Inspection

[Bill Currier <bill.currier@westernasset.com>]

Nis, 

>> I don't see how building departments could do anything but fail that 
kind of test.  If they inspect the nailing patterns they are "code 
literalists to the max."  If they don't and the event for which those 
requirements were written happens, they are "failures ... from plan 
review to final inspection, at every level."  <<

WHICH test?  The inspectors are supposed to physically check the roofs.
My house has concrete roofing tiles.  The only think you need to do to
see if they're nailed properly is to nudge a few with your toe as you
walk the roof.  You can also check nail protrusion inside the roof
simply by looking up while you're already in there checking ductwork,
insulation, etc.  

"plan review" refers to engineering check failures.  Tracts are often
built in this area with thousands of homes using a handful of standard
plans, as is mine.  Engineering review by the building dept. is CRITICAL
with this type of development.  You can't wait until a 50 or 100 house
section is built to determine that a cantilever is unsound, for
example.  There's a 25,000 home tract in review in L.A. county right now
which will be located on the other side of town. In this context "every
level" means from the state level to the county right down to the lonely
inspector on the roof.  

If you don't think that politics weighs in, frankly, you're nuts.  The
huge tract I just mentioned involves negotiations with CALTRANS, the
Castaic and state water agencies, L.A. county and its supervisors (who
have larger constituencies and arguably more real influence than
congressmen), Ventura county, the city of Santa Clarita, the South Coast
Air Quality Management District, the Army Corps of Engineers (it borders
the last significant free river in So. CA), various environmental
agencies (since it also will destroy large portions of a California Live
Oak savannah) and border conservation lands, the local state reps and
our congressman, waste management agencies, LA Sheriff's office, blah,
blah, blah.  

That's all at the macro level, where codes don't just matter, but are
SHAPED.  
Corruption isn't always the melodramatic stuff.  The more pervasive and
common forms are the insidious and incestuous relationships that involve
business and money, just as in campaign finance reform.  The financial
pressures on the participants are unbelievable.  You run the numbers:
25,000 homes at an average of over $250,000 a pop.  In an area that has
still not recovered from the last recession and was hammered by the loss
of aerospace and defense work.  

And then, I haven't even TOUCHED the issues of competence or the lawsuit
problem here in CA.  Didn't THAT make the question of building dept.
inspection interesting after the earthquake?  Most people, and I
emphasize the "most," who had far less damage than I did and were
foolish enough to call the county, had their homes "red-tagged" (unsafe,
entry-prohibited) by county inspectors.  I hired a structural engineer
who not only determined that my house was eminently safe, but was the
one who pointed out all the code violations.  He caught most of them in
a single hour-long walkthrough, not much more time than a single
thorough inspection during building.  

So, in the end it doesn't really matter if the failures are political,
graft/corruption, incompetence, or anything else.  The point is that it
doesn't work often enough to be dangerous.  Moreover, the added costs
are significant.

Bill