Is this Building Inspector For Real?

five years after we have a project wrapped up completed and we're down the road a building inspector calls me up and tells me that he will not pass the project unless i go out to the site and dig up and expose the geogrid which is buried down below the wall expose the drainage aggregate and visually show him the grid lengths and the amount of drainage aggregate that we have put in place which set off a lot of red flags in my book of what the heck is going on you know one of the things that bothers me about this entire scenario is he's having me pull apart a retaining wall five years after it's been complete for a final inspection which makes no sense to me whatsoever so i'm gonna go down to city hall and see if i can get a copy of that permit real quick and let's just take a look at it all right sometimes it's just best to prepare yourself with knowledge right so i came down to the city of west st paul where i originally pulled this inspection to get a copy of this old permit now this permit is over five years old 613 2017 city of west st paul now as we go through this permit i'm looking for required inspections do they require a geogrid inspection do they require an inspection of the footings do they require what are their inspections that they acquire and as i look at this here's their here's their inspection sheet the required inspections building final that's it no other additional inspections are required just a final and that's that so if something comes up while i'm meeting with the inspector and he wants to tell me i've got to do more work i at least have a copy of the permit so i know how i can where i stand in the situation hey siri what's the heat warning it's currently clear at 91 degrees expect partly cloudy skies starting in the afternoon and thunderstorms tonight with mixed conditions for the rest of the day today's high will be 97 degrees and the low will be 82. always a good day to go dig holes in the yard so i was talking about a final inspection and what that is that final inspection is that the retaining wall is completely wrapped up and vegetation is reestablished that's the key term a lot of times on jobs we don't establish the vegetation that's kind of a sweat equity thing that we let the customer opt into or out of but if the customer opts into re-establishing the vegetation on their own well then they've got to make the phone call and pull a final inspection and sometimes that just gets missed and it's usually actually it's never been a big deal because an inspector can legitimately drive past the job site not even get out of their car a lot of times and do a final inspection i've actually had final inspections where the inspector didn't get out of the car and i had to bring the inspection sheet to them in their car and hand it to them so a final inspection has nothing to do with structural issues it's all about do we have green grass growing all right here we are here's the wall we built it's about five foot tall this has got a surcharge from the house onto this retaining wall this isn't a very tall wall but there's two layers of grid in this wall now the uppermost layer of grid should be right about here just two coarses down from the cap and this is where the soil will start to work its way up there should be a row of grid actually maybe you could see nope you can't see it that would be too easy we always took our grid behind the face of the wall this is one of those cases where wouldn't it be nice if we didn't the challenge we face is we're going to dig down we're going to find the grid and then right below that is where the rock is that's what i think i'm thinking is going to happen so it probably doesn't seem like a very big deal to you but this entire scenario bugged the heck out of me so i started to dig through my archives and found some original footage of the construction as we were doing it i wanted to make sure that we had done everything right so here's a shot of way back in the day while we were building it we're only going four and a half feet high but with the house on top we're not risking anything you're cutting them grids at six aren't you so we got five and a half of actual and then six inches were going up curling up the back you can do that although in reality we could just go five and a half and be fine but that is that actually has just a little extra room when you do it that way so let's start digging some holes in his yard because i'm sure everybody loves having holes just randomly dug in their yard but that's what we gotta do so let's go do that so technically what this inspector wants to see is not the front of this grid he wants to actually see the back side of this geography which is very deep below this hill and supporting this house so to expose the back side of that grid means i would have to dig a pretty deep pretty massive cavity to be able to go through the hill to expose that geo grid which could then also undermine the foundation of the house that sits above it and i'm not really comfortable doing that so i'm going to dig it where i want to dig it problem is is we pack this dirt so tight so solid when we build these retaining walls that it's like digging through concrete and i don't mean that facetiously i mean it's like digging through concrete because we can't have any of this ground move this has been five years and so this was all dug back all the way to here and then all this was put back in so and then packed and you can see where there hasn't been any settlement nowhere on this ridge you can actually see the excavation line right there [Music] but this brings me back to the point when we're doing swimming pools a lot of times