Dreams30 said:
mtman,
That is what others have also advised me to do. I don't like the feeling that I have to duck and hide to build my own home. If they want me to get it inspected then, that is fine as long as I know what rules they want me to follow.
It bothers me that I may have to just "wing it" because I can't find out the info.
Anyone else know....?
well, i know in most of these country towns, you can do pretty much anything yourself, now ,
it is subject to inspection, as for codes, use the
UBC/IBC, and you'll be fine no matter where you are youre best bet is to call the county where youre building and ask for the
building / inspectors office, and ask him/her for a quick run down on what they inspect for, this is
assuming you have a good working knowledge of general codes otherwise, arkansas code books run about 200.00, and you still have to read the darn things, which is kind of different , its like reading a textbook , so if you dont know what youre reading , it wont help you much
we build here in southern mo all the time, and yes , we are subject to inspection at any time, however, outside of branson city limits and our large commercial projects i can count on one hand the number of times we have been inspected, and then its usually only if a neighbor is trying to raise a stink , we've never failed an inspection,mainly because we build and plan our buildings just like if we WERE subject to inspection at any time !
the main problem people have when building independantly is lack of knowledge of home building codes, i have seen owner built homes with 24OC for floor joists !!!
in fact we just did some minor remodeling on a older mom and pop hotel down here, we redid a couple of bathrooms, and under BOTH of them , there was bare wire next to the plumbing fixtures, run right across the wooden floor joists ....hmmm fire hazard anyone ?.
needless to say we reccomended removing it all, but , the owner couldnt afford it, so we just removed what we could get to, which was in the two baths we did , and the two between the two we did ..since its a safety issue
like i said before, call the county or city offices where youre building, and talk to the inspector, let them know youre building yourself, and want to adhere to thecodes, and ask them what they check for on inspections, and then build appropriately ,generally , theses guys are smart , and they dont want substandard housing put up any more than you want to live in one, and they will generally help you ,
when i was building my first house in rural wisconsin , i did this, and the inspector came out and actually helped out quite bit on the house, plus he walked me through his inspection sheet, and told me what he would be looking for , as well as the timing of the inspections, there was a framing inspection, a plumbing inspection, septic inspection wiring inspection , and a final inspection
i had no idea i needed that many inspections , so had i built and had it all done before i called, he would have had to tear through drywall to complete the inspection
anyhow, to paraphrase, call your county, unless youre building in a bigger city, chances are theres no city or local codes
