# The Building Code Profession Is Dying Out, and That's a Problem



## mark handler

The Building Code Profession Is Dying Out, and That's a Problem
Jake Blumgart 
https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/0...sion-is-dying-out-and-thats-a-problem/515826/
Many of the officials who check construction plans and inspect buildings for safety are on the cusp of retirement—and they’re not being replaced.
At professional events, George Williams is used to being surrounded by people many decades his senior. The Salt Lake City-area building inspector is 34, which makes him a young gun in an aging workforce.
His role as the lone youth among venerable peers began when he first started attending professional networking and training events in 2010. Williams would walk into a continuing education course or an event held by the local chapter of the International Code Council (ICC) and he’d be one of the few people without gray hair.
“Without fail, I was the youngest person in the room, every single time,” says Williams. “Not slightly younger, but dramatically younger than nearly everyone else.”
In early 2014, his curiosity piqued, Williams asked the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing if he could view their records on the demographics of the state’s building code professionals. The department wouldn’t give him names or addresses, but it emailed him a spreadsheet with the ages of every building inspector in the state.
A crisis in numbers
Upon crunching the numbers, Williams found a looming crisis. It turns out that 60 percent of the statewide industry is close to retirement. And Utah isn’t an outlier, as he found a few months later when the ICC and the National Institute of Building Sciences released a report with disturbingly similar findings. “It comes as little surprise that the current workforce is aging and making plans for retirement,” the authors write. “However, the actual numbers are a bit alarming.”
That’s putting it mildly. Eighty-five percent of the respondents to ICC’s survey were over the age of 45. Only three percent were under 35. Most of them were looking to get out of the game in the near future: Eighty percent planned to retire within 15 years, and a full 30 percent within five.
Building code officials can serve as managers, plan reviewers (checking construction plans to make sure they’re up to par), or inspectors—or they can wear two or three of those hats at once. Inspectors are tasked with ensuring that new buildings (and renovations of old ones) have been built safely and responsibly. They carefully check that everything is braced and wired and insulated to meet the requirements of the local codes.
Inspections protect against developers and landlords who endanger people by trying to build or repair a property on the cheap, or in ignorance of safety standards. Without them, the result could be a building collapse or faulty wiring that causes a fire. The Ghost Ship tragedy in Oakland last year underscored the importance of codes and inspections. 
Not only does building inspection serve a clear societal purpose, it’s the type of middle-class job that is in increasingly short supply. Only a high school diploma is needed for an entry-level position as a code official, and the median income is about $57,000 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ICC survey found that the median salary range was between $50,000 and $75,000, with a fifth of respondents earning up to $100,000. Job security, pay, and benefits were the top reasons respondents gave for joining the ranks.
Construction rates are healthy—there is plenty of need for building inspectors’ services. And theirs aren’t skills that can be easily automated. So why are their ranks dwindling?
A low-profile job with less stability
Williams’s explanation for his industry’s grim state is multifaceted. For one thing, it simply isn’t a job that very many people know exists. The profession is relatively small, with the BLS counting 101,200 “construction and building inspectors” in 2014.
It also isn’t the most glamorous field of all time. “There aren’t any grade-school children right now who are drawing pictures or writing papers about becoming a building inspector,” Williams says. “I think this profession finds you rather than you finding it.”
George Williams in the field (Courtesy of George Williams)
Like many of his compatriots, Williams found the job through the building trades. Historically, people have gravitated from the trades to codes work because it’s steadier than construction, which is more vulnerable to the boom and bust of the real estate cycle.
The career wasn’t one Williams intended to pursue at first. He started attending community college for construction management. When he got a job with a local engineering firm, they asked him to get further training so he could do building inspections for them. It took him two more years to get fully certified, but even then, it didn’t seem like a long-term career.
“It thought it would just be a chapter,” says Williams. “But in 2008 the economy was down, construction was down. The thought of entering a construction company as the low man on the totem pole was not very appealing. The stability did become appealing at that point.”
Most code official positions are in state and local government. Williams is unusual, in that he worked first for an engineering firm and now for a building code consulting firm. By his estimate, 90 percent of people in the industry are employed in the public sector; both of his employers have received much of their work from government entities.
The industry is having a hard time attracting new recruits in part because the stability that attracted Williams is no longer the norm. The public sector took a beating after the Great Recession, with the number of government employees plummeting after the downturn and taking far longer to recover than private-sector employment did. 
Pay for those who remained actually fell. 
The benefits that compensate public workers for lower pay are coming under threat, too.
The industry is having a hard time attracting new recruits in part because the stability that attracted Williams is no longer the norm.
“During the downturn, cities were laying off some of their building department staff who had been there for 15 or 20 years,” says Williams. “That historical sense that working for the local government is an incredibly secure job went out the window. The sense of permanence is no longer there. That’s been detrimental to those switching careers [from the private sector].”
Countering the retirement wave
The ICC is trying to stave off an inspector shortage. 
It sponsors a program in technical high schools that teaches students in major construction trades—like electrical, plumbing, and mechanical—how to navigate the code. 
The program “incorporates a hands-on component to allow students ... to directly apply what they learn in the code book to an actual construction project,” the ICC’s vice president of membership, Ron Piester, writes in an email. The idea is to both improve code compliance and make the pipeline from the trades to codes roles more explicit. 
The organization has also launched an initiative to improve recruitment and formed an emerging leaders council.