i tell people hey we've gotta be careful not to over compact as we get closer to the top simply because we want you to be able to have a yard green space if you want to dig a hole you're not pounding pounding a hole through concrete like material so [Music] [Music] [Music] conundrum okay here's the grid [Music] that's the grid right you guys can see that the conundrum is that grid lays directly on top of our drainage aggregate right over the top of it this was the top course and this is where we start the soil up so to expose the drainage i get i gotta cut the grid if i cut that grid i compromise the integrity of the wall see there's the drainage aggregate you guys see it right there there it is see what i'm saying that's it right there [Music] hey here's my problem i'm not willing to cut the grit i don't recommend ever perforating grid not for fence posts not for any reason whatsoever the reason we stall the grid in a continuous fashion is simply so that we don't have any gaps any weaknesses any deficiencies in the grid period the grid is what's designed to hold this up now if he wants me to dig all the way back he can go pack sand because i'm not doing that we're gonna opt to dig our second test hole right in the corner so i'm not here to throw this building inspector under the bus or badmouth him in any way shape or form but i've been around the block enough times as a contractor to know that sometimes building inspectors can abuse their authority and i think what you're seeing today i think he's just overstepping his bounds and the only reason i'm showing this and kind of going into detail on this thing is because some of you younger contractors who may not be in the game as long should know that sometimes you just need to be able to stand up for yourself all right so we've got a test hole dug there like geogrid exposed all right well hopefully he'll be okay with seeing this no guarantee so one of those questions that some of you guys may have is wait a minute wait a minute doesn't the rock go all the way to the top of the wall and the answer to that is adamantly no under no circumstance do you bring the drainage aggregate all the way to the top of the block you actually want to have what's called we call it a clay cap and what that means is we put impervious soil on top of the retaining wall the top one to two feet just depends on the circumstances in the situation and what that does is any water that hits will shed and go over the face of the wall that leaves less water to penetrate and actually move through the wall it's an entire system that works together in a case like this if you look up we've got a hill going right to the wall so we want to have more impervious soil and we've also got a roof that dumps directly onto the wall so that's why we have if you look down this wall you'll see right here is the top grid layer the soil goes up this way that's where the drainage aggregate starts so we have one foot plus a four inch cap of clay binding soil on the top to keep the water from penetrating and moving all the way through and to equally disperse over the top of the retaining wall as well as through it the only reason i say that is because boy that can be super confusing you guys it can be super confusing not all retaining walls are built the same no retaining walls are built the same no two people are the same no two retaining walls are the same but all people have the same basic stuff that makes them up and that's no different than with the retaining wall they're all made of the same components but the different circumstances that each project faces like this dictates exactly how you need to build the retaining wall so let's call and see if we can get an inspection today so that i can fill those holes back up howdy are you bruce i am i'm stan hi aria good nice to meet you so i got two holes done for you okay so i got one here and then one on the corner didn't dig one back here huh no actually i didn't oh and i checked um the permit let's see what do you think of this one okay so i guess i was hoping to have a hole back here further five feet back to verify it came back okay let me help you with that that way you don't have to worry about it you've got pictures of all of this that works just fine too so we've got five and a half of actual and then six inches were going up curling up the back you can do that although in reality we could just go five and a half and be fine but that actually has just a little x room when you do it that way so then what we did that's the bottom grid and i just couldn't i didn't feel like i needed to hopefully didn't need to go all the way back on the second one so that's why i exposed the top layer of grid too so you could see because it only has two layers of grid in here down then so we're good we're good uh because after our first phone call i was so bugged this shouldn't this should have been closed out should have been done did we miss a footing inspection did we miss a rock inspection what kind of inspections did we miss so then i went and i looked at the actual permit and the permit doesn't call for a footing inspection doesn't call for any inspection except for one building final that's the only inspection called for on that permit because we don't i don't i can't run five cruise building retaining walls missing inspections and going back and doing this so that's what happened well i think having those inspections is pretty much standard in the industry i think so but you guys should put it on your permit requiring it well if if i got called out for everything that got put on for for inspections i'd never leave the job site okay well i mean that's you if you remember the the inspection