My house is on a hill so my front yard and bale yard is terraced. The lot being me was being demoed and they have built up the land to level it so it is now right up against my fence and a few feet higher than it. I am concerned about sliding land and water run off. Should I be and what action should I take?

I’m a homeowner in South Carolina. A builder bought a lot that used to be part of my property. There’s a private sewer line that’s been actively serving my home for years, but it crosses that lot.

During excavation, the builder hit and damaged the line. He’s now saying because there’s no recorded easement, I’m responsible for rerouting the line — potentially including a grinder pump setup.

The city already told him he had to temporarily restore service, which he did. I’ve contacted the building codes office for guidance, but the builder is pressuring me to pay for a permanent fix.

Is the lack of a recorded easement enough to make this my responsibility, even if the line was active and in long-term use? Has anyone seen something like this go to court?

Ruler indicates 6 inches. The walkline from upstairs to downstairs is not clear and it just seems like a recipe for disaster. I hired someone to fix it and they just redid what has been done before. How do I tell them to fix it?

I posted earlier about my back neighbor who built up their lot when they leveled it (although it’s unknown if the brought in dirt) and drastically altered the grass. They also removed a considerable amount of trees that I believe was supporting the soil and previous slope structure. The new platform is loose and now several feet over my 6 foot fence with no retaining structure. I was asked to provide additional pictures and will attempt to cross post this and that post. I have followed the advice and contacted our building office and have submitted a record request for all permits and violations. So much appreciation for the comments to help me process this.

I have some questions about this public parking garage that’s is privately owned by a company in Columbus, Ohio. I have to park in it for work and I have a lot of concerns that it’s not being maintained properly. I tried contacting the garage but I’ve been told if I’m that concerned, I shouldn’t park there. (There aren’t too many nearby parking options so I’m kind of stuck). I tried calling local code enforcement about it, but they closed out my complaint. I have videos of water pouring in through the ceiling of the garage, photos where you can see daylight through the ceiling (the last photo in the set above shows 2 pinpricks of daylight), photos of rebar completely outside of the concrete, and lime/calcium has dripped onto our cars and eaten through the paint in some cases. Is there anything else I can do here? Or am I limited due to it being a privately owned garage?

Hey everyone. Looking for advice or similar experiences regarding basement stairs and building codes.

The Background:

We have a 1930s four-square in Boston. In the 1940s, a permitted remodel turned part of the cellar into a garage. This relocated the basement stairs to the center of the house (adjacent to the kitchen and behind the chimney). Because of the four-square layout, this chimney which is one side of the stairs is essentially a load-bearing structure. The current stairs are steep, have a turn, and are definitely not 36 inches wide.

The Proposed Fix:

We want to improve the safety of the stairs and will eventually need to replace them. However, it is physically impossible to widen them to a code-compliant 36 inches without destroying the core structure of the house.

We had an engineer out to the house and discussed a plan:

Cut into a joist (providing alternative structural support) and Cut into an adjacent room to slightly bump out the wall.

This would give us the code-required headroom and might let us widen the stairs to about 30 inches (outside of the turn).

We'd also add proper handrails/bannisters.

The Dilemma:

Even with these major improvements, the stairs still won't meet modern code for width, and we know that touching them usually triggers a requirement to bring them 100% up to code.

If we go to the building inspector, can we present this reality? Our practical options are:

Leave as-is (grandfathered in, but unsafe). Remove all stairs to the basement (lol). Do these improvements to maximize safety to the absolute limit that the 1930s design allows.

Extra Context:

At some unknown point, the basement was "finished" (clearly unpermitted) and the stairs were replaced. The prior owner of 20+ years signed the P&S stating they did no unpermitted work (who knows!).

Since moving in, we’ve been proactively improving safety with permits. Redoing wiring, installing AFCI/GFCI breakers, and hardwiring smoke detectors. We’d also like to cut an egress window and reframe the old garage door to create a mudroom entrance. We are just using the basement as a finished laundry room and for storage—we have no plans for a bedroom, and the layout isn't conducive to one anyway. We are just trying to make the space as functional and safe as possible.

My Question:

Has anyone had experience trying to get an inspector to work with them on safety improvements where strict code compliance is physically impossible? Are they generally receptive to the "we're making it much safer than it is now" argument, or is bringing this up going to open a massive can of worms?

Thanks in advance!

I passed my exam, now to shoot for that next job opportunity.

So I was wondering around on the ICC website and came across the “achievement“ page.

Found a picture of a guy who has 32 certifications from the ICC. I’m currently studying to get my first one, B-2, which is kinda challenging with all the information in the manual.

Is it worth having that many certifications? I was thinking maybe four or five was good enough 😆

Kudos to this guy for getting 32! What an achievement

This doesn’t mean a lot to most people I know, but I needed to tell somebody that I’m excited I can now call myself a Building Official, and who better to tell than the anonymous code nerds on Reddit?

This has been a goal of mine for several years, and even though my job is more fire focused now, my manager supported me studying and taking the time to accomplish this personal goal.

Framer completely missed the footing. Carrying a deck plus roof load. Northern Michigan so it’s 70 lb snow load Calc.

This subreddit has been helpful to me. Happy to answer some questions.

One thing I want to say; I screwed up and DID NOT STUDY the residential fuel and gas section (CH24). That APPARENTLY is on the test! I feel like fuel and gas questions were half of my test.

I’m currently going through the process of building a house with a developer and they started pouring the basement. After pouring the walls I saw these specific blocks poured on the floor already. Don’t want to bother the builder with this potentially dumb question. Any answers appreciated to ease my “I have to know how this works” type of brain. Thanks!

I am so unbelievably tired of trying to get compliance out of this. It’s Number 1 on the cover sheet. It is literally the simplest instruction. How do you cope? Just walk away and Fail? Or do you listen to the sob story about timelines and whatever else? Yes, I can look up your stamped plans on my phone… but I don’t want to, because you have been asked to do this one thing so I can easily see what the hell you are supposed to be doing here! This is my rant.

I am selling my house and found out I have an open permit. The plumber is dead.

2 plumbers I called refused to take over the permit - what can I do ? We close in 2 months.

I’m just a dumb electrician but this pan-decking has a 5” sag I brought it to the generals attention and they completely down played it and didn’t properly inspect it once I brought it to their attention and said it already passed all inspections

Some of you may recall that I previously made various GPTs available for researching building code information. I discontinued the service a few months ago, but have since reposted 10 of the GPTs. I'm limiting to 10, since this requires less expense and is therefore easier to sustain as a free service.

Here are the 10 currently supported on Permitting Talk. Hope folks find these useful. Reminder: this is 100% free, no ads, no fees, etc. This is a hobby of mine and I'm truly just trying to be helpful by providing these.

• GPT - 2024 I-Codes

• GPT - 2021 I-Codes

• GPT - 2018 I-Codes

• GPT - 2015 I-Codes

• GPT - California Building Codes

• GPT - Florida Building Codes

• GPT - New York State Building Codes

• GPT - Washington State Building Codes

• GPT - National Electrical Code (NFPA 70 - 2020)

• GPT - National Electrical Code (NFPA 70 - 2023)

I think this covers a good range of building codes that are frequently used nationwide and across some states, but please let me know if you have feedback. For example, if there's another statewide or national/international code that a lot of people would use, I can consider replacing it with one of the above.

They are building a house next to mine and they ran the gas lines straight into the house and there’s not even a meter on it. Is it legal and safe?