Is This Your Homemade Stamp?

[Ianab]

I bet the customer / builder had told the Inspector "The guy I bought it off said it was good / graded". 

If you told him it was ungraded / not guaranteed structural, then the customer was on the hook for using it wrong. If you had fed the inspector a line, it might have come back to haunt you. 

It's ironic that building failures are seldom down to owner/builder using ungraded wood. It's more often large industry companies taking shortcuts to save a few $$.  House leaks due to cheap (but trendy) cladding, and untreated wood rots out after a few years. 

Meanwhile an overbuilt 60 year old house with decent eaves to shed water is fine... 

[SwampDonkey]

There was a true to life movie of an old guy in Saint John, NB who sawed his own and built his own home. He was a master carpenter and his trees were old growth red spruce with tight rings. He had quite a time with inspectors, went to court and won. They couldn't prove it was structurally unsound just because the lumber was not inspected and stamped with ink.

What is ironic when I think about it. We built a packing shed in 1987, cut spruce, had it sawed at a local mill, engineer approved the wood to build the structure. 50 x 80 feet. Built our own rafters, whole nine yards. 1994 comes along, had a much larger addition to add on. Reputable contractor does the work, engineered trusses made locally. Woods all graded and stamped from whichever mill it came from. Snow took it down in 2020. Older section we build before, stood strong.  :D

[azmtnman]

It's ironic that building failures are seldom down to owner/builder using ungraded wood. It's more often large industry companies taking shortcuts to save a few $$.  House leaks due to cheap (but trendy) cladding, and untreated wood rots out after a few years.

Meanwhile an overbuilt 60 year old house with decent eaves to shed water is fine...

This.
What did we ever do before we had powers-that-be to take care of us?  :D :D :D
I don't know, but I'm willing to bet the county building code departments belong to an association that will back them up in court?? Does anyone know? 
What jerks my chain is that there isn't even any provision for the owner/builder to use his home sawn material--like "code calls for a 2x4 so use a 2x6 and you'll be good."
What was meant to protect and help people has become an extorsion industry. 

[Mooseherder]

Some States are more reasonable.

New Hampshire Native Lumber law | UNH Extension

§ 43-28-313. Tennessee Native Species Lumber Act. :: 2016 Tennessee Code :: US Codes and Statutes :: US Law :: Justia

[lazyflee]

 

This is the back room of my restaurant. Built this little pony wall to separate our new casino area. First, submit plan to state and DOJ, approved, build wall. Then, Inspected by county health inspector, state fire marshall, county and state building inspectors, and finally DOJ inspector. Just for a 4' tall wall with no load bearing or electrical. Forms, forms, and more forms. Tax dollars hard at work!

[barbender]

Parasites 

[Jeff]

If it were not for building inspectors I would be the proud owner of a vertical log cabin in the U.P.  Not a fan.

[YellowHammer]

I had a high school acquaintance get in big time trouble with the law many years ago.  He and his business partner would buy truckloads of structural graded lumber, obscure the existing grade stamp, and restamp the wood with a counterfeit stamp of a higher grade.  Then they would resell the wood at a higher price, because it was marked at a higher grade.

Basically a wood product chop shop. 

[Nebraska]

What the heck is wrong with a vertical log cabin?!!?

[terrifictimbersllc]

There was a true to life movie of an old guy in Saint John, NB who sawed his own and built his own home.

 "Still Mine".  Very good but very aggravating to watch. 

[SwampDonkey]

Here's more details about Craig Morrison's case.

https://martyklinkenberg.weebly.com/article.html

[barbender]

YH, if I have to go to the Big House, I want it to be for something that is a bit crazy and/or dangerous. Running drugs, armed robbery, grand theft auto...I'd hate to tell my cellmate I was in for restamping lumber😂😂

[Don P]

Almost as bad as saying you're in for littering  :D

What did we ever do before we had powers-that-be to take care of us?  :D :D :D
I don't know, but I'm willing to bet the county building code departments belong to an association that will back them up in court?? Does anyone know?

