How tough are your inspectors

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billdozier 78

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I've noticed lately that inspectors seem to be pretty lax on inspections. I heard one today as long as the lights line up I'm happy with the job. I'm sorry but layout/design is not your job. You are there to make sure cans are screwed off,whips are strapped and knockouts are sealed. Sure it's nice being friendly but I expects my inspectors to be tough and fair. How do you guys feel about your inspectors. Yes I know karma is going bite me.:p
 
Most State Inspectors are not near as tough the contributors to this forum. Generally I have not been asked to do anything they could not provide a reference for and we are treated with respect and fairness. Sometimes I feel they could be more thorough, or look a bit closer but...

As far as enforcement of State law, in regards to unlicensed people doing PP work, they fail miserably.
 
Most of 'em here are pretty good, once you run 'em through the tenderizer a time or two. They're great then, especially when served with a baked potato and salad.
 
480sparky said:
Most of 'em here are pretty good, once you run 'em through the tenderizer a time or two. They're great then, especially when served with a baked potato and salad.
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Makes me think about my SIL and his comments about Sandhill Cranes. "They taste just like Bald Eagle if you marinate them long enough."

We had one old inspector, now retired, that even with salad & marination was a tough one.
 
ptonsparky said:
Makes me think about my SIL and his comments about Sandhill Cranes. "They taste just like Bald Eagle if you marinate them long enough."

We had one old inspector, now retired, that even with salad & marination was a tough one.
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We used to have one of those too.Rumor had it that cheap vodka would tenderize him pretty good though.
 
As far as I know they (the State) will open a file on the unlicensed and ask they either take the test or stop the job! As far as fair, the Code is enforced in my home town as to I'd say, "It is what it is". I think they do a good job over all and in most cases are there to lend a hand when required. The inspectors only use the Code to quote faults in an application. I heard people say they hate to work in my town, so be it! :p

What is interesting to me is how they handle jobs after they (locally) find out that someone's not above board, working for an EE on and off lately we've found several unconventional jobs where his ethics kicked in... I don't have a response to the former.

Everyone knows how it is when you ask a professional a point blank question! I seen my EE's tumblers trip but no answer to the found! :)

The total dollar amounts I've seen on the paper work in the drawing rooms is frankly un?be?liev?a?ble, I guess they do a sq-ft charge :).

Of course there is always paper that is usefull in contract drawings and some that are shear fluff. Come to think of it I think they the inspectors bill by the sheet. Most times on larger jobs the drawings are already reviewed for service size, and frankly there is never any real questions about service,(and also reviewed before the inspector gets there), just the usuall Point A to B look see to note the correctness and find the faults...
 
I work out of state a lot so I run into different types of inspectors all the time. There has been 2 inspectors in seperate states now that actually highlights and initial the permit drawings to know what they have covered through out the job. Of the two, the one when you have violations he actually gives code articles. Hard to argue against that.

Then again, I have had inspectors who are the jack of all trade inspectors who come out and tell you they actually don't know much about electrical.
 
I don't deal with them very often. Mostly I do industrial work and very little of it is inspected unless they are putting up a new building or addition and I am not directly involved with that. They generally do not seem to know or care much about the equipment itself. Once in a blue moon I will hear back from an EC that there was an inspector that asked something that had to come back to me, but I can't recall when the last time was. At least 5 years ago. Maybe 10.
 
I got carded once.

We were on the other side of the state, parked in a church parking lot waiting for the trade ahead of us to get done when an older gentleman pulls up in a pick up truck.

I thought he was going to crab at us for parking in the church parking lot when he asked us what we were doing there.

Nope, he was the electrical inspector and when we told him we were there to do electrical work, he demanded to see our licenses.

I was so happy!! I had been a journeyman for about a year and no one had ever asked to see my license. I was damned proud of my license!

