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Building inspectors and home inspectors may have similar backgrounds, but they serve different roles. A building inspector works for a municipal entity or private company and inspects buildings during the construction process, whereas a home inspector is usually an independent contractor hired by buyers to evaluate existing buildings for safety and soundness. In this blog, we’ll delve deeper into the differences between the two professions.

Today we will be discussing about inspections related to a building permit from a building code point of view. As we have discussed in other blogs, there are different departments that also review and inspect as part of the building process. There could be other inspections such as final site inspections, final fire inspection, or final health inspection, etc.

Can I do a project as an owner-builder? What are the limitations? What I am responsible for? These are questions I get asked all the time.

Base Building Codes

As a code consulting professional, I like to explain how the state-specific codes are developed and how to use them.

I live in the beautiful state of Florida, and before 2002 there were building codes in the state, but pretty much each jurisdiction had their own codes and local requirements regarding the building portion of the code.

With another storm on the horizon, I want to take this time to explain storm surges:
The news in their desire to provide information, often do so in a context that is not clear for everyone. I have been working in construction and everything associated to the building codes for over 18 years, I’m accustomed to the language and what it meant, but never thought about explaining it to the people closest to me.

Today I want to share some helpful information about what is available to anyone online. In our last blog we talked about the zoning codes and the building codes, so I decided to provide helpful links here to the resources for those codes. I will start with the simple single statewide code, the Florida Building Code. This link allows you to see all the building codes which includes about eight books, all of which you can electronically search and read about what applies under each category.

Today we will take a look at different codes that typically apply to construction projects. There are a number of different reviews that will apply, but in general these are divided into two main areas: Building Codes and Zoning Codes. These codes are quite different in nature, but when people think of building permits, most people only think about the building codes and setbacks.

TUP stands for temporary use permit, and it is a type of permit that allows short-term activities that may not meet the current development and zoning codes, but since it is temporary in nature, it is allowed under these special circumstances. This type of temporary permit is not necessarily a building permit but often is a zoning permit.

Why do contractors need to register? In general, local building departments are tasked with ensuring that the building codes and local regulations are followed by the businesses and residents of the city. As part of the process, they also have to ensure that the person applying for a permit is a legitimate contractor and has the proper documentation as required by the State or local government.

Remodels are an interesting type of permit; in my opinion they are easy and simple to process, but the simplest remodels can generate a lot of comments from the reviewers. When I did plan review, I often preferred to work on a large projects rather than the smaller ones, because very often the larger projects had less comments than the simple ones.