Meanwhile in Florida
#256
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
Working on properties here I have noticed that most older people and a fair few younger ones have absolutely no qualms about picking up a big hammer and a saw and making a complete dog's dinner of their property without having a clue about what they are doing. Only yesterday my wife was telling me about some people she knew who had moved into a trailer in SC and made it unliveable by knocking out walls that weren't supposed to be removed, I rudely interrupted her half way through and said that I'd already heard the story about her brother in law's brother but turns out this was a different trailer wrecker, f**kwits, f**kwits everywhere!!!
Last edited by Pulaski; Jun 27th 2020 at 8:17 pm.
#257
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Location: Near Lynchburg Tennessee, home of Jack Daniels
Posts: 1,381
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
Here in Moore county Tennessee I was going to build a house a few years ago and went to get building permit and it was 0ne dollar and they didn’t want to see any plans or drawings or require inspections. Twenty years later got another house permit and it was $50 but still no plans needed or inspections required except electrical and septic which have always been required.
Last edited by ddsrph; Jun 27th 2020 at 7:47 pm.
#258
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
#259
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
I think it's universal, and some of it's so old it dates from when there weren't any codes to enforce. I've seen some funny stuff. When Charlie popped the cork on the wine in the kitchen of the old United Church manse, it hit the ceiling and a huge piece of plaster 2' x 2' fell down, followed by rotten lath and a whole bunch of gravel. Why would anyone put gravel between the ceiling joists? The attic and the walls had zonolite, which was standard for the era of the build, but the kitchen had 2 to 3 inches of gravel up top.
FWIW the stud wall down one side of the kitchen, that appears to have dated from a modernization c1980, had no discernible attachment to the ceiling joists other than the cove molding on the other side of the wall, and had been framed "4ft on centre"!
Last edited by Pulaski; Jun 27th 2020 at 9:05 pm.
#260
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
Agreed, the parallels are uncanny, and you could take some of the newspaper reports from the time of the flu pandemic and with very little editing would describe precisely what has been happening in 2020.
I have come to realize over the past half dozen years or so, that the US operates a former of democracy that is little more than "managed anarchy" - the federal and state government is barely able to control what happens, and they do the best they can, with controls over businesses and transactions, but the population at large often get away with "doing their own thing", which is one reason that gun ownership is so common - I live in a county of several hundred square miles and at night there are only a handful of deputies providing police coverage, so if anyone broke in and I called 911, it could easily be ten minutes or more before a deputy could get to my home. So, so long as people don't cause too many ripples, the city/county, state, and federal government largely leave people alone.
For example, while there is a building permit and inspection process for home improvements and major repairs, I know from personal experience that you can entirely ignore the process and it is unlikely to be noticed even when you sell your home and it is subject to inspection. To wit, I am currently replacing part of the bathroom floor which had sagged where a previous owner had removed about 5ft of a main floor joist. He had not used joist hangers to properly secure the cross member he installed, used a cross member that had, for some reason been partially cut through (and fell out in two pieces when I removed it! ) and used 2x4's to "support" the part of the floor previously supported by the 2x8 joist! Obviously this would never have passed a code inspection! ..... So while I am rebuilding the floor supports with appropriately sized joist timbers, and more of them, and using proper joist hangers, I am also flying under the radar and not getting my work inspected.
I have come to realize over the past half dozen years or so, that the US operates a former of democracy that is little more than "managed anarchy" - the federal and state government is barely able to control what happens, and they do the best they can, with controls over businesses and transactions, but the population at large often get away with "doing their own thing", which is one reason that gun ownership is so common - I live in a county of several hundred square miles and at night there are only a handful of deputies providing police coverage, so if anyone broke in and I called 911, it could easily be ten minutes or more before a deputy could get to my home. So, so long as people don't cause too many ripples, the city/county, state, and federal government largely leave people alone.
For example, while there is a building permit and inspection process for home improvements and major repairs, I know from personal experience that you can entirely ignore the process and it is unlikely to be noticed even when you sell your home and it is subject to inspection. To wit, I am currently replacing part of the bathroom floor which had sagged where a previous owner had removed about 5ft of a main floor joist. He had not used joist hangers to properly secure the cross member he installed, used a cross member that had, for some reason been partially cut through (and fell out in two pieces when I removed it! ) and used 2x4's to "support" the part of the floor previously supported by the 2x8 joist! Obviously this would never have passed a code inspection! ..... So while I am rebuilding the floor supports with appropriately sized joist timbers, and more of them, and using proper joist hangers, I am also flying under the radar and not getting my work inspected.