I get along with all the inspectors and they range from very strict to very lax. I had one give us the green on a glance because he liked the way I ran the conduit. It seems he was used to not seeing box offsets on 2" PVC.

I had one inspector hop out of his van and cut and strip some 2/0 for me because he was in a hurry to go fishing and wanted to see the conductors connected in the meter socket before he left. I wasn't even a journeyman then.

I got called to work with an inspector in Hell Michigan (really, it's a real place) over some issues on a huge ham radio tower. I have relatives that are cops and somehow we got on that subject whilst chatting on the phone and he said he used to be a cop. When I asked how he went from cop to electrical inspector he said it was because he married the mayor's daughter. He didn't, he was also an electrician and turned out to be a hoot to work with.

I never have trouble with inspectors for some reason.
 
News Flash;

Had a contractor visit today that happens to be from out of town! He goes and tells me he doesn't like to work in my town because one particular inspector flat out told him, I don't like other companies like yours in town because his brothers runs a same like company!

Then he states that a the inspector is very tough on him, and failed him x amount of times on his jobs....

Then he goes on to tell me of another inspector in another county was caught lifting material by the GC, upon talking to the effected contractor the guys says no biggie, "I don't need any trouble from him"

Well Damn! :thumbsdown:
 
When I had PV panels installed in Massachusetts in the early 2000s, the electrical inspector came out and asked me if the job was correct. I told him, yes, this is my house and the job will be correct. He asked if the 12-2 UF going through the roof should be SE. I told him I didn't think so, as the maximum fault current would be about 5 amps and for about 2 cycles. The building inspector brought a pair of binoculars and he asked if the panels were firmly attached. I said the I had had the installer run bolts through the plywood roof "deck" into 2x4 pieces under it.

Later when I got time-of-day controls and heat storage electrical heaters, I almost got into a fight with the electrician who was doing the installation for the Power Company, he kept ragging the helper doing the installation.

Then when the control line from the control box to the 50A 240V spa heater would wipe out the entire AM spectrum, I determined that the problem was the control power was very unclean from the immersion heater and that if you put a relay at the heater and controlled it with "clean" power from the control box, the EMI went away. He came back to install a relay and was planning to mount it on the inside of the cover of a 4x4. I objected to that saying it didn't look safe to me, that the relay needed to be mounted in the box instead. He got huffy, and I said I am the owner, what I say goes, if you don't like it, just leave the relay and I'll mount it. He mounted it but I though he was going to blow a cork.


Guess I was a bad:rant: customer.
 
I've been on both sides of the ''clipboard". I used to work as a industrial/commercial electrician and now I'm a combination inspector for a rural county. Obviously I'm more comfortable doing electical inspections but there have been many times I show up and have more questions than answers. The contractor has been there to see the project from the first shovel in the ground to the last panel cover install. When I show up it takes a "minute" or two to figure out what I'm looking at.:ashamed1: We try to treat everyone the same...but human nature kicks in and you know who needs a closer look and who can teach you something about the trade. I don't nit-pick but I won't back off a Code issue either. Being a non-practicing electrician I am usually easier on the EC's than some of our guys...I realize there is more than one way to skin a cat.
 
masterinbama said:
Had one do the same on some 12470/4160 unit substations.
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I had the same thing on a 26kV substation. POCO needed a cut-in card to energize and wanted a sign off from the electrical inspector. He showed up and said "Here you go" and handed me the card. I said, "Do you want to take a look?" He replied, "Why, I don't know what I am looking at anyway." I was floored!

A couple of years ago I was doing a 2mW solar job. I called for a progress inspection. When the inspector showed up he told me he knew nothing about solar. I spent about three hours giving him a crash course in it.

I find that generally, younger inspectors in this area seem to be much better than the older ones. They seem to be more knowledgeable in regards to the ever changing codes and they tend to site the violations rather than say "change that". They also seem to allow time for discussion and interpretations where the older ones do not. Before the guns come out blazing I say this very generally.
 
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