The Power of Preparation for Successful Inspections

Ever faced a construction challenge that seemed impossible to solve? We did too—imagine a bedroom floor so out of level it felt like a funhouse attraction! In this episode, we recount how a listener's kind words reignited our passion for this podcast and share our innovative solution to that flooring issue without tearing the whole place apart. Our journey underscores the necessity of a problem-solving mindset in the construction world, setting the stage for a deep dive into the crucial topic of building inspections.

Tune in as we unravel the intricacies of preparing for various building inspections, from verifying rebar placement to ensuring successful footer and framing checks. Discover the significance of having your paperwork in order and building respectful relationships with inspectors to enhance your project's success. We also delve into the broader implications of a regulated inspection system, advocating for balanced regulations that uphold safety and fairness across the industry. Whether you're a seasoned contractor or just starting, this episode is brimming with actionable insights and tips to help you excel in the building industry.

Chapters

• 0:03 Building Inspections
• 12:06 Preparing for Building Inspections
• 23:25 Importance of Building Inspections

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Oh, I love that, I love that.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Hey y'all, Welcome back to another episode of Feed Me your Construction Content. I'm Carolyn McMahon.

Speaker 1: 0:09

And I'm Joshua McMahon. Hey babe, it's good to be back.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Hey.

Speaker 1: 0:15

Got a great text from Ricky out of Florida today saying how much he appreciated last week's episode and if we really get back to basics of home building it becomes pretty simple. It's all common sense stuff, it seems like as we get more aged in the industry. But I responded to him couldn't be more timely because the last three or four weeks I'm like that's enough, I'm done, let's shut this podcast down.

Speaker 2: 0:39

I mean, how many times will we shut this down? And we keep coming back.

Speaker 1: 0:42

It only takes one compliment to keep you going. That's all I need. I just need a little bit of fuel. He needs a little bit of fluff. You know what? That's exactly what I need. I need you fluffers to keep giving me what I need. Well, let's talk real quick about. Last week's episode was good because we talked about how do you get through these houses, how do you get through the closing, get them punched out, get your clients moved in, do your warranty lists, all that stuff. And one thing that you mentioned on that episode was an issue that I was facing, that we were like we're not talking about that on the air and we're not going to go into any detail about it. But we will say there was a bedroom floor that was a three quarters of an inch out of level over six feet. I mean, when I say it's slightly out of tolerance, clearly exaggerating, right, it wasn't slightly out Like. It was like damn, how did we miss that?

Speaker 2: 1:35

Yeah, and you could not have argued your way. Nothing to argue the buyer agreeing to that is not within a standard.

Speaker 1: 1:44

Nothing to argue and I looked up the tolerances. Before I even looked at the issue, I saw the customer's complaint and I said what's the tolerance? Right, that's the go-to, what's the tolerance, what's the minimum standard? That's where I start before I start digging into it. So I do that. I talk to the team. Everybody says we're good. I go out there and look at it we're not good. The vanity gives it away. So like a 36 inch vanity and you can see a three quarter inch difference in the shoe molding running downhill and it's looking you dead in the eye.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Dude, you could feel it.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Oh my God, yes. Once you saw it, you could feel it, you could see it, and then you could feel it. Oh my God, yes, once you saw it, you could feel it, you could see it, and then you could not unsee it. I was having nightmares about it. Well, here's the reality. People that we were talking to said I don't know what you're going to do about that one. I don't know how you're going to fix that. So we were going through this nuclear option. We got three quarter inch nailed down finishing place hardwood in place. We got tile in the bathrooms. We're going to demo it all. It's all getting ripped up, ripped up and we'll do a self leveling compound and this is how we're going to make this floor Right. Well, being the possibilites that I am, I'm like we're going to make that shit work. We're going to get this floor lowered and I think we can do it without ripping out any of it. And we did it and we got that thing lowered three-quarters of an inch. We got minimal stuff to put back in place up top. Baseboard's got to go back in, vanity's got to go back in. One piece of tile got broken out of the entire floor. One piece of tile Got my EWP engineer to come out and say, yep, everything's good. This is what you need to do to firm things up. They're putting the drywall back tomorrow. That's less than two weeks of time.

