Inspector responsibility

[Eigenvector]

I have an inspector coming over to sign off on the grounding job that I'm having done. One question, when the inspector is present, is it his duty or job to also spot other non-code or hazardous within the structure - outside of what is being worked on?

My house undoubtedly contains numerous out of code conditions, all of which are work in progress for me. So when he/she/it shows up can I expect him to reserve his comments for the job at hand or will he walk about pointing out things that need to be fixed elsewhere?

[RBM]

Your town, or city will have specifics regarding the responsibility of an electrical inspector and it varies widely

[marson]

it will also depend on the personality of the individual inspector. the electrical inspectors i have dealt with tend to have tunnel vision for electrical work. i wouldn't worry about especially if it is existing work.

[buffalobill]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Much depends on the inspector too. Some are grumpy jerks that have not been laid in 20 years and enjoy giving you a hard time. Most are reasonable people and would give you some pointers on how to correct a problem. If he knows you are correcting problems, he will not hassle you.

Some homeowners try to hide stuff, take shortcuts and do things half assed. They deserve the wrath of the inspector.

[gfretwell]

As a general rule they only look at things within the scope of the permit. If you have other unpermitted "new work" going on you could be in trouble but if it has dirt on it and it isn't smoking he probably won't care. I might still throw a blanket over something you don't want him to see. The "code enforcement/zoning" inspector is another animal. He gets paid for catching people.

[Tim Fischer]

If it's really half-assed, bad work that never met code he'll probably bring it up, but if you can convince him you inherited it, you're probably ok. If it's stuff that once met code but no longer does, you're ok. If it's somewhere inbetween, it's kind of up to the inspector. If it's unrelated to the job at hand and you explain that you're slowly bringing everything up to code, you're probably fine.

If, on the other hand, you created the situation due to prior bad work of your own, then you deserve what you get

-Tim

P.S. I wouldn't "throw a blanket" like the other post said, that would arouse lots of suspicion and prove that you were trying to hide something.

[Tom The Great]

In my experience:

I've had electrical inspectors check my work, on sites that seemed under constant DIY work by the home owner. The inspector passed my work, and while chatting started looking around as he talked.

I learned something, like a cop being called to a scene for loud music will act if he see other illegal activities, your inspector can also do so. Since 99% of work I've seen that was 'WRONG' and 'UNSAFE' was unpermitted and uninspected. So he/she is securing their job and your safety.

Good luck,

tom @

[bigjim]

It's not the state's busines what you do with your home. Hide all you can and do it yourself. What thye dont know cant hurt you!!!!

Edw>

[RBM]

Largely, I agree with you, however it's also true, that what you don't know may hurt you or someone else. For the most part these inspectors are just trying to prevent fires and electrocution

[gfretwell]

That is certainly true of a real building department inspector but some places tend to blur that with the tax assessor's office. In my area they are two separate entities that do not really compare notes. I have lots of unpermitted, uninspected projects around here but the tax man found them all within a year. I never heard from the building department. I imagine it is because the fees for a homeowner project do not cover the cost of the inspections.

[Eigenvector]

It doesn't sound like it will be an issue then. I'm not trying to hide anything so much as I'm fully aware that the house does in fact need a lot of work. The laws were much more lax in 1960 than they were today so I was wondering what he would say about all that half-assed work they did back then. It's a catch-22 situation for me. I need him to pass the work on the box so that I can start in on fixing the crappy work they did back then. But I don't want him to fail the work for the box simply because the rest of the house needs repairs.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If the work complies with the 1960 rules, you have no problem. they cannot force you to upgrade old work. New, or course must comply. I don't see it as a problem for you and you will probably make him happy that the other work is going to be upgraded.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

After my last post, I found thins posted by David Nebenazhl. Explains what I was getting at.