cards that existed before everybody went electronic yep it listed framing yeah to do a retaining wall so um i mean the guys guys and the guys in the industry they know i know but we work in west st paul st paul minneapolis golden valley apple valley then you pick up the phone and say do i need this inspection or you just look on the inspection and go do i need this inspection that's what i typically do and i'm not trying to argue with you bruce because it's just it was missed i'm glad we're good but i'm just saying on the inspections that's the only reason why you and i are doing this right now is because i was just going by what the city of west st paul actually asked me to do in this particular case it's it's required i mean and typically and and typically i wouldn't have to come out and and do a physical inspection retaining walls i will take in-process pictures okay and i routinely get that call do you need to come out and see it or can we provide you pictures of the in process yeah provide me pictures i don't want to hold up the contractor by waiting for me to show up the only thing that i'm going to say on that one bruce i'm not trying to argue with you but you're good with that but what happens when i try to pull that off and never grow heights because that doesn't fly i get the phone call wanting to know how i want to do it they call up and say okay what do you want to do do you want to do this can we do this and if i can make it easier for the contract i'm all over there i used to be a contractor myself most inspectors have been so they they get the whole holding up the guy on the job you want to keep the projects moving along as quick as we can so if i get in process pictures i'm good with that if you'd have provided me the video then we wouldn't have to dig holes and we wouldn't have to yeah well i just found the video but you know i'm not i'm just asking because i'm trying to understand myself i understand that sure well cool now so i'm gonna fill these back in and we're good to go right you sign off on thanks bruce all right have a good one okay what do you guys think of that i wasn't trying to argue with them but i was trying to understand the question is if they didn't have that video that's my question what if i didn't have that video available most people wouldn't the permit in black and white and i've learned when you deal with government and you deal with contracts it's in black and white and if the permit requires one inspection that's the one you do and that's bad you don't call you don't ask you don't infer you don't poke prod and wonder the permit calls for one inspection you give them what they want if they call for two or three or four you follow that procedure as long as it's in writing that's what you have to do that's the way i work because it's not consistent from city to city from town to town county to county everything changes that's why they have they'll call the required inspections listed on the actual permit itself so whether you agree with him you agree with me either way today we're good okay so here's where things get really complicated in the twin cities metropolitan area there is not a state license there's individual city licensing which means in every single city i work in i have to get a license and then in every single city they have different inspections that need to be done now it's very typical on a retaining wall to have a footing inspection to have a backfill inspection to have a geogrid inspection but the city of west st paul didn't require any of that but other cities do and they call them up clearly on their inspections so what we do is we just look up the inspection sheet and we go all right we need this inspection this inspection and this inspection and we call when it's time to have those inspections done i think you should be able to get a sheet of paper that tells you what all of your inspections are to be able to follow that and to know and to be able to hand that sheet of paper off to your crew so that they have a very clear line of communication on what is expected from the city you guys tell me what you think about what he said about calling and asking and trying to verify which inspections are right which ones you need which ones you don't need because when he said in the old days they used to have framing inspections on there they used to have these other inspections on there well that's not my fault that they had those inspections on there and how am i supposed to know now that we don't follow those sheets we have to call in maybe the inspection sheet should say call in to see which inspections you need on this project right looks like we're good to go well all right you guys well everything went well all the inspections got passed the guy was actually pretty decent feller so a little bit of running around a little bit of extra hassle but not the end of the world if you guys have any cool or interesting stories from one of your projects i'd love to hear it i'm sure some of you guys that have been out there building stuff i've got stories with inspectors you wouldn't mind sharing i wouldn't mind reading them that's all i got for you today guys hope you make it awesome hope you stay cool it's a nice hot day here in minnesota yesterday was 105 with the heatley decks i hope i never have to say that again and with that being said god bless and go get him you guys i'm gonna do a little cleanup and get on to the next one [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Stanley "Dirt Monkey" Genadek

Views: 2,120,667

Keywords: building inspector, building inspector fail

Id: 31-_lyP35MQ

Length: 22min 48sec (1368 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021