Speaker 1: 3:27

When I told the customer we're going to fix this, I just can't tell you how fast, because this one's way outside the box. But my mindset and my possibilitist attitude I am going to find a way. You tell me I got a 1% chance of doing it. I'm going to find a way and better. Yet you tell me there's no chance of doing it. Oh, I'm damn sure finding a way now, because you're not going to shut me down. So the reality is you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it.

Speaker 1: 3:55

And we got that thing done and we got most of his punch list done and we'll keep working on it tomorrow. So we're in really good shape this week. I wanted to talk about something before you get to that punch list, and this is something that goes through the entire building. Carolyn's got some firsthand experience when we were building our model home. This is all about the inspection process, the building inspections. What's the purpose of them? Why are we doing it? How do you navigate these things? How do you communicate with the inspectors, because things have changed in 20 years.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Well, they've changed in the last year, the last two years.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Well, you're right, every three years, the code is changing. They're updating it. Somebody's got to make money, so they're creating these new regulations, new rules that you've got to follow, you've got to go and relearn things, so it's always evolving. How do you work with the inspectors? Different challenges that we face, navigating it, best practices some of the things that we think you should do. So, first thing is what the heck is the point of a building inspection? Why are we doing it? Why do we have the county coming out to inspect our stuff?

Speaker 2: 5:05

Hmm, safety.

Speaker 1: 5:08

I think so right, Because you would like to say everybody does the right thing all the time. Well, we all know that's not. Probably true. You need somebody unbiased to come out and just double check what you're doing. So what do you do? You start with submitting your building plans, submitting all of your documentation, and the county reviews it and stamps it and gives you a permit set of drawings. That's what you build your home by.

Speaker 1: 5:34

So now, as you start building, you start doing work. You have to call in inspections and the inspector will come out most of them. And now I can only speak to Virginia because that's where we are and I can only speak to specific counties in Virginia, so I can't speak to the entire nation. So if you have counties that are different, take this episode with a grain of salt, but I think the premise is still the same. But the inspector will come out and do an inspection on whatever it is that you've done to verify the work meets building code, local building code, and it matches the permit set of plans. And I think it's really critical stuff. Right, Because you want that third party unbiased opinion. And let's be honest with ourselves, we're all human, we make mistakes.

Speaker 2: 6:19

Let me ask you about that Matching the set of plans, though. What part of the plans is deemed critical and that must match? You can change interior walls. You can change all of these things and the county doesn't care. So really, what is the meat of that? Is it? If it? Has a door, a window, structural changes like load bearing walls and things like that things you can't change once you submit, or you have to then do a supplemental revision or something like that.

Speaker 1: 6:54

That's a great question. So in our counties they don't get all worked up if you change certain things within the footprint of the house Overall dimension that they want to know. So if you grow the house, you shrink the house. They probably want to know that stuff. The biggest thing the county is going to be looking for is structural, and then we're talking about windows. Do you have the right number of studs beside king and jack studs? Do you have the right header? Do you have the right header dimension? Is it nailed properly? Those type of things are really what they're looking for and that's in the code book. There's tables in the code book to tell you exactly how many king studs, exactly how many jack studs based on your opening, exactly what your header needs to be. And the county is really they're going to double check some of that stuff.

Speaker 2: 7:40

Well, what I found interesting is that in our county the inspectors rotate right, so you call in an inspection. One person comes out and you're like gosh, I hope it's this person.

Speaker 1: 7:55

It's the inspector roulette.

Speaker 2: 7:58

Yeah, exactly. And then what I didn't fully understand is if say, um, you know B comes out and there are deficiencies and um, but B is not going to be the person that comes back in If you call it in to do the re-inspection yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:16

And for me I'm like well gosh, is that person who's come in to do the re-inspection? Are they only going to walk and verify what Bea put on her inspection report or why she failed you, or will they take their opportunity to look through the house in their own individual lens and then bust you on something else that maybe she didn't catch?

Speaker 1: 8:40

Well, I guess that's where my biggest frustration comes with the inspections today is that when they come back to do a re-inspection, they're there to re-inspect the items that failed. However, what's happening in some counties and within some inspectors, they're taking that second bite of the apple, and then what I experienced in one county was, well, we couldn't get through the full inspection, so we're not taking a second bite, we're finishing the inspection that the original inspector started.

