top of the concrete
block walls, so the termite strip sat right on top of the glass block and the sill plate sat
right on top of that. The floor trusses than sat on top of the sill plate and the inspector
felt that the floor trusses were too heavy and would eventually cause the glass block windows
to collapse, so he wanted us to install 1/2" steel plates that would span across the glass
block windows and rest on the concrete block wall on both sides of the glass block windows.
After he left we spent the next few hours trying to track down someone that would sell us three
1/2" steel plates 12" wide and five feet long. We finally found someone who would make some
up for us and have them ready by 6:00pm that night! Now all we had to do was install them.
We started Saturday morning with the steel plates. First we had to drill out all of the mortar
that was between the glass blocks and the sill plate. We also had to remove a few inches of
termite shield from both sides of the glass block windows where the steel plates were going
to rest on the concrete block. We then had to jack up the sill plate enough that we could
slide in the steel plate. This was accomplished by using a 1/2 ton car jack that we rested in
the window ledge inside the basement. Using sledge hammers we then drove the steel plates
into the slot that has been created by the removal of the glass block mortar and termite shield.
As it turned out, these corrections were not as bad as we thought and we were all done with all
five of our items by the end of the day. We rescheduled the inspector, he came out and approved
our rough frame.
This is the main permit which all of the inspectors sign when they are finished inspecting their area
The next inspection was the insulation inspection which we didn't have to worry about as the
sub contractor we hired was responsible for that.
The next inspection was the Final plumbing inspection which we also didn't have to worry
about as the sub contractor we hired was responsible for that.
The next big inspection for us was the Final electric inspection. During this inspection, all
of the outlets are tested, the Ground fault interupts are tested, the light fixtures are turned
on and off and all of the ground wires are checked. We did not pass this one as we had four
things wrong. 1) We missed putting in an electrical outlet for a section of countertop in the
kitchen (Every section of the counter must have an outlet so you are not dragging cords over
sinks and stoves). 2) The lights we had installed in the closets did not allow enough clearance
if you stack things on a shelf in the closet. 3) The motors for the jet tubs had been grounded to
the ground wire in the eletric outlet, they needed to be grounded to the copper water pipe. 4) The
last item was the thermostat wires going to the furnace were not encased in a protective
sheath. The last item was taken care of by the sub-contractor that we hired to install the
furnace. Once all of the items were fixed, we rescheduled the inspection and passed this
time.
Eleven down, two to go! The next inspection was from the health department. They came out
and took a sample of our water because we had a well instead of city water.
Before the health department came out, the contractor that we hired to drill the well came out
and dumped a whole bunch of chorline down the well to kill any germs that may have crept into
the system while they were drilling the well. We then had to run the water for about 24 hours
throughout the house so that any dirt still in the system would be flushed out. The health
department came out, took a sample and told us to contact them in three days for the results.
We passed.
The big day had finally arrived. We think we are ready for the final inspection. We have went
over everything twice, cleaned the place up and got ready to wait for the inspector. The
inspection goes very smoothly and he could only find two things wrong with the entire house.
The final inspection rejection notice
The first thing involved the steel posts and the wood beam. The part of the steel posts that
the wood beam sits on has nail holes, we did not put any nails in the holes. The second item
was that there was no drip leg on the gas line going into the furnace. A drip leg is a piece
of pipe that catches any moisture that might be in the gas line before it gets to the pilot
light. This keeps the pilot light from going out which then might let gas escape into the
house. The first one we could fix and the inspector told us that if that was the only problem
he would have passed us. The second problem though was something the contractor that installed
the furnace would have to fix, so we called them. Once we explained what the problem was, they
had us take all of the plastic covers to the furnace off, it was then that we discovered that
the drip leg was already there. We attempted to get the inspector back the same day, but we
were unable to do so. We had to reschedule the inspection for Monday (it was Friday). When he
did come back, everything was approved and we went to get our occupancy permit.
This is the Certiciate of Occupancy. It was what we spent 10 months working towards!
We officially did it, we had built our house from start to almost finish (we still had to install
carpet and trim) in 10 months while both of us still maintained full time jobs. In addition, we
had a lot of help from our friends and family.