Final Inspection - Eps 6

All righty, guys, welcome to the sixth episode of the F.O.C. podcast with your host Kyle McLaughlin.

Good to see everybody. thank you again for joining the Future of Construction podcast, hosted by myself and Northstar Technologies. And today, is an exciting episode because we have the final part of the three part series that I talked about in my last podcast, which is the construction process, right? So to recap, on the first, podcast episode of this series, we talked about the planning and development, design, engineering, everything that you need to get to a construction ready set of documents.

Right. The second part, we talked about the whole vertical construction process. So that's shovel of ground all the way to certificate of occupancy. Right. This final and third episode is based on the very last part of what I just said, which is the, certificate of occupancy. But just before that, there's a really, really, really critical step that a lot of people seem to either take lightly, or even overlook.

So I want to provide some helpful tips and some hints on what you guys can do to make sure that you're checking all the boxes when it comes to the construction process, specifically for the final building inspection, and then any guarantees associated with your build. All right. So let's start with the with the final inspection. Right. And every

understand every building authority, every jurisdiction, every A.H.J. is going to be a little bit different

Right. But they all have one thing in common, which is prior to giving you that C.O, certificate of occupancy, other states that certificate of use, they need to do a final building inspection. Right. And that's going to be whatever jurisdictions in charge of that permit. Now you can hire a private provider, which is a third party company that is meant to expedite the process and help both the facilitation of the inspections and also of the eventual issuance of the CO.

but either you can do this yourself. Your your general contractor slash builder can do it. Or again, a private provider, can call these inspections as well. Okay. So just so you guys know here I have a little cheat sheet, which I will share with you in the comments. So, go ahead and pound that like button here.

Hit that share button and you will see, access to this, really handy cheat. It's going to talk about what to expect from a final inspection standpoint. Right. And then after we talk about the final inspection, which is done by the building authorities, as I mentioned before, we're going to talk a little bit about some of the inspections that you can be doing on your own.

Right. So just to recap, this is applicable for both commercial and residential. It's not just for homes. All right. You can also do this punch out or finish list for a commercial build as well. But essentially what you want to be prepared for on this final inspection is going to be number one. First and foremost is that the approved mat plans?

Excuse me? The approved plans match the final construction. Okay. Seems like redundant and obvious, but if I have a plan to build a three bed, two bath, 1500 square foot home and the building official is looking at these plans. But all of a sudden there's another bathroom that appeared on nowhere. Then that's going to get kicked back, right?

And believe it or not, I mean, they'll go as far as if your plans do not match what's actually built. They'll make you tear things out or move walls, or move M.E.Ps, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, whatever it takes for the plants to actually match what the construction is. Right? And if you want to, if something changed throughout the construction process, which is common, it's not it's not optimal.

Right. But it does happen that sometimes, you know, you decide to add square footage to the home or change the elevation of the house or change the roof design. Right? You can you can submit for a permanent revision, but you'll want to do that before calling your final inspections, right. You don't want it to be when they're doing the final inspections that they're finding out about some of these changes that you've made.

Okay. So again, just to recap, number one, make sure that those plans match what's actually being built. Okay. second tip step here that we're doing is the building envelope has to be completed. Again. Some of these are going to be a little obvious or redundant, but it's important that you know all of them. Right. The building envelope is completed and this includes windows.

It includes door. It includes all the caulking. It includes any cover plates and obviously includes paint. Okay. And to know what about paint? Actually, the third step here is just make sure that all the exterior walls are fully painted. Okay. There really should be no patches, no uneven surfaces, no lack of paint. Right? The paint, in many states, including Florida, and it actually acts as a, rain barrier.

Right. Or sealant. So it's important that it's fully painted. Otherwise, you're not going to get, your first of all, you're not going to pass your inspection, your final building inspection, but also you're not going to get what the system is designed to do, which is be a rain screen, right? Or a rain barrier. Also you want to make sure that no wiring is exposed.

So any any cover plates, have to be attached like a light fixture. They have to have a cover plate. So have you ever seen, like, a new construction home where the builder doesn't include a fan, right? But instead there's, like, this white cap that's called a cover plate, right? What you don't want is for that cover plate to be exposed or not even be there at all.