Speaker 2: 9:08

Oh, that's how they spun that.

Speaker 1: 9:09

That was a really great trick. So I do think it is a little bit of a frustration. There are some other counties where inspectors say, hey look, you need to fix this thing. But I'm not going to say something because I don't want like I don't want to step on that inspector's toes, but I do want you to fix it because it is something that's deficient.

Speaker 2: 9:28

Yeah, I mean, could you make an? Could you overlook something? Of course we're human, but at the same time I just find it interesting that another inspector comes, because you are supposed to be looking at the house through the same lens. Remember when we had Larry Brock on? You know, everything's black and white. There should not be a gray.

Speaker 1: 9:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Now, interpretation of code requirements are often different.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Yes, that's right, and that's where you kind of really get in trouble is that all inspectors are looking for something different and all inspectors have their own personal hobbies. And if you know this information, you can, you know, wooze them a little bit, you can move them in your direction.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Wooze them.

Speaker 1: 10:13

I remember this inspector who loved dogs. I think his name was Ralph. This is 20 plus years ago. He's definitely retired by now. But if you started talking about dogs, he forgot everything he was doing and you would pass your inspection with no problem because he loved dogs oh, so you may not have a safe house, josh, yeah I'm with you.

Speaker 1: 10:39

yeah, that that was true. And then the other point I wanted to make you talk about the rotating inspectors. I'm not opposed to it because I understand the reasoning behind it. One big reason that I think is smart is that inspectors will get complacent. If they're doing the same builder, the same people building the houses and they're learning these routines, they'll get complacent and then they'll not do their job to their full ability, which is a bad thing for the industry and it's a bad thing for all the builders.

Speaker 1: 11:09

The second thing is this was early in my career where I had an inspector who I like the inspector. We got into an argument one time. It was the only time I ever cussed at an inspector and, granted, I was very young, so I didn't know any better. Well, he got fired. He got fired because he was taking bribes and I was joking with another inspector about it and I didn't know. And he's like I'll call the cops right now. And I was like, hey, I was just joking. He's like we just had someone get fired and arrested for taking bribes on the job. So we don't joke about that. And I'm like damn. So I do think there's a necessity to rotate inspectors for more reasons than just this. Plus, I think it's good for the inspectors to see different things in different perspective and it grows their business as well. So I think it's all good. Let's jump into this. Preparing for inspections this is really the thing that I think we're not doing a good enough job today, and we did talk about it with larry brock.

Speaker 1: 12:06

If you're going to call in, say, a footer inspection, one of your first inspections you do, what are some things you need to do? You need to have your building plans on site. You need to have, maybe, soil report that tells you what your footer dimensions are supposed to be. You need to verify that you've got the right style or right number size of rebar, the right number of rebars in the footer. You need to make sure you have a euphorot in the footer. You need to make sure all these things are marked and if you get a really good county, you need to make sure you have an address posted. So address and plans are the easiest thing for an inspector to fail you for, and if they love reinspection fees, they're going to eat you up if you're not doing those two things through the entire build. So making sure you're ready for the inspection is critical. And, yeah, I'm going to tell you you should gamble and call in your inspection, even if you know, hey, tomorrow morning I got to get there, I got to get the plans out, I got to get an address posted. I've got to do this. One thing I'm going to tell you every day to gamble and do that and then push yourself to make that the very first thing that you do. Because you need to get it done, because what happens every single day you lose is money. You need to get out there and make that money. Quickly, jumping into some types of building inspections we talked about the footer foundation inspections. Again, counties are all going to be different, but you've got to reference your building plans, your structural plans, if you have them, and, most importantly, reference your permit set of plans. No other plans Permit set of plans. What you install needs to match what's on your permit set of plans.

Speaker 1: 13:48

Framing inspection is probably my favorite one because it's the one where they're going to really pick you apart and the way to really do this. This is the way that I would do a framing inspection. This came from an inspector who would take three hours on a framing inspection and just clean your house. He wasn't an engineer but he damn sure stayed in a Holiday Inn and he would question the engineer's judgment and fail you for things the engineer said were good. So what I would do on those framing inspections is you take your set of framing plans and you walk through the plans in the house.

