Stop Work Orders

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mdshunk

mdshunk

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If there's a big red "Stop Work Order" pasted on a jobsite, and the notation is "no plumbing permit, no licensed plumbing contractor", does that mean I have to stop my electrical work too? There's not much info on the actual stop work order. How do these things normally work?
 
480sparky said:
I'd play it safe and stay away until the fireworks are over between the AHJ and the PC.
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That's sorta what I'm doing. I hate to call the building department and ask. I have a feeling that I might be allowed to continue, but I'd sooner not get in the mix. I do have other stuff to do, but there's nothing in my contract about work stoppages due to the AHJ. I'm wondering for "next time", when it does matter and I need to keep working. It seems weird to me that a screw-up on the part of another trade might cause me to stop work also, but I guess it's possible. I was sorta wondering if anyone else had any experience with a job with a 'stop work' posted, and how that worked for them. Maybe it varies from place to place?
 
The closest I ever came to this was a basement finish I did last winter. Pulled a permit, and called for a rough-in inspection. When the inspector arrived, he looked my work over and said, "Looks good. Now we just need to the the owner to get permits for the framing, plumbing, HVAC...."
HO was pretty peeved I got a permit 'cause he was trying to avoid his property taxes going up. I told him "Homey don't play that game!"
 
Marc
I would definitely call the building department and make sure you ask to speak to the building official, not his/her secretary.

In my experience as an inspector, and dealing with the building department, they will not be upset if you call, and it shows respect. The benefit is you will find out if you can complete your work, or if there will be a lengthy stop order.

Let us know what you will do.
 
Jomaul said:
It's been my experience that all work stops and if you get caught working on the project you get fined big time
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Agreed. Only happened once to me. A house was built 3' off where it was supposed to be, and ALL work stopped until the issue was resolved.
 
This is a question of fact, not of opinion. The person in authority who posted the notice either does, nor does not, have jurisdiction over all trades. Only the building department (or whatever it is called in a given area) knows for certain.

That said, my opinion of how it should be is that an inspection should only have authority over the trade in which he or she practices. A plumbing inspector should not be able to tell an electrician to stop work. So if that is not the law of the land in your chunk of land, feel free to get the process of changing the law into motion. Tell ?em I said so. :cool: :roll: :wink: :D
 
LarryFine said:
I'm suprised this wasn't discussed beforehand.
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Always a good idea. Had a potential customer a few years ago, remodel project, we discussed all that he wanted done and things were going fine till I asked to verify name and address on permit.
"You cant do this without a permit"?
" No sir, I cant".
I knew from the look on his face I would'nt be getting this job.:roll:
 
mdshunk said:
It seems weird to me that a screw-up on the part of another trade might cause me to stop work also, but I guess it's possible.
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The way it works here is that unless you have an electrical only permit then the building permit is what's on hold. When a building permit is issued then the electrician, plumber and HVAC contractors just sign in as the license holder of record. It's up to the General Contractor to find licensed trades people and have them on the job. I would be calling the General Contractors and finding out why there is not a licensed plumber signed in for the job and I would cry and complain a lot about all the money it's costing me. ( Just for the fun of it):grin:
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
So Marc, how did you handle the situation?
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I'm just doing other stuff for now. It's sort of a mixed blessing at the moment, since I really have a little more on my plate than I can handle right now. Having an excuse for something to fall out of the schedule for a bit will be okay. I probably will phone sometime next week to find out the real scoop on how these stop work things are supposed to work in our area. On this particular job, there is both a building permit and an electrical permit pulled.
 
growler said:
The way it works here is that unless you have an electrical only permit then the building permit is what's on hold. When a building permit is issued then the electrician, plumber and HVAC contractors just sign in as the license holder of record. It's up to the General Contractor to find licensed trades people and have them on the job. I would be calling the General Contractors and finding out why there is not a licensed plumber signed in for the job and I would cry and complain a lot about all the money it's costing me. ( Just for the fun of it):grin:
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Dale,
We had an intresting one last year the GC had all the licensed trades working the job, except he decided to do the plumbing himself, when the inspector came, he noticed there was no plumber of record, he slapped a stop work notice on the job, and even went so far as to notify the police to keep an eye on the location, for work activity, we had a good down paymnt and a second progress payment , so we were not hit so bad, 9 months later the GC found a licensed plumber, and the job resumed, owner was not a happy camper.
 
Around these parts, STOP WORK means just that: ALL work. This is to get the attention of the builder, owner, etc. to get the offending issues resolved.

We had a job where they were excavating and installing forms to pour a concrete driveway. Well, it seems that they encroached on "town right-of-way" and an inspector had told them to fix it.

The work crews thought that since the inspector was a woman, they could ignore her, and continue on with their "work" ... :roll:

Imagine their shock when she returned an hour later with a bright red stop work order, and kicked them all off the job! :mad:

We found out the next morning when we showed up to begin the electrical rough-in. Needless to say, soon as we saw that notice we high-tailed it to the next job. I called the builder and told him we were not going there as long as it was posted by the town. This particular town has a "Boss-Hogg" mentality and you don't want to mess with city hall....:mad:
 
Here we issue a "Stop Work Notice" only on the portion of work involved. If the plumber doesn't have a permit then everyone else can continue working, to a point. Obviously the drywallers are going to be held up, and possibly some other trades depending on the scope of work.

Of course some of that depends on the work being done. If we stop the GC then we may have to stop everyone else, because his framing may not be right and we don't want everyone else to continue and just make the situation worse.
 
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