Inspection time

When Marla went to pay for the basement permit yesterday she had a nice talk with the RMs (Rural Municpality) building inspector, Dave. From what we heard from the trades that worked on our house he is a no holds barred, do it right or expect to get in trouble kinda guy.

They were right.

Anyway, back on topic. Marla was talking to him about the basement plan and while he was looking at the file for our house he asked if he could come over today to do the final inspection. Final inspection you say? Haven't you been in your house for almost a year and a half I hear? Yes, final inspection. From our converation with Dave today only one house on our block has had it's permit closed by the RM as being totally 100% to code. Scary huh?

Our list wasn't very long, but there were still some issues to be resolved. He said the walls we put up in the basement were a little snug to the joists (about 1/2" and should be 3/4") but still within tolerances. All in all it was a very good visit but still not a final inspection since there are still deficiencies for our builder to take care of.

One of the things he commended us on was not letting the builder insulate and vapour barrier the basement walls. He told us he's seen way too many houses with mold problems created that way. I mean, foundations are still not completely dry when the house is finished and the moisture escaping from the concrete doesn't go out so it has to come in. If it's blocked up it's going to create problems. We didn't even have frost on our walls this last winter since it was dried so well.

So Dave has to come back for the basement once we get the outside walls insulated and vapour barried. That means the electrical rough-in inspection will need to be completed prior to that as I can't cover up any electrical work before it's inspected.

It also looks like our deck will cost us a bit more money. We bought 1'x1'x5" concrete blocks that 4x4 posts sit in to use as footings for our deck. As of April 1st new building code is that any deck attached to a house (as ours will be) must use piles. He told us about a new product on the market called a groundhog pile that's supposed to be a precast pile that you screw into the ground yourself. I can't find anything on the net about them though. Ah well, we have a bit of time yet.