Cities around the world like LA, London, and Mumbai, are creating an electric future to change the way we live.
In Utah, the regional manager of Williams’ company reached out to the department of licensing and proposed an educational program to train more inspectors. 
The state already uses 1 percent of building permit fees to pay for continuing education for contractors and inspectors. Williams and his colleagues got $30,000 of it. 
They used that slim outlay to develop a test-prep series with 41 two-hour sessions spread over two years. So far, 36 people have been licensed through the program. 
(Inspectors are certified by the ICC and licensed by their state.)
They didn’t stop there. This spring, Williams’s company will launch an online Building Code Academy, which will offer test prep and training videos at $200 a course. 
The company has hired four inspectors under the age of 35 in Utah, and more in California.
Still, Williams is worried for the future of his industry. He believes that without returning to an employment paradigm closer to the pre-recession norm, the retirement cliff will continue to loom. 
It used to be that jurisdictions would hire a junior inspector to train under a senior inspector, whom they would eventually replace. Now that they want to do more with less, those junior inspectors aren’t getting hired.
“The cities are trying to have smaller building departments and trying to accomplish more work with less people,” Williams says. “As a result of that, the cities aren’t willing to invest in an individual who does not have the training and experience. That’s where this gap has grown.”


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## cda

I am thinking it is like any business, people come people go.

Someone is always looking for a job, and does not appear cities have problem filling openings.

Yes a large group may retire, but he group that replace them will go through the same thing 20-40 years down the line.

I saw that with the fire dept. I work with, when I first started there were a large group with around 20 years in, at the 30 year mark they started retiring,

Now there is a group of youngsters in, that will go out in 30 years.


Yes newbies need training, but most of us did also, when we started. Can there be programs to interest people to be inspectors, yes. would help.


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## inspecterbake

I know what you are talking about I work for a municipality and our neighboring inspector is retiring at the end of the year. I was approached by his board to take his position which I declined. I have worked with them for 13 years trading services if he was off I would cover his inspections which he did the same for me. Now they have worked out an inter-municipal agreement for myself to do there inspections. I have 10 more years until I retire and every inspector around here is either retired working part time or ready to retire. I have told my supervisors that they need to start looking ahead but they are not seeing what we as inspectors are realizing that 10 years from now or sooner the inspection pool is going to be sparse.


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## JCraver

When the vast majority of the country treats these jobs as second-class, offers embarrassing starting wages, and makes advancement beyond the code desk impossible, this is what you get.

There's no way to make this job glamorous, or popular.  If you want young talent, you're going to have to pay enough to make them look past other careers.  When a brand new IT guy makes more than a 10-year veteran building inspector, which job do you think a kid is going to want more?


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## steveray

inspecterbake said:


> I have told my supervisors that they need to start looking ahead but they are not seeing what we as inspectors are realizing that 10 years from now or sooner the inspection pool is going to be sparse.





