On Sun, Jun 02, 2002 at 06:44:57PM -0400, William H. Magill wrote: > > Let me second David's inquiry--I'm looking for a carpenter to do a > > deck/fencing, so any contractor recommendations would be much appreciated. > > > > > hi. I have rather a big project to do. My very old back > > > porch is pretty much falling off the back of my house. I > > > want to completely tear it down and replace it with > > > something similar. It's a simple closed-in porch which i > > > use to store tools and things like that. It also has an > > > electric outlet and an outdoor light, both of which I'd > > > like to have in the new porch too. > > > > Just remember, you don't live in a Historic District yet, but -- any work of > this sort is still required to be APPROVED by The City BEFORE work > commences. And in the case of structural work, like decks and porches, you > need to submit drawings of the work to be done. > > 99% of all renovation work done in University City (and the city at large) > is done by contractors who take the attitude -- "L & I will never catch us. > So we'll do the work and if an Inspector stops by, we'll pay the > Inspector... er the Fine, and won't loose a day or more getting the permits > we need." > > Of course, without permits, you the homeowner will never know if the work > was legal or not, code conforming or not. Without a permit prior to the > work being done which stipulates the inspections necessary, you have no way > of knowing if the work was required to be inspected for code conformance
Absolutely correct, but, let me play the idealist, L&I would get more compliance, more people pulling permits, if they were easier to deal with. Why on earth should it take a day or more to get permits and inspections done? But, as you say, it does. That's a lot of overhead for a small project like a deck that might only amount to a few days of construction. I'm not advocating doing stuff illegally, but if we want things to be done legally, it's important to be aware of why it's often not. -- Jeff Jeff Abrahamson <http://www.purple.com/jeff/> The Big Book of Misunderstanding, now in bookstores and on the web: <http://www.misunderstanding.net/buystuff.html> ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
