As lo0ng as it's safely done I have no problem. But as I've seen here in just the past two days it appears people don't know much. For instance, wiring 240V o0utlet with seperate electrical runs. If you're house caught fire and then caused mine to go up I'd be pretty pissed.
I would be also quite pissed if I bought a house from some punk who miswired it.
i
I guess one thing to keep in mind when DIYing, especially w/regard to electrical, is the effect it will have on your home insurance.
ml
Sasha,
I guess I'm lucky. We built our own house last year (Washington State), and did all the foundation, framing, plumbing, electrical, etc. ourselves. We had at least 7-8 different inspectors over a 2 year period, and every single one of them was pleasant to deal with, helpful when I had questions, and usually commented on the excellent quality of our work. We'd call in an inspection and they always showed up the next morning. We passed every inspection without a single correction needed.
Our electrical inspector was a little apprehensive when he first showed up and realized we did the wiring ourselves. But once he saw our work met or exceeded all codes, he seemed very impressed and was more than happy to approve our work.
The closest thing to a "hurdle" was the health department. They didn't visit the site, but wanted me to draw up the plot plan in their office. They seemed concerned about the proximity of our well and septic system. Obviously my drawing was NOT to scale, we have more than the minimum distances, and the system had been inspected and approved twice already in the past several years. It only took a few minutes to straighten out and wasn't a big deal, but that was the closest thing to a problem we encountered.
Unless codes have changed, vent sizes ARE determined by fixture units, but at least one 3" vent is required to reduce the change of frost/snow closure.
In our house, I wanted to minimize the number of roof penetrations, so we just have the single 3" roof vent (to match our 3" main drain). I ran 2" vents from all fixtures in the house and tied them into the single roof vent (with a 3" trunk line running through the attic). The inspector approved it easily and said it was way more than I needed, but it accomplished the single roof vent I wanted.
Hmm, never heard that one before. Usually the concern is that the toilet is placed too far from a vent, which could lead to siphon and drainage problems. If I remember correctly, the toilet drain can run a maximum of 6' before it is vented (2" minimum vents for toilets). My 3" toilet drains run about 2 feet before a 2" vent heads off to the attic.
I don't know your situation, but I'm not sure if they are allowed in "concealed" locations? I could be wrong though, as they are the standard way of connecting no-hub cast iron piping.
I used one in our attic to connect our 3" PVC plumbing with a 3" ABS section to stick out the roof (didn't want a white pipe above the roof, and didn't have the vertical room for male/female adapters). I also used a couple in our crawlspace for our bathtubs and master shower, as it made installation and future maintenance easier.
Good luck!
Anthony
Did you paint the ABS pipe? My understanding is that plastic pipes shouldn't be exposed outside. [Exception: those with UV inhibitors, like (I think) grey electrical plastic conduit.] For this reason I use a short length of copper DWV for any exterior vent.
To the OP, one thing my inspector told me was that rubber couplings with two individual metal clamps separated by exposed rubber are only approved for buried use. In exposed locations, indoors and out, the rubber couplings should have a continuous metal shield for the full length. Could this be what your inspector was complaining about?
Cheers, Wayne
Generally speaking, code compliance or lack thereof will not have any effect on your insurance coverage if your house burns down. Lies, fraud and cheating will void an insurance policy. Mere stupidity won't.
Well, you just may not get insurance again through that carrier either.
Lies, fraud and
Wayne,
Nope, just the bare ABS above the roof.
I've heard the same thing about exposed plastic pipe (primarily PVC), but every house in our area (even million dollar homes) have the bare ABS above the roof. Only 2 feet or so is exposed to the sun, and doesn't have any water or anything causing pressure. I suppose it could deteriorate and crack if someone leaned on it 10 years from now, but I'm not real concerned. Thanks to the Fernco coupling, it's easily replaced if there's ever a problem.
Anthony
anything.
6:00 news onyou have chose to be a jerk... sorry. But thats not impressive. There is NO need or requirement that one dig up referrences for everything he asserts...thats only if you are a journalist or whatever.