JCraver said:


> There's no way to make this job glamorous, or popular. If you want young talent, you're going to have to pay enough to make them look past other careers. When a brand new IT guy makes more than a 10-year veteran building inspector, which job do you think a kid is going to want more?



For the most part, they just don't care.....If we do our jobs perfectly,....nothing ever happens.....If we suck, maybe nothing happens or at least the municipality doesn't get sued and that is all they will recognize. The fact that shoddy construction leads to expensive buildings to maintain which stunts growth and raises costs alludes them. When the grand list goes to pot because all of the buildings are shot, maybe they will start looking at it differently.....


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## fatboy

The Colorado Chapter of the ICC recognized this quite a while back. They have since developed a couple program s to try and promote construction careers and mentoring. It is just a couple year old, but had grown.

https://coloradochaptericc.org/committees/building-futures/


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## Pcinspector1

Pretty glamours job being a codes inspector, I'm sure ICE will attest to that!


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## Sifu

steveray said:


> For the most part, they just don't care.....If we do our jobs perfectly,....nothing ever happens.....If we suck, maybe nothing happens or at least the municipality doesn't get sued


I have said many times, our job is only ever recognized when something goes wrong.  Nobody ever talks about the building that didn't burn down, or the bridge that didn't collapse.  That is just part of the job, I don't think many people get into this business to be recognized and those that do I rarely want to be around.

I have been in the business of contracting and inspections for more than 2 decades, but I am not sure I see myself ending my career in this field.  I continue to work on a degree in a different field with the thought that someday I will get out.  

BTW, in the last two years my department has had a 100% turnover.  We have lost more people than we employ, with many positions turning over more than once.


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## fatboy

^^^

Interesting, I took over as CBO 13 years ago with a staff of ten. I had one inspector leave for private sector, he came back to work for me 6 years later, one permit tech retired, one plans examiner passed away, and I terminated one. Virtually no turnover.

Guess I am lucky.........


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## JCraver

It's not a "cool" job.  I'll bet any of you a years worth of Sawhorse membership that when you were in HS your dream job was not as a building inspector..

HS kid looks at a job someone has and thinks, "Man his/her job is so awesome, I'm going to go to college so I can do that!"  A code pro's job is not that, by any stretch of any imagination.

The rest of the HS kids look at someone else's job and think, "Man he/she makes soooooo much money, I'm going to go to college so I can do that!!"   Not one kid anywhere ever has thought that about a guy who's a building inspector.


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## Sifu

JCraver said:


> It's not a "cool" job.  I'll bet any of you a years worth of Sawhorse membership that when you were in HS your dream job was not as a building inspector..


My dream job was architect, even had classes in it......IN HIGH SCHOOL!  At least I stayed in the same general field.


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## Sifu

fatboy said:


> ^^^
> 
> Interesting, I took over as CBO 13 years ago with a staff of ten. I had one inspector leave for private sector, he came back to work for me 6 years later, one permit tech retired, one plans examiner passed away, and I terminated one. Virtually no turnover.
> 
> Guess I am lucky.........


Yeah, I am not implying the field itself drove all the people away, though the job has changed a lot and could cause a lot of the seasoned vets to want out.  A good BO, good director, good city manager, good council.............all have a hand in code official satisfaction.  Sounds like your organization has been able to weather the changes better than some others.


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## mark handler

Sifu said:


> My dream job was architect, even had classes in it......IN HIGH SCHOOL!  At least I stayed in the same general field.


Not as dreamy as you might think....I is one.


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## Sifu

I thought that comment would get a second look from some of you.  I guess its like most other professions, it's work and it pays the bills.  Good days and bad days and all that.


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## Keystone

I for one have zero regrets in leaving the trades and becoming an inspector, it may not be a glamouros job but it certainly can be what you make it! 

A pending shortage, I believe so. Pennsylvania completed voluntary feedback from code officials and I do not recall the exact numbers but the average age throughout is very near typical retirement. When I attend seminars, I see a few guys and gals that are around 40 however it is a small percentage of the room.

Pay, throughout Pa. The scale varies wildly and again the voluntary feedback from code officials was an average wage of about 52K with top tier being 100K. JCarver is correct, a new IT rep usually has a starting salary higher than our industries capped of top tier. 

