Inspection process

[Speshulk]

I'm curious how the inspection process works in different areas. A lot of the comments on this forum mention "the inspector made me do this," or "the AHJ made me do that."

Just wondering how many areas have the same system we do, with private inspection agencies being hired by contractors, home owners, etc.

How many of you have the local jurisdiction doing the inspections?

 

[John120/240]

How many of you have the local jurisdiction doing the inspections?

All inspections are done by the city or county employees. Real estate agents -home owners

are the people who hire inexperienced yahoo's who cite inconsquential items & ignore obvious,

serious problems. It is all a matter of training. It must be a correspondenance course where

home inspectors get their training.

 

[Speshulk]

I don't mean home inspectors. Those guys are a complete waste of money. They always seem to catch the random outlet with reversed polarity, but miss the fact that the service is a mess.

What I'm asking about is the electrical inspection itself.

 

[mjf]

Most of the jurisdictions in my area do not employ their own electrical inspectors. They provide a list of 8 or 10 or 12 (etc) approved Electrical Inspection Agencies. These are not Home Inspection Agencies.

 

[Fulthrotl]

I don't mean home inspectors. Those guys are a complete waste of money. They always seem to catch the random outlet with reversed polarity, but miss the fact that the service is a mess.

What I'm asking about is the electrical inspection itself.

depends on the situation..... i've worked on hospitals where there was an onsite resident
OSHPOD certified inspector, that did the verification, and the city inspector simply came
out to sign off the card and interact with the onsite inspector, and never did any inspection
himself.

some jobs warrant the cost of an onsite inspector, as a stop loss against city inspectors hanging
up a job for one reason or another.... if you have 60 journeymen working 60+ hours a week on
a fast track, that is where you will see this done in my experience.

it's very infrequently done in so calif...

 

[Speshulk]

But who was paying that onsite inspector?

 

[Speshulk]

Most of the jurisdictions in my area do not employ their own electrical inspectors. They provide a list of 8 or 10 or 12 (etc) approved Electrical Inspection Agencies. These are not Home Inspection Agencies.

This is what I'm getting at. I'm in Sullivan and it's the same here. It's never made sense to me that we pay for our inspections. Just wondering how many places have a system like this.

 

[Gac66610]

the cities and counties (counties that have inspections) have their own inspectors
some have different inspectors for different trades
some have a one and done inspector (one inspector for all trades)

 

[Fulthrotl]

But who was paying that onsite inspector?

the general contractor, or whoever stood to lose their butt from liquidated damages
for being at the head of the critical path.....

there was a $70M electric hospital i worked detailing, that had it's own electrical inspector,
picked up by the electrical contractor.... EC also had a Primavera P3 driver who was magical with
float days, and that was really where the job made money or lost it.

the critical path battle was fought each day, and that had as much or more effect on the bottom
line as how much pipe went up in the air.... and 4 hours delay on a section waiting for an inspector
to show up after lunch, paid for the P3 driver...... :-/

the hired gun electrical inspector was all over everything with a digital camera as it was being put in....
there were no slowdowns...

 

[Speshulk]

Ok, but this is sort of a specialized project that you're talking about. I mean the average day to day job, i.e. a service or wiring of a typical house.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Ok, but this is sort of a specialized project that you're talking about. I mean the average day to day job, i.e. a service or wiring of a typical house.

i've never seen it done in 35 years here..... it's always the city inspector.

 

[jaylectricity]

I'm amazed at the difference in fees from one town/city to the next.

Some inspectors bring along their pet code violations. If you pass those, they pass you.

Some are a little more thorough, they ask to see every outlet you're installing. If it's new construction, they'll take a look at the overall look of my wiring and maybe look in a box or two to see how I make up my boxes.

Some towns look deeper if it's the first time they've seen me. Other towns just swing by and see if I seem to know my stuff.

It's completely random, if you ask me...which you did, by posting this thread.

 

[Bill Annett]

The City of Wheeling is located in Ohio County in WV. All new electrical work that requires a permit is to be inspected by some one in the Building inspection Department. This is usually me. If you live outside of the city limits in Ohio county, the only inspection that are requierd, are for new services. That is a requirement of AEP (Americian Electric Power) and those inspections are done by an inspector that has a contract with AEP.

 

[mjf]

This is what I'm getting at. I'm in Sullivan and it's the same here. It's never made sense to me that we pay for our inspections. Just wondering how many places have a system like this.

There's electricity in Sullivan?? Just kidding. Welcome to the forum.

One way or another you pay for the inspection. By writing a check, or by paying taxes. I write the check, but it's included in the cost of the job.