Speaker 1: 14:17

Highlight every single thing that's done. If you've got a piece of hardware, if you've got three studs in one spot, if you've got two Kings and two Jacks and it's on your plants, verify it's done. Highlight it that it's done in your permit set of plants. If it's not done, circle it in red pen so you can tell your framer to go back and fix it. Now when you do this, what message do you think you're sending to the inspector when they come out to do that inspection?

Speaker 2: 14:46

You're preparing for an inspection.

Speaker 1: 14:48

That's exactly right. So yes, mr or Mrs Inspector, I might have missed something, but you can clearly see that I did my due diligence. I didn't call you out here to do my punch walk. I did my own walk, I did my punch, I did what I'm supposed to do. You're here to just double check that I caught everything, because I'm human and I might miss something.

Speaker 1: 15:08

So by having your plans highlighted, you're just sending a message to the inspector that you give a damn about your job, and framing is where you can really do this and make a big impact on your inspectors. And that rolls right into working with inspectors, when they can see that you take pride in what you're doing. You're learning from what they're teaching you Because, remember, you fail an inspection or pass an inspection, you're still learning. So you're learning from what they're doing. They're going to start sharing tips with you. It's only going to help you grow your business and grow with that individual inspector.

Speaker 1: 15:44

And don't fool yourself, the inspectors are talking to other inspectors, so if you're good, they're going to get that message out to their other inspectors. So just to change gears a little bit, what are some of the common challenges that we do face? Just some of the dumb stuff Missing anchor bolts in your foundation inspection or your framing inspection. You know we did our framing inspection and we missed I don't know three anchor bolts and the worst part was I drilled the hole for him and I didn't put the bolts in.

Speaker 2: 16:17

Can't make this shit up, no and it happens Okay.

Speaker 1: 16:20

So even though you're doing everything you're supposed to do, you're preparing, you're still going to make a mistake and it happens. Other challenges I think the the the dumb challenges is not having your building plans on site. It happens more than you know, like if you don't do anything else. Have a permit, set of building plans ready on that job before the inspectors get there. Do not wait around. Put it in a bag so you can keep it there overnight. Do something to have it ready. Address posted. We said it before.

Speaker 1: 16:52

I failed numerous inspections early in my career because I didn't have things posted. I didn't have. I mean, I worked for a builder that was trying to save every penny they could. We didn't put a yard sign out. I had to go get a piece of plywood out of the dumpster and spray paint the numbers on it. How ghetto is that in a half million dollar house? But that's what they wanted to do. So you get it done right. Spray paint the silt fence in front of the house. Do something to make sure it's posted, because those are dumb inspections, dumb reasons to fail. So as you go through this, you're just going to get better every time you do it. Learn from the inspectors. I'll tell you don't talk back. Show them a tremendous amount of respect. You probably make more money than most of the inspectors, so show them a little bit of respect. Don't talk down to them.

Speaker 2: 17:41

I mean I found the process interesting.

Speaker 2: 17:43

I was probably around for gosh a lot of it, more inspections than I thought and, um you know, I I do work 10 minutes from the job site so it's easier for me to be available than you, um, but it was, it was good and I, you know, acted humbly like hey, this is new for me, mind if I walk with you just to see what you're looking at. Um, you know, at the end of the walk, you know they would verify that they had the items that they thought um listed and it was the same as mine, um, and then I was there for a lot of the re-inspections and, um, it was funny because several of the re-inspections and it was funny because several of the inspectors you know who work in Goochland County Boone builds in Goochland County. So, you know, I thought it could only help if I told them that I worked for Boone and it did Not, that I built for Boone. But you know, that was a really interesting thing and I think I learned a whole bunch.