Attracting talent, easier said then done. Finding people who want to self study is difficult. Frankly IMO it's the unknown of the self study, getting over the first hurdle. The size alone of the residential code book can appear daunting to a newbie.


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## conarb

Everybody's worst fear:


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## mtlogcabin

7 man department 3 of us can go any day we want to pull the plug. In reality 2 will be here at least 2 years and the other one at least a year. The other 4 are all under 45 and are eager to grow and learn the multi inspection disciplines we cover as a AHJ.


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## ICE

So what exactly is meant by "dying out".  There's no shortage of building inspectors.  There's no shortage of people who want to be an inspector.  Run an ad in the paper and hundreds will apply.  Ask any building official what's the state of inspections......You will witness glowing accolades being heaped upon the department.


"Attracting talent, easier said then done."  Damned near impossible I'd say.


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## fatboy

Yeah.........not so much. I was out for both a plumbing and electrical inspector this past year.....had trouble finding 3-5 applicants worth interviewing. I got lucky and found both.

In regards to my post above, one position was replacing the deceased Plans Examiner (also a plumbing inspector), the other replacing the electrical inspector that was terminated in 2007.


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## mark handler

We are having a heck of a time finding "Qualified inspectors". Plenty of wantabees but not qualified. Passing a test does not make you qualified. regardless what ICC or the State says.


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## Keystone

mark handler said:


> We are having a heck of a time finding "Qualified inspectors". Plenty of wantabees but not qualified. Passing a test does not make you qualified. regardless what ICC or the State says.


 
Couldn't agree more! This profession requires the appropriate temperament and communication that can not be obtained from a book test nor can actual field knowledge/experience.


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## Keystone

Every industry I have personal knowledge of, construction, healthcare, warehousing, IT, etc... Has a shortage of quality field personnel. The economy is booming!  Our office has tried to fill an open multi disciplined position for almost a year. A conclusion was reached we could not continue to wait, a young, bright & willing single disciplined inspector has been hired and will be groomed and educated to accommodate the office needs. There comes a time when the standard does not fit and adjustments must be made, one step back will net us two steps forward.


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## Keystone

conarb said:


> Everybody's worst fear:


Any populous that votes for rent control is opening Pandora's box but this is started in CA so I'm sure it'll go through. Seriously though, what does this have to do with building inspectors or lack thereof? Might need to start a separate thread.


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## Sifu

Keystone said:


> Every industry I have personal knowledge of, construction, healthcare, warehousing, IT, etc... Has a shortage of quality field personnel. The economy is booming!  Our office has tried to fill an open multi disciplined position for almost a year. A conclusion was reached we could not continue to wait, a young, bright & willing single disciplined inspector has been hired and will be groomed and educated to accommodate the office needs. There comes a time when the standard does not fit and adjustments must be made, one step back will net us two steps forward.


I would add that if we are interviewing a certified and experienced inspector, ready to hit the ground, that person is just moving from one AHJ to another, one's loss is the others gain, but it is not introducing new talent.  A quality but inexperienced applicant is always considered.  We can teach technical stuff to the wise, but it is much harder to teach wisdom.


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## ADAguy

Ok Mark, initial qualifications is one thing but getting young inspectors to "continue with their education ( a life long process)" is another thing. Inspector associations are losing members and the young ones do not appear to understand the value of continuing education and being around we "old timers".
I too am an architect who crossed the bridge to plan review and inspection and continue to enjoy it each day. It is my "career" but required years of experience to mature into who I am. It doesn't come overnight. You get what you choose to invest into it. It is a profession for the curious.


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## mark handler

ADAguy said:


> Ok Mark, initial qualifications is one thing but getting young inspectors to "continue with their education ( a life long process)" is another thing. Inspector associations are losing members and the young ones do not appear to understand the value of continuing education and being around we "old timers".
> I too am an architect who crossed the bridge to plan review and inspection and continue to enjoy it each day. It is my "career" but required years of experience to mature into who I am. It doesn't come overnight. You get what you choose to invest into it. It is a profession for the curious.