Having independant agencies probably cuts down on bribery, payoffs, and the corruption we hear so much about in the news.

 

[mjf]

Some inspectors bring along their pet code violations. If you pass those, they pass you.

Some are a little more thorough, they ask to see every outlet you're installing. If it's new construction, they'll take a look at the overall look of my wiring and maybe look in a box or two to see how I make up my boxes.

Some towns look deeper if it's the first time they've seen me. Other towns just swing by and see if I seem to know my stuff.

Careful what you put on the internet. There's a lawsuit for every situation in this world today.

Every electrical inspector I have ever encountered has done an extremely thorough inspection

 

[kwired]

This is what I'm getting at. I'm in Sullivan and it's the same here. It's never made sense to me that we pay for our inspections. Just wondering how many places have a system like this.

We do not outright pay for inspection, we do pay for permit, and the inspection is included (rough in inspections as well as final inspection). If correction notices are issued you must pay a "reinspection fee". If you are on site at time of inspection and can accomplish a correction while inspector is there they will not issue any correction notices.

Having independant agencies probably cuts down on bribery, payoffs, and the corruption we hear so much about in the news.

Whether public or independent agancies it really comes down to management of the agency. Bribery, payoffs, etc. can happen at either.

Here the State Electrical Division is overall a good agency. Their inspectors are employees of the AHJ. They are officially part of our state government so they have to follow many operational rules and budget rules that any other state agency must follow, yet they receive no tax dollars. Their budget comes entirely from their own fees they collect, but the Legislature, State treasurer, other agencies regulate what they can or can't do with their funds. Their board is comprised of engineers, contractors, power company representatives, even licensed journeymen. (I believe it is in their rules that a certain number of each type of individual be part of that board) They executive director was a contractor in the pase as well as an inspector (I know - he used to inspect in my area). They will not tolerate their inspectors taking bribes or anything like that and in fact have terminated inspectors in the past for this kind of activity. The inspectors are just as human as anyone else and will have contractors they get along with better than others. It helps if the contractor realizes the inspector has a job to do and that he is not there just to give him a hard time.

 

[jiggawatt79]

I'm curious how the inspection process works in different areas. A lot of the comments on this forum mention "the inspector made me do this," or "the AHJ made me do that."

Just wondering how many areas have the same system we do, with private inspection agencies being hired by contractors, home owners, etc.

How many of you have the local jurisdiction doing the inspections?

Not sure I fully understand the question but I will give it a shot. We have city inspectors for the larger cities in new mexico. Then we have county which is sort of the outskirts of Albuquerque. Most everything else falls under the state inspectors. Oh, and we have the reservations which require no inspections. :ashamed1:

Each one has an office in ABQ for convenience but it can get annoying dealing with each AHJ. There should be some uniformity in my opinion. Once you get familiar with each one, it's not so bad.

 

[Speshulk]

Not sure I fully understand the question but I will give it a shot. We have city inspectors for the larger cities in new mexico. Then we have county which is sort of the outskirts of Albuquerque. Most everything else falls under the state inspectors. Oh, and we have the reservations which require no inspections. :ashamed1:

Each one has an office in ABQ for convenience but it can get annoying dealing with each AHJ. There should be some uniformity in my opinion. Once you get familiar with each one, it's not so bad.

Ok, I'll try to clarify. The way the process works in my area is like this:

There are several approved inspection agencies. They are private companies that are paid directly by either the electrical contractor or the home owner. (Usually they're paid by the electrical contractor.)

When you need an inspection, you call one of these agencies and they come out. So for a typical house you'd have 3 inspections: one for the service, one following rough in, and one for a final.

The town and utility company accept the agency's certificates without doing an inspection of their own.

It's always seemed strange to me that we pay for our work to be inspected by private companies, and I wonder if other parts of the country have a similar system.

 

[iwire]

I'm curious how the inspection process works in different areas. A lot of the comments on this forum mention "the inspector made me do this," or "the AHJ made me do that."

Just wondering how many areas have the same system we do, with private inspection agencies being hired by contractors, home owners, etc.

How many of you have the local jurisdiction doing the inspections?

In MA, NH, CT, RI most cites and towns have their own inspectors. They are paid from the permit fees and / or the local taxpayers.

They will come out mutilple times as the project progresses.

 

[infinity]

In MA, NH, CT, RI most cites and towns have their own inspectors. They are paid from the permit fees and / or the local taxpayers.

They will come out mutilple times as the project progresses.

Almost the same here in NJ and re-inspections for violations are free*.

*Actually nothing is free but we don't pay an additional fee.