Speaker 1: 18:50

You did Every inspection you learned Because Goochland County inspectors are really good inspectors. I always respected what they were doing. Chesterfield County is probably my favorite county for inspectors, just because I thought they were the most fair and reasonable and they would hold you accountable. But they were also human and they would talk to you and help you get better, which is what I really appreciated. Some future trends we're seeing a lot more counties go to digital platforms, which is a great thing, but it's also a bad thing. It's going to slow things down, so you've got to show some patience. Make sure your documentation is in order. Make sure you're understanding how to call in inspections. Understand how to double check that you've passed or failed an inspection. You need to learn the computer side. You need to understand what this stuff is, because it's only going to become more and more prevalent. It's not going away.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Well, the whole thing was just cool for me to see it. You know I'm in the building business but that side of the business was completely foreign to me and all of the inspections that you had to do and in Goochland County it's a combo inspection- oh yeah, that's right. Right, so often there'd be a separate framing inspection, electrical inspection. What else is there?

Speaker 1: 20:06

That's right. You know that's what I'm used to and you know the thing that was challenging in Guchin was you had to call it in by X hour.

Speaker 2: 20:15

Right, so it was by I think it was three o'clock. Three for the following day, which I thought was pretty good, I mean.

Speaker 1: 20:22

Yeah, albemarle, up in Charlottesville is 12 o'clock. You better have your inspections called in.

Speaker 2: 20:26

Wow. So if you were to fail something, then you had a fighting chance to correct it and go ahead and call it in for the next day, if the inspector had come out.

Speaker 1: 20:36

Well, something we've started doing is we're already planning ahead. We have an idea of when we're going to be ready for inspection. We're calling it in three, four days early. Oh wow. And then we're pushing everyone to that date, which is which is it's been helpful in some cases. But the problem is, when you do that and you're proactive, it needs to be at the front of your mind that it's going to be ready for inspection. It's going to be ready for inspection. Oh shit, it's not going to be ready for inspection. I need to get out there and cancel it, because what you don't want to do is have the inspector come out and not be ready, because then you're losing credibility.

Speaker 2: 21:09

Yeah, you look like a clown.

Speaker 1: 21:11

That's exactly right. You're wasting their time, which is what we don't want to do.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Right, Well, you're talking about the digital platform and it is cool that some counties you can submit online payments. You go on the portal, you can see what's been kind of verified and checked off in the process, like in the. You know what's in the pipeline.

Speaker 1: 21:34

That's right.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Right. So that was cool. But the combo inspection was funny because it was, like you know, fail, fail, fail, fail. You get like 18 emails and it was all about something, but you can fail one thing, but we did. I mean I was shocked that that combo inspection went so well.

Speaker 1: 21:53

I mean we were sweating bullets on the framing or the or the it was the combo, it was everything. I know but that, but the combo at the framing stage or at the combo at the end of the job, the CEO Uh no it was the one before it was at framing.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Yeah, framing, framing is the one I always sweat because, like you're not really in control, then the moment you pass framing inspection, boom, you can run your schedule to the end yeah, I mean it was something really silly of the combo inspection that we failed for, um, but it was.

Speaker 2: 22:22

You know, back on track we got it done. I was here for the final inspections for the CEO, which were really cool and things that you would think the electrician would have done. They didn't. But if you are a trade working in multiple municipalities and counties it could be different.

Speaker 1: 22:44

Right.

Speaker 2: 22:45

But it was something dumb, like something in a garbage disposal.

Speaker 1: 22:50

Well, I mean, the problem is we all make careless little mistakes. I think that's why you've got to get some kind of checklist or something involved so you can walk it and just go right down your list and you know what to do. Just like I said on the framing inspection like go through there and highlight things, you know if it's done or not. But that's why you've got to have your days built in and make sure you're protecting yourself, Cause there's no excuse If it. If it doesn't happen, you've got to figure out a way to make it happen. You've got to keep moving. But that's our episode on building inspectors and working with them and some things that you're going to encounter.

Speaker 1: 23:25

I do think it's valuable. Inspectors are extremely valuable and important to our business because they are going to hold everybody to a same standard, the building code standard, which I think is good. You need to level the playing field. There are other counties or there's other states that don't have these type of inspections, and I don't know what states they are, but I have talked to people. Or I don't know what states they are, but I have talked to people or listened to them on podcasts where they say oh no, you just basically police yourself. That's a recipe for disaster, and people can cut corners and save money, which means you're not comparing apples to apples when you're competing for business. So I'm in favor of building inspectors and some regulation. Let's not get carried away, but until next week.

Speaker 2: 24:11

See ya yeah.