Same boat.

*There are Continuing Ed classes required of inspectors and plan checker in CA.
Architects only on Accessibility...*


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## Sifu

ADAguy said:


> It is a profession for the curious.


That is a great way to describe it.


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## Rick18071

Love this job. My old body just could not handle the hard work anymore so being an inspector is great.

My company could not get any new hires with certs so they hired someone to train for the first time and studying and testing to get  certs while being paid.


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## ADAguy

That makes "cents" for your company, investing in the future.


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## my250r11

Here we almost always have to try and find someone that meet the qualifications to take the test for the state. Which usual means they have to study and pass and general given 1 years to do so. That's how i started. Had to stop traveling do to a death so my kids could finish school. When I changed AHJ's I was the only one that was certified that applied, they took me on the spot. So now i'm not traveling 40 miles a day one way. 

The pay is no where near what should be for what we are required to know and keep up with, but maybe I will make it to retirement without another surgery on my knees or back!! I do strongly believe that you need time in the field to make some sense of what the code is saying.


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## Sifu

I have worked at three AHJ's that undertook a pay study to keep themselves in line with the "industry".  The inherent problem is that those studies only compare other AHJ jurisdictions, but not take into account what good people can make on the private side.  It will continue to be difficult to compete unless pay is a little more comparable to the sector of employment that the AHJ's must compete with.


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## mark handler

We dont have the time or budget to teach the fundamentals


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## ADAguy

If the police and fire can host high school trainees, then why can't cities do apprenticeships and ride alongs or hire recent military?


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## ICE

The top ten jurisdictions in each state should be required to fund a curriculum at a college that turns out certified inspectors.  Ten years of verified construction experience should be required to enroll.


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## Builder Bob

truth be told, I spent 32 years in the fire service/ building inspection/ fire marshal aspect of a government employee- the pay sucks, political pressure is unbelievable, and  after a while- you become tired of finding the problems with a minimum amount of repercussions. When you have to write a company up - go to court win the case, and go to rewrite another ticket 30 days later for the same offense to restart the process and nothing changes. The fines were more affordable than corrective actions.   And I was fortunate, I had ticket and summons powers. I retired and have since then, gone to work in an architect office where I feel I am more productive than ever.... I am finally being proactive and not reactive..... I'm sorry, but after 32 years of banging my head against the wall, I finally have found my spot in life where I can ensure that the minimum standards of the code are truly met. Not the greatest achievement, but at last, I feel like my efforts are meaningful.

That is what is missing from Code enforcement ..... having a career that feels worthwhile and that you are making a difference... Not every area of the country has the same warm fuzzy feeling - I am sure that some areas are more business oriented, the area I am in is filled with good ole boys and directives from management not to ruffle the tail feathers of (insert name (of politician, cousin of governor, etc.) here).

When you have values that all people are equal, it makes it really hard to go to work the next day knowing that all people are not treated equally........ At least now, I can treat all people equally in the line of work I am in.  I am thankful for the years of knowledge, the friends I made, and the lessons I learned..... I am not thankful for the lack of support,lack of leadership, and the inability to apply fairness and equality across the board to issues in the community. Entitlement has become to common place for the Rich and the Poor.

Good Luck to those still in the trenches.... The afterlife does make it all worthwhile.....  BTW, I make more with better benefits in the private sector than I did in my years of service for government, Now I draw a retirement check and a nice pay check ..... That is the only reason why a government job would ever be worthwhile.


now for the legals.............


The opinion expressed above is only the  opinion of "Builder Bob" and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of any or all government employees who are working for minimum fees and without worthwhile rewards. 

Peace out ! Thanks for the opportunity to vent and state my opinion....


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## mark handler

In southern California we do have several Community Colleges that teach code courses and inspection courses.  They  don't teach experience.  Book learning is not the same as experience.


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## Rick18071

I can't complain. As an inspector who only completed high school I get paid more than most who did 4 years of college.


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## rktect 1

Yea, well, it takes time to gain the experience in order to become an inspector or plan reviewer.  What is the average starting age of our profession?  I know I started at 40 years old.