And you can see all the housing and all the wiring in there. That's a big no. So make sure that any exposed wiring has a cover plate on it. Okay. this is a big one. Drainage is effective and up to code. So this is going to include outdoor drainage, gutters. obviously it's going to depend on the building, but it's also going to include exterior grade being correct and sloped away from the foundation.

So you want the grade to slope towards either drainage in the street or drainage on the side of your home. So you cannot just simply discharge rainwater, off to your neighbor. Right? If you're having a slope in a grading issue and you have a really tight lot, or you have two neighbors basically 15ft away from each other, right?

There is going to be some some very strict drainage plans that you're going to have to follow. and a lot of our builds, especially in areas that are highly dense, meaning that there's a lot of homes in a small patch of land. you know, we have type one and type two stormwater drainage plants, which is a whole, system of, of draining so it can actually drain towards the storm drainage in the street as opposed to, again, discharging on your poor neighbor.

Okay. you want to make sure that your windows and doors are functional. Again, this is granted by your building Inspector will check to make sure that all your windows are sliding properly, that they're locking properly. And same thing with any exterior doors. Okay. Any egress paths need to be free of obstruction. And the same thing for right-of-way sidewalks.

They have to be, in place. Any sidewalk. Has that already be in place? Anything that's on your site plan that shows a sidewalk or driveway has to be there, and it has to be completely unhindered. Okay. That way they can walk on it or drive into it or whatever the purpose is for that sidewalk. Okay. this is more for commercial, but if you have a commercial building that requires parking, striping, and any signs like handicap signs or, you know, fire, fire hose signs or anything like that, is readily available and within sight.

again, more for a commercial building, but maybe for a multi-story residential building, you're going to have handrails and guardrails, whether it's for, a balcony or staircase, interior, exterior, they have to not only be in place but have to have the correct clearance. So please make sure prior to, and this is also the job of your architect, but prior to, designing a staircase with a railing or a balcony with a railing, you want to make sure that the the designer is following whatever the code recipe is for.

standard clear height, normally 36in, sometimes to be lower or higher. Just depends on that jurisdiction. Some exterior designer, or if somebody is aware, your builder of what those, code limitations are. Okay. another one building address numbers are visible and the correct size. Okay. So the size is going to vary on the location, but, most are usually around 4 to 6in from residential or commercial standpoint in the address, the numbers need to be visible from the, from the road.

The building needs to be A.D.A. compliant, so accessible to people with disabilities. And this, all the requirements are outlined, on A.D.A.'s website. And there's also parts of the building code that cover this. So just make sure again, when you're designing, that way you don't have to go back after you've already built things and undo them or in the middle of your construction process.

This is really something that should be covered in the planning and site and, building design aspect, which is really that first video if you want to go back and watch that again, if you haven't already, if you're joining us and this is the first time you're watching this podcast, this is the third of a three part series.

And the first part we talked about, the design and planning, architecture and engineer aspect of it, and that would really cover, all the A.D.A. compliances as well. Okay. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing, that's your M.E.Ps and you'll be up to code. And issues from any previous inspections have been addressed. Okay. So what does that mean? If you had, electrical that wasn't running properly, if you had it were exposed where it shouldn’t have been.

Same thing with your ventilation or your ductwork with your AC or your plumbing is an areas where it shouldn't be. Right. That's going to be subject to the inspector's approval. And if they red tagged something at a, from a previous inspection when you were doing your mechanical and electrical and plumbing inspections, then we need to make sure that that's corrected because they will have, record of any other, things that they flagged in the past that may have not been correct.

Insulation. This is a big one. Your insulation needs to be up to code and issues from previous inspections, just like the other ones that we talked about before with M.E.P.s, need to have been addressed. And the reason why they have so much on the issues being addressed from prior inspections is, is really, after all, your MEP, your mechanical, your electrical, your plumbing, AC system, your ducts and your insulation, right?

Whether you've sprayed it in or if it's a bad system or a mineral wall, is behind the drywall. So at the point that you're calling, your final inspection, Drywall was already in right. So a lot of these things are not readily observable, right. Without the building inspector, which they're known to do, telling you to cut out a piece of the wall so they can inspect the installation.

