Is This Your Homemade Stamp?

[Southside]

We installed a 3 phase, 1000 Amp entrance a number of years back, hooked it to a generator so not sure why I really needed a permit and inspection, anyway - when the inspector came he was walking through and commented that he "had never seen anything like this" which of course left me with a bad taste in my mouth that I just paid $100 to give a tour of my place.  Never bothered to pull a permit again when we had to do work there.  

[Wudman]

When I started on my house years ago, I planned to serve as my own general contractor and do much of the work myself.  I called the building inspector and asked him what information he needed to issue the permit.  He listed the items that he needed from me.  I drafted my own plans for the house using  off the shelf software and had my brother in law (who worked for a commercial builder) print them full size for me.

When I went to the office to pull my permit, the building inspector was not there.  His Admin handled the process for me.  She flipped through my documentation and application.  "This is the most complete application and set of plans I have ever seen.  We have contractors through here all the time that don't have this information.  How did you know what we needed?"  My reply, "I called him and asked".  I walked out with my permit.  I had no problems with inspection during the building process.  

Wudman

[metalspinner]

Wudman,
I had a similar experience with my city’s Board of Zoning and Appeals. 
My building is way larger than the 600sqft allowed without a Special Exception. So I went before them with full plans, etc. They even invited all of my adjoining neighbor’s to the meeting - with a written invitation - to voice their concerns. 
Thankfully, I had all my ducks in a row and everything went well. 

[SawyerTed]

I’ve found the same thing with building inspectors.  I ask how they want it  then do it exactly their way.  Usually they look and issue the inspection stamp and leave. If I have had something not pass, I call and they tell me exactly what to do. 

Acting dumb and being smart works,  at least for me with building inspectors. 

[Southside]

To follow up on that we learned pretty quickly to leave something not quite obvious, but not horribly hard to find during barracks inspections so the DI would feel successful, bust us, and be on his way.  Take our medicine and get back to work. Always figured they had done the same anyway.