There is no doubt tough enforcement does save lives. Don't have to love it but them's the facts.

A building inspector, much like a cop does have immunity from prosecution if they are acting properly in their duties. There are complaint mechanisms. If there is a difference of opinion on the interpretation in his application of a particular code there is a technical review board that will hear both sides of the disagreement and render an opinion on that appeal although that opinion is just that, it doesn't have force of law. Since a code is a law a person can also seek redress in a court of law. The county is who would back them up in court as far as legal representation. I have seen a TRB opinion overturned in court.

The examples you all are complaining about are owner builders, people using their wood for their house. That is one issue. The example I started the thread with is someone misrepresenting wood for sale to others as being graded and suitable for others to use, a different issue. I'm fine with the discussion but do notice those are different things. In fact, when I want to use wood I've sawn in a house, it isn't my house. I think you all know I'm a responsible person but should anyone in my situation be free to do that without oversight. I've seen a fair amount of work and of considerably different quality and safety. Life gets complicated don't it  :D.

The building official we endured here for the last 16 years had many more complaints against him than should have been possible to maintain his job. He used the power of his position as a club to beat those he didn't care for. I imagine he cost the people of this poor rural county millions of dollars. In that regard I think we do a poor job of weeding out people who are unfit for such responsibility. He's head of the state building officials association now but he is out of our hair. I also saw him mentor young people and bring in big grants to the county. I think the new guy is going to do just fine, in my aggravation with the department I was less than welcoming in our first exchange. A reminder that every human is unique.

[Southside]

A few years back the local building inspector and an assistant showed up here because he got an "anonymous complaint" that I was building a chimney without a permit.  If you saw where we live you would scratch your head.  I knew right away who had made the complaint as a neighbor, I have yet to see when he is sober, showed up one day when I was carrying two buckets of bricks out of the house from demoing an old chimney that had not gone through the roof for 25 years.  Anyway, I happened to be in the woods off the side of the house a bit clearing an area and when they pulled in my skidder and saw happened to be off.  So they pulled in and heard and saw nothing, turned around, and were leaving as I walked out of the woods - wearing my cutting helmet, chaps, gloves, boots, etc.  They didn't see me until I was right up to their vehicle and when they did see me their eyes all but popped out of their heads.  Clearly they were startled by this guy suddenly standing by their door dressed like Freddy Kruger and you could tell they were trying to understand why I was dressed like that.  Not being one to let go when I have the upper hand I just went along with the conversation as though I simply walk around dressed like that.  It was funny, they could not get out of there fast enough, and actually apologized for bothering me and told me they would not be back.  Yup - completely spooked - just the way I like it.  

Fast forward to now and I have done two jobs for building inspectors from other counties this year already, and to this day locally they leave the crazy guy alone.   8)

[Jeff]

What the heck is wrong with a vertical log cabin?!!?

In the U.P. no less!
An inspector that was from down state who "retired" to dafter in the u.p.. Who became the buulding inspector for chippewa county who saw vertical log houses built on stumps and rocks around lakes he visited and figured they all rot. He didnt like em. He wanted me to have signed engineered drawings to proceed.  That would of cost more than it took to build the cabin.  Find an old very long topic called dreams of a cabin.

[donbj]

What the heck is wrong with a vertical log cabin?!!?

In the U.P. no less!
An inspector that was from down state who "retired" to dafter in the u.p.. Who became the buulding inspector for chippewa county who saw vertical log houses built on stumps and rocks around lakes he visited and figured they all rot. He didnt like em. He wanted me to have signed engineered drawings to proceed.  That would of cost more than it took to build the cabin.  Find an old very long topic called dreams of a cabin.

Need to factor resale into the picture and the situation gets clearer, and I'm sure you get it. Some of this stuff gets built with no regard to standards and the next owner gets holding the bag. Thus the "big brother"syndrome.