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## RickAstoria

mark handler said:


> The Building Code Profession Is Dying Out, and That's a Problem
> Jake Blumgart
> https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/0...sion-is-dying-out-and-thats-a-problem/515826/
> Many of the officials who check construction plans and inspect buildings for safety are on the cusp of retirement—and they’re not being replaced.
> At professional events, George Williams is used to being surrounded by people many decades his senior. The Salt Lake City-area building inspector is 34, which makes him a young gun in an aging workforce.
> His role as the lone youth among venerable peers began when he first started attending professional networking and training events in 2010. Williams would walk into a continuing education course or an event held by the local chapter of the International Code Council (ICC) and he’d be one of the few people without gray hair.
> “Without fail, I was the youngest person in the room, every single time,” says Williams. “Not slightly younger, but dramatically younger than nearly everyone else.”
> In early 2014, his curiosity piqued, Williams asked the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing if he could view their records on the demographics of the state’s building code professionals. The department wouldn’t give him names or addresses, but it emailed him a spreadsheet with the ages of every building inspector in the state.
> A crisis in numbers
> Upon crunching the numbers, Williams found a looming crisis. It turns out that 60 percent of the statewide industry is close to retirement. And Utah isn’t an outlier, as he found a few months later when the ICC and the National Institute of Building Sciences released a report with disturbingly similar findings. “It comes as little surprise that the current workforce is aging and making plans for retirement,” the authors write. “However, the actual numbers are a bit alarming.”
> That’s putting it mildly. Eighty-five percent of the respondents to ICC’s survey were over the age of 45. Only three percent were under 35. Most of them were looking to get out of the game in the near future: Eighty percent planned to retire within 15 years, and a full 30 percent within five.
> Building code officials can serve as managers, plan reviewers (checking construction plans to make sure they’re up to par), or inspectors—or they can wear two or three of those hats at once. Inspectors are tasked with ensuring that new buildings (and renovations of old ones) have been built safely and responsibly. They carefully check that everything is braced and wired and insulated to meet the requirements of the local codes.
> Inspections protect against developers and landlords who endanger people by trying to build or repair a property on the cheap, or in ignorance of safety standards. Without them, the result could be a building collapse or faulty wiring that causes a fire. The Ghost Ship tragedy in Oakland last year underscored the importance of codes and inspections....



In reply to the original post and some of the other comments I read but not quoting, I know in Oregon that some of the ruling from the BCD makes it a tad less appealing for a private sector person with their own businesses to be a building official or working for it. Long story short, ( https://www.oregon.gov/bcd/laws-rules/Documents/rules/20180423-legislative-counsel-opinion.pdf and https://www.oregon.gov/bcd/laws-rules/Documents/rules/20180423-department-of-justice-opinion.pdf ). 

As I understand it, the building code enforcement field is a kind of law enforcement field of a sort. To be credible in the eyes of the public, you generally have to have some years in be it construction, architecture, building design, engineering, etc. This field isn't really nor meant to be a gateway job but a job career that you enter into midway in your working career life. It is because to be a good building official or building inspector or otherwise, you kind of have to work in the AEC field to some degree. You have to have some level of knowledge in the building codes. You also need to mature as an adult some. Despite the laws and all, age discrimination exists. A permit applicant old enough to have a home or building built because they have the money isn't going to look at some 18-19 year old kid with any kind of respect because when you are some young "snot nose kid" in their eyes, they aren't going to have a lot of respect for your opinion. As it is, people try to do whatever they can to get away not meeting every single annoying hurdle of code compliance because to them it all means more $$$ spent when they want to spend less $$$ on code compliance. You have to build a thick skin. Emotional development wise, most young fresh out of high school graduates are too idealistic and don't have a developed discipline of themselves or the emotional development level to handle the onslaught of people's vitriol. You kind of have to be about 25+ years old because you need adult life experience. This isn't about age discrimination on my part but 95% or more of high school graduates don't have real adult life exposure. Working as a building official or building inspector is something people, who are happy to violate the codes anyway they can, considers evil. It's an thankless field by a lot of people. It's harsh and tough. There are people who do respect the work of the building department but it is not a well respected occupation. Who likes the guy that comes in and tells you, you are being fined for building without a permit. It's like the disrespect police officers get. In a way, you are a 'law enforcement' official. 

