Of late, our office has been dealing with a number of situations where people have begun construction of some major work without a required building permit. We cannot stress this enough: don't. We have dealt with several instances where builders/property owners have begun work without…

Over the last few months, our building inspectors have encountered serious challenges with clients deviating from approved plans without contacting us first. Even minor changes can lead to problems down the road: changing a 6’-wide window to a 7’ window may require a lintel (header)…

Our office is seeing a significant spike in building permit applications at this time. While we are still trying to keep to a two-week timeline from application to issuance of a permit, a staggering number of permit applications are suffering needless delays because applicants are…

Ah, it’s spring – that when the snow vanishes and DIY deck builders start using screws where they shouldn’t. We’re not worried about the snow going away, but darn, we do get a bit cranky about the whole “don’t use screws to build things” part…

Our inspectors had an interesting discussion the last little while over an issue that apparently is common. An area contractor asked if OSB sheathing could be installed vertically (in a braced wall panel) instead of horizontally. The question led to an interesting dive through the…