When I was growing up we lived in an unincorporated area of San Diego County, but it was an area surrounded by 2 incorporated city's, an island of unincorporated land so to speak. Prior to the mind 1990's the Sheriff department only assigned 1 deputy to the area, not really a big deal at first thought as the area was small land wise, and not much crime, but that deputy also had a much larger area to also cover, so depending on where the 1 deputy was could take anywhere from a few minutes to 45 minutes to respond, assuming your call was more serious than whatever call the deputy was on when your call came in.
As the population grew they realized this wasn't going to work, so they signed contracts with the neighboring city's to provide police coverage when needed, so if no Deputy was available, 9-11 would dispatch officers from one of the 2 surrounding city's which meant normal response time for serious calls, under 8 minutes.
Rural CHP officers can have hundred + miles of highway to cover alone in some more remote/low populated middle of nowhere areas.
Most building permits here in Vancouver tend to be fairly expensive, lots of red tape, time consuming, so really most seem to just do the work without a permit, especially when doing basement suites, majority of basement suites are illegal in nature as no permit was ever given to build, but the cost of those permits and red tape are the reason why, city is now at a point they can't enforce the rules anymore for some things like basement suites because if they did, there would be massive backlash from the public who now have nowhere to live, the amount of people in basement suites is far higher than available apartments in the region, and this happens in almost every city in the area.
I get regulations but if you make them too expensive, and too much red tape, people just wont follow them, and since its a complaint based system, as long as your neighbor never complains about your deck, or interior renovation, the city will never know.
They do make some permits easy to get, was crazy easy to get a permit to close off 40 foot section of an arterial road to park a moving truck for 5 hours.
Last edited by scrubbedexpat091; Jun 27th 2020 at 11:02 pm.
#261
#262
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
Most building permits here in Vancouver tend to be fairly expensive, lots of red tape, time consuming, so really most seem to just do the work without a permit, especially when doing basement suites, majority of basement suites are illegal in nature as no permit was ever given to build, but the cost of those permits and red tape are the reason why, city is now at a point they can't enforce the rules anymore for some things like basement suites because if they did, there would be massive backlash from the public who now have nowhere to live, the amount of people in basement suites is far higher than available apartments in the region, and this happens in almost every city in the area.
#263
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
The reason that most housing developments in Florida have several ponds, or in many cases are completely surrounded by canal-like ponds, is that the ponds were dug as a source for the material to raise ground level by a foot or two, enough to build on without there being a flood every time it rained half an inch. .... Same for race tracks, whether for horses or cars - there is a pond in the centre, called a "borrow pit", which was used to source the earth to build up the track.
#265
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
We have some parts of Metro Vancouver that can't have basements due to the shallow water table, namely Richmond, BC the city across the river from Vancouver, its also high risk for liquefaction during a major earthquake.
But in a lot of houses the basement isn't a true basement as in its underground, the BC special as they call it, is really a 2 floor house, the main living area upstairs, the downstairs being called the basement even though its actually above ground.
Personally I think the style is ugly as can be, but during the big housing booms of the 60's to 80's it was from what I can tell the most popular design.
Last edited by scrubbedexpat091; Jun 28th 2020 at 5:15 pm.
#266
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Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 455
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
I can well understand the need to go through permitting for electrical work or for exterior doors and windows that might have fire egress implications, but having to get a permit and an inspection to replace the door on the bathroom seems like a bit much.
#268
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
I'm supposed to apply for an "interior remodel permit" before replacing the interior doors in my bathrooms and bedrooms.
I can well understand the need to go through permitting for electrical work or for exterior doors and windows that might have fire egress implications, but having to get a permit and an inspection to replace the door on the bathroom seems like a bit much.
I can well understand the need to go through permitting for electrical work or for exterior doors and windows that might have fire egress implications, but having to get a permit and an inspection to replace the door on the bathroom seems like a bit much.
#269
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Joined: Nov 2011
Location: Somewhere between Vancouver & St Johns
Posts: 19,850
Re: Meanwhile in Florida
I'm supposed to apply for an "interior remodel permit" before replacing the interior doors in my bathrooms and bedrooms.
I can well understand the need to go through permitting for electrical work or for exterior doors and windows that might have fire egress implications, but having to get a permit and an inspection to replace the door on the bathroom seems like a bit much.
I can well understand the need to go through permitting for electrical work or for exterior doors and windows that might have fire egress implications, but having to get a permit and an inspection to replace the door on the bathroom seems like a bit much.
#270
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