# convenience inspection



## ICE (Sep 7, 2013)

There are three permits and one contractor.  Mechanical permit for furnace and A/C, electrical for same and plumbing for low pressure gas system.  The inspection request said gas pipe.

There had been a floor furnace and the new furnace is in the attic.  When I arrived at 10:00am, the installation was not completed.  I asked the technician why inspection was requested when the work wasn't close to done.  He said that the only inspection he wanted was gas pipe so that he could hook it up to the furnace and not have to come back.

In contractor Heaven it works like this:

The contractor (never to be heard from again) gets his money and tells the H/O to request inspection.

So here is the typical scenario here on Earth.

1. The H/O never requests an inspection because he bought his equipment from Sears and "Sears" installed it so what could be wrong.

2. Six months from now the H/O does request inspection but there is no ladder to get into the attic.

3. The H/O has a ladder.  I write corrections, including get a HERS report.  Then I do not hear from anyone ever again.

Well last Friday I changed it up.  I told the contractor that I will inspect the gas pipe at the normal, first attempt at a final inspection.

A different ploy is to only request a gas pipe inspection and take a chance that the installers will finish before the inspector shows up.  If they are done, the entire installation gets inspected and if they are not done they say "well no harm no foul because we only asked for a gas pipe inspection".

Several plumbing contractors use the same procedure for re-pipes.  They ask for a water main or water heater inspection.

When it's 104 in the shade and I have 18 stops to make, I can get a bit testy when wasting my time.


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