In conversation one says whate wishes and others get to decide if its valid or not... certainly you can *ask for a reference as you did... but there is no requirement to supply one. I am not going to spend the time to dig up the channel 7 news or SF Chronicle archives.
So take it or leave it.
However fraud in government is not exactly something new...it tends to be way more than pervasive. In this thread we have several others post of long standing practices of 'tipping' building inspectors if you want your job to pass. that should be a clooo for you.
Unfortunately now, since you have been unpleasant I must terminate further discussion with you.
Phil Scott
In my home town I'm not allowed to celebrate July4. I am, however, allowed to PAY to watch the city officials celebrate my Independence for me.
I don't bother, and only partially because I don't hold any grudges against the Brits for what their ancestors King did, long ago. That was certainly no worse than what MY "gummint" is doing.
OK, then what you are saying is that a vent that is being used as part of the drain for example a fixture on an upper floor of a building would be a wet vent, right?
Most homes that are two story of more place a toilet in the same location on the second floor as on the first. That way the same stack serves as the drain, for both levels, and vents the lower toilet at the same time, Then the pipe above the upper toilet that exits the roof would be considered the dry vent. I understand the principal but never heard those terms, Makes sense though.
Mark
It has always been my experience that it takes two assholes to make a bar fight. If you've got homeowners/contractors trying to cut corners and violate the codes then, and only then, do you have a situation where a bribe can fix the situation. I have never had an issue with an inspector on site and have never paid a bribe in 25 years, and I've done jobs in the Boston neighborhoods too. It is my job to know at least as much about the current codes as the inspector and I follow them closely or surpass them, so there is very little to argue about. No opportunity, no problem. But I did decide once to pay a neighborhood guy's 12 year old kid and a couple of his friends $100 a week (1980's) to keep a watch out in order to be sure nothing happened to my jobsite! (The old man collected the money)
Easy there Cowboy! Put the gun down. Here, have a beer...
We don't call her MA for nothin!
And we have plenty of cowboys up here too. They do their own work and no one says anything and everyone is fine unless some d*****ad homeowner buys the house and brings in some lawyers......
It IS on alt.conspiracy.theory. At least, is WAS...... ;-P
There was no corner cutting or trying to violate code. I made a simple mistake, neglecting the width of some decorative skirting I wasn't planning on at the time I did the design. Ok, I guess I was trying to violate code by having him approve the deck when it was in fact 1/2 inch too close to the property line.
I see two acceptable outcomes to this. 1) The guy says yeah, you screwed up, but it's not dangerous, and its barely noticeable so I'm going to let you pass this time. 2) The guy says I'm sorry, you're in violation of code and I can't allow this to pass.
Note that 3) You are in violation of code but for an undocumented fee of $20 I will allow this to pass
is not on the list.
ml
Yeah, sorry. I wasn't really talking about your case. I was commenting on the more generalized discussion on making and taking bribes. In your case any reasonable person would just let it go. What the inspector was probably thinking as he stood there in silence was: Is this guy trying to pull something over on me? Can someone sue the Town over this? Can someone sue ME over this? Do I need this aggravation?
Post the news articles you referenced or STFU. btw, you haven't seen unpleasant.
Half inch? Not much in the scheme of life. I cannot imagine a reasonable inspector not re-measuring this to see if there is truly an error. How certain is he that the property line is exact from where he is measuring? If you can get it to be 15/32" maybe he will round down the measurement.
I believe the point you mentioned was one more thing he may have been considering when he paused. Waiting for a bribe during that infamous pause has been entertaining fodder in this thread, but I doubt there's any validity to it in this case.
That was my thought as well. It is hilarious that anyone would think that property lines are accurate to a 1/2". I've had property surveyed by two different surveyors and had corner point locations differ by a nearly a foot over a run of a few hundred feet.
Although it is probably cheaper to fix the deck than to have the lot surveyed ... and there is always the danger than the next survey will put the line even closer to the deck! :-)
Matt
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