And that's not something that you want to get into. you know, when you're when you're close to turning over the house, you know, either as a builder to your customer or as a homeowner waiting for the delivery of their home. That's never something that they want to face, right? So just make sure that the insulation is where it needs to be.

basically any wall in the house that's not an exterior wall, needs to be insulated. And exterior walls have their own insulation, requirements, depending on the building system that you're using. Northstar walls have the six inch cavity, which we put all of our insulation into. If you have a block wall, you need to frame it out with a furring strip.

and that is your insulation. Although the insulation value won't be as high as, say, a more thermal efficient building system like fiber reinforced polymer composites. it still needs to be done. Right. And there's also insulation that goes in your attic. That's a big one, too, because a lot of the heat load, depending on where you're at, in the state, is going to be taken on by your roof.

Right. Another place insulation needs to go is between floor to floor assemblies. Right. So if you have a two story structure and there's a floor between your first and second floor, all those trusses, the attic or the gap in between first and second floor needs to be fully insulated. A lot of the time that insulation actually needs to be spray on ice thinning because it provides a higher, higher R-value.

What is a R-value? It's basically how we measure insulation standard. right now building minimums are R13 on exterior walls. if you're using a North Star building system that is actually double or up to R26, just so they're standard out of the box package, but we can go all the way up to R47 for really, really energy efficient home.

okay. So again installation is a big one. Make sure that's up to code your Hvac, which is your air conditioning, system needs to be working. And issues from previous inspections have been addressed once again needs to be in full working condition, needs to be cooling properly, needs to be free of any, moisture or, or any humidity within the house that shouldn't be there.

so that's something that they'll test extensively. Smoke alarms, strobes and sprinklers are in place and can be tested. Rings are on the sprinkler heads and the heads are not painted. This is a big one. I go into a lot of new construction, multifamily, apartment buildings or even commercial buildings. And I see the sprinkler heads have been painted right over, and that's a big no.

That cannot happen. If you see, if you go home tonight and you live in a condo or and you live in, you know, multifamily structure or even at your office, and you look up and you see the sprinkler head and it's painted, that's a big no. If you guys ever have a fire inspection done, that would be a big fine.

Right. And not forget the inspection. Right? That's a huge life safety issue. And sprinkler heads needs to be clear. So they work in the unfortunate event that there's a fire. So you need to be mindful of that. Exhaust fans, hoods, anything that has to do with the exhaust suction of fumes or air outside of the house needs to be in place, and they need to be able to be tested.

So the hood range on the top of your, your oven or your, or your cooking top or anything of that nature needs to be working. Same thing with the exhaust fans for your dryer, or any exhaust systems that you may have for your AC system. More for commercial or required exits are in place and unhindered.

Partial buildings are required to have exit signs, and that's a big one. so make sure if you're building a commercial building or buying one or design building one that, that there's exit access to doorways, exit access to stairways and ramps, and also that those are labeled properly. Okay, trick question, because I get this a lot, especially from my realtor friends.

They all there's a difference in opinion that what's considered a bedroom and a lot of people say, well, a bedroom is a room that has a door and it has to have a closet, right. And then any can be considered a bedroom if it doesn't have a closet. So that's actually not true. A bedroom is any place, any room that has two points of egress, meaning that you have a door to get into the room, but you also have a secondary exit.

And that exit can be a window. and as long as there's four walls and two exit points, two points of egress, then that is considered a room. It does not need a closet in the rooms. And I'm sorry, the doors. It doesn't matter if the doors or French doors or if they're single hot doors or if they're, you know, hollow doors or solid wood doors.

Doors are irrelevant. It's just two single point two points, separate points of egress and four walls. Okay. Moving on. We have erosion control systems are installed, approved and working. And that can mean a variety of different things depending on what the building is. fire sprinklers, but one that we talked about, you know, before there's, there's automated pest control systems that are set up in a lot of residential and commercial structures as well.

so just check with whatever it is that you're building with your design or your architecture is to make sure that erosion control, is in place and is operable. All signage is in place and visible. Goes back to the point that I talked about earlier with the exit signs or any points of egress, a commercial building, you know, the signs for, for the exterior, all need to be separately permitted and they need to be visible.

