It's easy to bash the ahj, so lets remember that we all are human and make some mistakes. I know that those of us who subscribe to this list are perfect, so the statement only applies to those who do not subscribe. I think it has been well stated that you have to educate ahj many times. Many times the AHJ educated the contractor and so on. If it is rule with the iron first, you have to decide if it is a battle you want to take on. But in many cases this can be a great case for building relationships with AHJ's so you can discuss code in an open forum.
No one has mentioned the building or fire board of appeals process though. I have been successful in convincing an AHJ to go that route and have both sides make a code argument to a higher authority. Michael O'Brian Code Savvy Consultants www.codesavvyconsultants.com 313-618-6401 Fax 313-557-0294 ************************************************ Take a look at www.inspector911.com the first site dedicated to code enforcmenet (inspectors, fire marhsals, building officals, and plan reviewers). -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ed Vining Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 11:46 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Telling an AHJ "No" ? Travis, the AHJ may have been at the top of the food chain for the FD, but not at the top of the code authority. He gets his authority from someone higher up, City council, county supervisors, or whatever. I once had a deputy state fire marshal tell me we had to sprinkler a noncombustible stairway, when the code said we didn't. He was adamant. I told him I would do it because the client had to get along with the project, but that I would take it up with his superiors. Several weeks afterward he called me with apologies, saying he had been wrong. In another case an AHJ said we had to treat a medical office building as a hospital. This time we had time, so I went unofficially to his leaders, suggesting that he needed a bit of training, both on the code and customer relations. We won. George is right. Stand up and fight, even if it has to be after the fact. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ed Vining 4819 John Muir Rd Martinez CA 94553 925-228-8792 ----- Original Message ---- From: Travis Mack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, August 1, 2007 8:27:26 AM Subject: RE: Telling an AHJ "No" ? George: I completely agree. Just a couple weeks ago, I had an AHJ review a set of plans/calcs. There was a small room that was light hazard. The room was about 150 sq ft. However, due to lights and such, we were 7.5' off 2 walls. I calc'd the head at 15gpm. He called and said he wanted it calc'd at 22.5 gpm. I started to tell him about the small room and how you take room area and divide by # of heads to get flow for small rooms in light hazard. The exact quote was: "Don't try to justify anything to me. You do what I want or this will not get approved." He then hung up, no further explanations. This was in a relatively small jurisdiction in UT and we have to deal with him frequently. It ended up costing about $500 to change the piping to give him what he wanted. Nothing was installed, but it required a change of pipe size and making a small loop. _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