[SwampDonkey]

I think it is up to the buyer to do there due diligence. When I buy a piece of land it's not a requirement the boundary lines are marked, not required to have a road built up through the middle of it, not required to have every tree inventoried, not required to haul all the old junk iron hauled off it........... :  Some folks are just lazy and do everything sight unseen, a lot of that showing itself during the pandemic besides the ridiculous price people will pay for old structures needing a tonne of work. Most move on within 5 years of buying those old relics. Another thing that comes up is any time you have a requirement by law or government oversight on a project, the rates go up by the job or the hour. Put in a drain field and find out, for instance. A $5000 job will be $10,000 or more, I guarantee it. The whole thing invites being taken advantage of in your wallet. The tank system is only $1100 locally and the 2 tubes out from that are surely less than that for a bunch of plastic. Then your digging hours. Since most of us are not on sand, your going to be hauling sand for the field. At most, a half day job with a crew with their stuff together. But oh no, it has to be inspected before it is covered. And the inspector ain't going to be there the day your putting it together. Money money money.

[mike_belben]

Well we are always griping about the shortage of laborers around here.


If you plot out the growth of regulations as an American cultural phenomenon, cross reference that to the trend of 'everyone without an advanced degree is a loser' and then think back to the shortage of actual workers curve, it becomes clear that a lot of folks who didnt degree their way into the executive management wing as planned, found homes as inspectors, regulators and enforcers.  


A title and authority scratches a lot of small, cowardly people's itch for might and power.  That is not to say that all inspectors are that way.  It is to say people who are already like that will seek positions to wield.  When they get the authority, theyll flex it to medicate their powertrip.


I got $200/day fines from one such enforcer midgit without actually doing much of anything wrong.  That guy couldnt wait to jump on me.  Mailed me pictures of my house like every week.  Never man enough to knock on the door.   5'2" with lots of stories of intimidating people when i finally met him.  Wore that badge like a texas belt buckle.  Sherriff complex.  theyre a dime a dozen in mediocre power positions. 

[SwampDonkey]

My uncle had one in court. Sitting there on the stand with his knees up to his chest like a 4 year old, but with a smile on his face. It was a wonder the judge didn't instruct him to sit proper, that right there was an indicator that he was not going to be judged. They just shuffled him from Farm Credit to signing your drivers license and lived happily ever after. A real winner that one. Cost many farmers their livelihood and no accountability. The darkest days of modern times for rural NB was during Premier Mckenna's 2 terms of office. His biggest legacy was call centres that all failed. People who didn't have to deal with crap thought of him as their shiny haired boy. :

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Almost as bad as saying you're in for littering  

Yep, Arlo Gutherie found out how bad that was at Alice's Restaurant!!!

[YellowHammer]

YH, if I have to go to the Big House, I want it to be for something that is a bit crazy and/or dangerous. Running drugs, armed robbery, grand theft auto...I'd hate to tell my cellmate I was in for restamping lumber😂😂

I agree, they figured nobody would care, I guess, certainly not the multimillion dollar subdivision builders and contractors who were unknowingly buying their counterfeit lumber and using it. :D ;)  For some reason, those people cared a lot, and came at them like a runaway train.

A classic case of how short term thinking can get someone in long term trouble.  

[moodnacreek]

All the parasites appear when real estate changes hands. About the only way around it is to have cash and know what you are buying. Then you can hardly touch the place without more parasites.  Everyone wants to be protected at someone else's expense and so we are here.

[mike_belben]

Yeah, liability hot potato.  

[Jeff]

I told the inspector when he said his concern was not for me, but the next guy, I told him I didn't give s rat's _ _ _ about the next guy. When I'm gone, burn it with me in it.

[barbender]

You gave him the the FB Jeff, every inspector's nightmare!😁 I don't know what business they have in hunting shacks and cabins anyhow. Thankfully (for me) Itasca County does not require building inspections. Some of the municipalities within the County do, but as long as you fall under county jurisdiction you are good. The only inspection I had to get was the MN state mandated electrical, and the County sewer inspection when we built our house.