I failed this inspection. .

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brantmacga

brantmacga

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Georgia
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Former Child
I failed the inspection for the job I questioned in this thread.


The HO called me a few minutes ago and said the inspector stopped by yesterday and wrote two violations. They are:

1) GFCI protection for fiber-optic pool lighting. WHY?? I can't find anything in the NEC to support that.


2) Ground pump motor. Inspector told homeowner that I am to drive a ground rod next to the motor and connect "to make sure it is grounded". The thread I linked to above basically says this was a fiberglass pool shell w/ no rebar in the surrounding deck. The motor is currently grounded back to the service, btw.


Do any codes come to mind that I may have violated?

Thanks -
 
It is apparent the inspector is lacking knowledge in this area. There is definitely no rule for driving a ground rod at the pump-- what would that do???

A far as the light is concerned-- the fiber optic light source is not in the pool and I assume is the appropriate distance from the pool to satisfy not having GFCI protection.
 
You'll need to ask him to try and provide code references for the violations. :rolleyes:

The ground rod would serve no purpose.
 
of course i'm going to ask for references, i just like to make sure i'm right before looking like an idiot. :D seems we're all in agreement here. The HO asked me if I was going to come by today to fix these "problems". I said there was nothing wrong with it. "but the inspector said. . . . ." *sigh*
 
brantmacga said:
of course i'm going to ask for references, i just like to make sure i'm right before looking like an idiot. :D seems we're all in agreement here. The HO asked me if I was going to come by today to fix these "problems". I said there was nothing wrong with it. "but the inspector said. . . . ." *sigh*
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Seriously I would send the homeowner the link to this thread and have her read it. It may make her realize that you are not a heck. At least not in this situation.:grin:
 
dang! no doubt you left out the ground rod under the pool and at the ladders.
and you call yourself a contractor :D
 
Remember, that you received the information from a homeowner, not directly from the inspector. Who knows how the actual conversation between the homeowner and the inspector actually went. I would call the inspector with questions in regards to his inspection...this should lead you in the direction of the truth.

P.S.
This is one of the reasons I do not give the GC or the property owner the results of my inspections. I contact the EC directly if there are issues and he is not present during the inspection.
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
P.S.
This is one of the reasons I do not give the GC or the property owner the results of my inspections. I contact the EC directly if there are issues and he is not present during the inspection.
Click to expand...

I think that should be done everywhere and thank you for doing that. This particular inspector has made brant look bad in the eyes of the HO. I know that most of us EC would prefer the one on one with the EI.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Seriously I would send the homeowner the link to this thread and have her read it. It may make her realize that you are not a heck. At least not in this situation.:grin:
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nah, that's like pissing into the wind.....send the link to the inspector, maybe he'll learn something and will think twice in the future before he throws a contractor under a bus...
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
............
This is one of the reasons I do not give the GC or the property owner the results of my inspections. I contact the EC directly if there are issues and he is not present during the inspection.
Click to expand...

Professional courtesy extended to the one you have a contractual obligation with, your client. I'm the same way, Pierre. :smile:
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
I have learned that some inspectors are bitter unhappy people. Making them see the results of their ineptude will only add fuel to the fire.
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potentially, but i'd rather know how big of a (insert favorite derogitory wrd here) i'm dealing with, then to try and guess what he wants.....
 
I am lucky, the inspectors in my area are fairly easy to get along with. I have had inspections in other areas, where the inspector had a complex of some sort and it seemed the only way they could feel important was to stop progress. I know of one inspector, if your in his area, you need to forget somthing for him to find, or he will eventually make somthing up.. I usually intentionally forget to install the bonding strap in the panel, leaving it in plain view in the bottom of the panel for him to see as if I got interrupted and didnt get back to installing it....
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
This is one of the reasons I do not give the GC or the property owner the results of my inspections. I contact the EC directly if there are issues and he is not present during the inspection.
Click to expand...
I wish every inspector did that. The other end of that spectrum is the guy that scribbles a couple cryptic words on the correction notice and won't return voice mail inquiries on what it is he wants. I had one the other week that just said "not done yet" on the red tag. Duh? I didn't even call for an inspection, mostly because I was not done yet. :roll:
 
Is he referring to the supplemental gec? When I did res work, we always had to pull a #6 (depending on length) to ground the jacuzzi motors. This was in addition to the GFCI protection and ground in the plug attachment.

I cannot quote the code, I just did what I was told in those days :)
 
mdshunk said:
I wish every inspector did that. The other end of that spectrum is the guy that scribbles a couple cryptic words on the correction notice and won't return voice mail inquiries on what it is he wants. I had one the other week that just said "not done yet" on the red tag. Duh? I didn't even call for an inspection, mostly because I was not done yet. :roll:
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How does an inspector go to a perform an inspection when he has not been called by the EC??
I never understood that.

By law, even if an application is pulled, an inspector cannot enter private property without an "invitation" (a call for inspection). That would be called trespass.

Even if one deems there is a safety issue, permission is required or a judge has to sign a piece of paper saying the inspector is permitted to enter the property.



I wrote a violation for work performed without a permit the other day. The building commissioner was not happy that I entered the basement of the property. He saw the building permit for the work I was inspecting, and it did not mention the basement, only the first, second and third floors. I had to explain to him the EC used the basement as his path for cabling and that is when I saw the nonpermitted work in progress.
 
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