rrebell You should see some of the work appoved by inspectors. Back in the day I got an inspection done in Maryland for an apt building and it it passed, no problem except no one ever bothered to enter the building.
You should see some of the work appoved by inspectors. Back in the day I got an inspection done in Maryland for an apt building and it it passed, no problem except no one ever bothered to enter the building.
Maybe not so much now, but back in the day it happened all the time. We have an interesting situation in our little town. Our county only has three incorporated small towns. The county handles all the building inspections, but technically the three towns have jurisdiction inside their town limits.
So the towns each have a building department, and town residents/contractors have to apply for their building permits there for work in the town. And there is a guy in charge of that department. But the county inspector comes to do the actual inspection.
Our town is very historic (incorporated 1785) with lots of old buildings, most very well maintained and many in very original condition. And tourism/town image is a very big deal.
So the town fathers are very interested in historic preservation and go to great lengths to support private individuals in caring for their properties in that regard.
So the town buiding code official has the last say about what is allowed and what needs a permit, and when exceptions can be made to modern codes for historic reasons. The State also has a historic presevation code that gives local government this option/power.
I do lots of work in the town, and if it is of a repair nature, no one even asks if you you have a permit unless you have to close a street or something.
8 years ago we did a complete restoration of one of the larger homes in town, 17 months, complete restoration, inside and out, and while we did have permits for electrical, plumbing, HVAC and one area of structural changes, we had no resistance from the inspector.
We rebuilt a large porch, replaced missing architectural elements, replaced all the windows with historically correct looking updated ones, replaced all the plumbing and electric, and much more with only minimal inspections of the mechanical systems and that one area of framing, which was to make a 1960's addition better match the 1904 original structure.
None of this work to repair the porch and replace missing features that had been changed over the years required a permit - it was considered a repair. When I asked the town building commisioner if he wanted drawings for the rebuilding of the porch turret roof his answer was "no, just have the inspector glance at it the next time he is there". The inspector is a semi retired historic Architect....
The final inspction was a simple walk thru.
It is understood that while safety and good workmanship is necessary, nit picking an old house about modern codes is just not going to happen in this town.
In fact when we had an issue with the sewer line, the Public Works Dept was right there and very helpful.
Common sense still exists in some places.
Sheldon
ATLANTIC CENTRALSo let me ask you this, where you are, can homeowners do their own work?
Hi Sheldon,
Homeowners can do their own work but they still have to get all the permits and inspections. The DIYers will probably be inspected very thoroughly, but the seasoned, reliable contractors often just get a signature without the work being looked at.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Brings back memories, my mentor used to say as long as you reuse one nail, it is a repair, LOL.
Hi folks,
I am slowly making progress in the garage layout room. I managed to sell my Radial Arm Saw (gave it away would be more accurate - they don't sell for much these days). Getting it out of the garage opened up a whole lot of space!
The floor definitely has to be properly refinished! I was trying to roll the layout table around and it would hardly budge. I used 4" heavy duty casters but I should have used much larger casters! I may swap them for 8" units at some point. I won't have the floor done until next summer even though the garage is heated because the floor slab extends beyond the garage doors by about 10".
We are still sorting through all the junk on the shelves. We have seven medium sized totes and boxes full of stuff to go to recycling and there is still more to sort through.
I will have to build a stand for my spray booth. I had been using the RAS table. It doesn't have to be anything fancy but I do want it on casters.
Some of you will have read this in the Diner, but I thought I would post it here as well because it relates directly to my layout.
I saw some aged concrete sidewalks on eBay and they initially looked like something worth investing in. However, upon closer examination, I realized that the cracks in the slabs were not realistic.
There were two problems. The first was that most of the cracks started in the middle of the slabs, not at the edge or at an expansion joint. Concrete slabs can certainly have cracks that do not go all the way across the slab, but those cracks will not be wide enough to see in HO. A slab has to completely break into two pieces before the crack can be widened by frost or the ground settling underneath.
The second problem was that most of the cracks crossed directly over the expansion joints from one slab to the next. That's definitely not realistic. The whole idea behind molding perpendicular joints into the concrete is to stop cracks at the joints. Slabs that are next to each other may both have cracks but they won't (usually) line up at the expansion joints.
Call me fussy, but those crack patterns would drive me nuts over time.
I took the liberty of contacting the seller to mention how I thought the cracks should be placed, and he got right back to me! I was fully expecting to get a blast telling me to mind my own business but he was actually very gratefull for my suggestion. Within a few hours he had modified his design so I put my money where my mouth was and bought 2800' on the spot.
The cracks and joints need to be muted a bit, and they need some weathering, but they are going to save me a ton of works.
I just scored a set of five PRR TOFC flatcars with trailers on them. The price was right and they are new in their boxes so I'm happy. I now have about 25 TOFC cars with trailers.
Then I stopped to think about how I would actually use all of these flatcars on the layout and I realized that all I could do with the current plan would be to run them around in circles. That will get boring really fast! The net result was that I went back to my layout plan and eliminated several industries so I could design a decent transfer yard.
In no time at all I had what I think is a decent working yard. It will hold 17 flat cars on four tracks with a fifth track available for switching, and it has a run around as well.
I'll have to study it a bit more to make sure that it works, but the important thing is that I now have desinations for all my favourite types of trains.
I have decided to admit to myself that my creative juices just aren't flowing as far as making any real progress on the layout is concerned. I'm not going to stress about it. I'm simply going to take a break for a month or two, or maybe longer.
You may recall all of the hurdles I went through to try to hire a custom layout builder from the US only to be told by the government that it would cost thousands of dollars to get the proper approvals. Well, I thought I had found a custom layout builder in London, Ontario. Unfortunately his website is "under construction" and he is not responding to my emails. Oh well, I will keep looking.
Indeed, it seems that there are no other outfits that advertize their services in Ontario - or even in Canada overall. I would ask the Georges Trains staff - if someone knows a pro or semi-pro in Southern Ontario, it would be them. I also wonder what would happen if you placed an ad on Marketplace or Kijiji.
Simon
snjroyI would ask the Georges Trains staff - if someone knows a pro or semi-pro in Southern Ontario, it would be them.
Hi Simon,
That's a good idea! In fact, I could put the word out to several hobby shops.
Thanks,
I am back working on the layout, or at least, preparing to work on it. We have hired our nephew, Joe, to do a bunch of work around the house much of which will be to organize the garage/layout room. I'm also going to try to recruit him to build the yard area benchwork.
I have ordered all the benchwork materials needed for the yard, and I will order the remaining storage cabinets and shelving units as soon as we can work out a schedule for getting them assembled. All the cabinets and shelf units will be on wheels so they can easily be moved out of the way when it comes time to refinish the floor. I have also purchased some steel storage racks so we will have a place to store all the benchwork lumber when it arrives.
The work will start in a couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted.
Great news! Hope it goes well.
York1 John
I asked my doctor if I gave up delicious food and all alcohol, would I live longer? He said, "No, but it will seem longer."
York1Great news! Hope it goes well.
Thanks John!
I have been using the split heater/air conditioner to take the chill off of the garage over the last few days and it works really well.
Good to hear Dave!
Mike