And then that nothing's been moved into the building. This is this is a big one. and that happens a lot in residential, too. But I can see it happening in commercial. you know, people start moving stuff in before they've gotten their ticket of occupancy, and that's a big no. And when I mean what I mean by things in general is, you know, personal belongings, you know, fixtures that weren't part of the initial, planning.

Right? So they start hanging TVs and things that really shouldn't be there. And I obviously you're excited. You want to get moved into your home. You want to start making your place a house or commercial building. You're excited to start using your your place of business, but defer to moving any personal items into the building until after C.O.

Okay, so I actually just wanted to go over some, some final quick tips here. One of the most common issues when a buildings final construction doesn't match the building plans approved at the beginning of construction means that usually like having a room in the wrong number of outlets, or a handrail having the wrong clearance, or even a window not meeting the egress requirements.

So remember, one of the first things I talked about was make sure that your constructed final product matches whatever was planned designed in, engineered initially. Right. And that happens to be one of the most common things that it's flagged for failing final inspection. Speaking of failing final inspection, what happens if you fail, right? The severity of a failed at final inspection depends on the severity of the issues identified.

Usually a general contractor. will be able to make the plans to resolve the problem and schedule another inspection, although this will likely require another inspection fee and more time. So in layman's terms, if you make a mistake, you'll get tagged. You'll have the ability to correct it. If it's not severe enough, something that's too severe, may require the whole building to be reconstructed, believe it or not.

But normally that's not the case. normally things are pretty easy to fix, but the problem that you run into is that the more times that you're having that building inspector go out there, the more fees that you're going to occur and the longer it's going to take for you to get that C.O. And it's not like you can call an inspection to have people show up tomorrow.

normally an inspection needs to be called ahead of time and I know the building officials appreciate it when you give them at least a week's notice. So, very, very, very, I would say extremely important to make sure that you're mindful of that. Okay. As we wrap up here, guys, I'm going to share one more tip with you that has been really useful for me in my building career and even in my career as a real estate broker and a realtor, is when you're if you're a customer and you're building a house and you have a builder that's calling the final inspections, feel free to have a third party inspector come in and do

a general home inspection as well. And you may think that that's not necessary because it's a brand new house. What's there to be, you know, inspected. But at the same time, you know, we're all humans. Even the best builder in the world is going to make mistakes from time to time. And it's always good to have a second set of eyes for people that are going into the attic spaces, people that know what they're looking for and provide some feedback to make sure that not only you don't fail that final building inspection, but also that you're getting a quality product delivered, at your expected quality, right.

guarantees are also a big one. Or warranties, depending on how builders are, are framing those. We have a pretty cool bumper to bumper warranty as a builder. Basically, it's two years, on our craftsmanship and our quality of work. everything outside of that would be appliances. Usually those are manufactured warranties that have their own, warranties.

Then appliance packages such as Samsung or Whirlpool or or any of those, manufacturers, they're going to provide their own for major appliances such as your AC, your water heater, but also smaller appliances such as your, dishwasher and your oven. And then finally, your structural, warranty is a big one to, I think most builders right now are somewhere between 7 and 10 years for a warranty.

Northstar actually offers a 25 year warranty, which we can extend all the way up to 50 years. If that's something that you're interested in, depending on the use of your building. So make sure that you inquire with your builder at the beginning of the process. Really, when you're interviewing, what are the warranties that you're putting in place for both your quality of work, your craftsmanship, and also for your structure?

Those are some huge, huge ones. And really be sure to read the fine print on that. As always, guys, I am here to help. I want to be a resource if you have any questions, if you're a realtor, if you're a customer looking to build, if you're a builder that would like to partner up and do some awesome things together an architect, a designer, an engineer, we'd love to hear from you guys.

I get constantly get some great feedback in my inbox. I get some great questions. I'm actually going to start separately, a Q&A session, just based on so many emails that I'm getting of different questions being asked about our building system, and our company. So look forward to that on our next episode of the F.O.C. podcast. Again, my name is Kyle McLaughlin.

Thank you to Northstar for sponsoring this. And thank you for one of our partners, Procore, which is construction management software for helping provide a lot of those helpful tips that I gave you today. Again, thank you for joining and listening to the podcast. Catch you next time.