People that tend to seek this field are often people who have spent time in other directions in life, first. Eventually, working for a city or county or whatever being a relatively consistent salary and some benefits for retirement. It could be a reasonable income. While it might not be 6 digits but it's more like you might find as a police officer, fire official, tenure teacher or college instructor, etc. You can make a respectable income albeit not rich but stable income. 

For me, I am a building designer, it would be complicated to a building official or building inspector or plan examiner at the same time. However, I have been considering the options of post-earthquake damage inspector (LQI vs GQI). Oregon folks here may know what I mean by it. I am currently working on building designer certification which would be nice if such would be recognized for being an LQI (Limited Post-EarthQuake Damage Inspector) and it would be reasonable. There are questions I am racking head around. I'll leave that for Oregon BCD.


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## RickAstoria

ICE said:


> The top ten jurisdictions in each state should be required to fund a curriculum at a college that turns out certified inspectors.  Ten years of verified construction experience should be required to enroll.



I would consider architectural licensing, engineering license, building designer certification as credit towards experience. Residential inspectors being about 5-6 years of education/experience or building design certification+Residential inspector certification. Experience in the AEC field where permits would be involved. These options, I noted involved education, experience, and examination for their respective discipline. Then they have to get their inspector or plan reviewer certs or whatever else.


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## RickAstoria

mark handler said:


> In southern California we do have several Community Colleges that teach code courses and inspection courses.  They  don't teach experience.  Book learning is not the same as experience.



That's why young new individuals should be brought in under supervision of the experienced. That is what apprenticeship is about. They gain some experienced under the supervisor/mentor. The role of mentorship and supervision must be intertwined in the process.


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## Shaun Reed

mark handler said:


> The Building Code Profession Is Dying Out, and That's a Problem
> Jake Blumgart
> https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/0...sion-is-dying-out-and-thats-a-problem/515826/
> Many of the officials who check construction plans and inspect buildings for safety are on the cusp of retirement—and they’re not being replaced.
> At professional events, George Williams is used to being surrounded by people many decades his senior. The Salt Lake City-area building inspector is 34, which makes him a young gun in an aging workforce.
> His role as the lone youth among venerable peers began when he first started attending professional networking and training events in 2010. Williams would walk into a continuing education course or an event held by the local chapter of the International Code Council (ICC) and he’d be one of the few people without gray hair.
> “Without fail, I was the youngest person in the room, every single time,” says Williams. “Not slightly younger, but dramatically younger than nearly everyone else.”
> In early 2014, his curiosity piqued, Williams asked the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing if he could view their records on the demographics of the state’s building code professionals. The department wouldn’t give him names or addresses, but it emailed him a spreadsheet with the ages of every building inspector in the state.
> A crisis in numbers
> Upon crunching the numbers, Williams found a looming crisis. It turns out that 60 percent of the statewide industry is close to retirement. And Utah isn’t an outlier, as he found a few months later when the ICC and the National Institute of Building Sciences released a report with disturbingly similar findings. “It comes as little surprise that the current workforce is aging and making plans for retirement,” the authors write. “However, the actual numbers are a bit alarming.”
> That’s putting it mildly. Eighty-five percent of the respondents to ICC’s survey were over the age of 45. Only three percent were under 35. Most of them were looking to get out of the game in the near future: Eighty percent planned to retire within 15 years, and a full 30 percent within five.
> Building code officials can serve as managers, plan reviewers (checking construction plans to make sure they’re up to par), or inspectors—or they can wear two or three of those hats at once. Inspectors are tasked with ensuring that new buildings (and renovations of old ones) have been built safely and responsibly. They carefully check that everything is braced and wired and insulated to meet the requirements of the local codes.
> Inspections protect against developers and landlords who endanger people by trying to build or repair a property on the cheap, or in ignorance of safety standards. Without them, the result could be a building collapse or faulty wiring that causes a fire. The Ghost Ship tragedy in Oakland last year underscored the importance of codes and inspections.
> Not only does building inspection serve a clear societal purpose, it’s the type of middle-class job that is in increasingly short supply. Only a high school diploma is needed for an entry-level position as a code official, and the median income is about $57,000 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ICC survey found that the median salary range was between $50,000 and $75,000, with a fifth of respondents earning up to $100,000. Job security, pay, and benefits were the top reasons respondents gave for joining the ranks.
> Construction rates are healthy—there is plenty of need for building inspectors’ services. And theirs aren’t skills that can be easily automated. So why are their ranks dwindling?
> A low-profile job with less stability
> Williams’s explanation for his industry’s grim state is multifaceted. For one thing, it simply isn’t a job that very many people know exists. The profession is relatively small, with the BLS counting 101,200 “construction and building inspectors” in 2014.
> It also isn’t the most glamorous field of all time. “There aren’t any grade-school children right now who are drawing pictures or writing papers about becoming a building inspector,” Williams says. “I think this profession finds you rather than you finding it.”
> George Williams in the field (Courtesy of George Williams)
> Like many of his compatriots, Williams found the job through the building trades. Historically, people have gravitated from the trades to codes work because it’s steadier than construction, which is more vulnerable to the boom and bust of the real estate cycle.
> The career wasn’t one Williams intended to pursue at first. He started attending community college for construction management. When he got a job with a local engineering firm, they asked him to get further training so he could do building inspections for them. It took him two more years to get fully certified, but even then, it didn’t seem like a long-term career.
> “It thought it would just be a chapter,” says Williams. “But in 2008 the economy was down, construction was down. The thought of entering a construction company as the low man on the totem pole was not very appealing. The stability did become appealing at that point.”
> Most code official positions are in state and local government. Williams is unusual, in that he worked first for an engineering firm and now for a building code consulting firm. By his estimate, 90 percent of people in the industry are employed in the public sector; both of his employers have received much of their work from government entities.
> The industry is having a hard time attracting new recruits in part because the stability that attracted Williams is no longer the norm. The public sector took a beating after the Great Recession, with the number of government employees plummeting after the downturn and taking far longer to recover than private-sector employment did.
> Pay for those who remained actually fell.
> The benefits that compensate public workers for lower pay are coming under threat, too.
> The industry is having a hard time attracting new recruits in part because the stability that attracted Williams is no longer the norm.
> “During the downturn, cities were laying off some of their building department staff who had been there for 15 or 20 years,” says Williams. “That historical sense that working for the local government is an incredibly secure job went out the window. The sense of permanence is no longer there. That’s been detrimental to those switching careers [from the private sector].”
> Countering the retirement wave
> The ICC is trying to stave off an inspector shortage.
> It sponsors a program in technical high schools that teaches students in major construction trades—like electrical, plumbing, and mechanical—how to navigate the code.
> The program “incorporates a hands-on component to allow students ... to directly apply what they learn in the code book to an actual construction project,” the ICC’s vice president of membership, Ron Piester, writes in an email. The idea is to both improve code compliance and make the pipeline from the trades to codes roles more explicit.
> The organization has also launched an initiative to improve recruitment and formed an emerging leaders council.
> 
> Cities around the world like LA, London, and Mumbai, are creating an electric future to change the way we live.
> In Utah, the regional manager of Williams’ company reached out to the department of licensing and proposed an educational program to train more inspectors.
> The state already uses 1 percent of building permit fees to pay for continuing education for contractors and inspectors. Williams and his colleagues got $30,000 of it.
> They used that slim outlay to develop a test-prep series with 41 two-hour sessions spread over two years. So far, 36 people have been licensed through the program.
> (Inspectors are certified by the ICC and licensed by their state.)
> They didn’t stop there. This spring, Williams’s company will launch an online Building Code Academy, which will offer test prep and training videos at $200 a course.
> The company has hired four inspectors under the age of 35 in Utah, and more in California.
> Still, Williams is worried for the future of his industry. He believes that without returning to an employment paradigm closer to the pre-recession norm, the retirement cliff will continue to loom.
> It used to be that jurisdictions would hire a junior inspector to train under a senior inspector, whom they would eventually replace. Now that they want to do more with less, those junior inspectors aren’t getting hired.
> “The cities are trying to have smaller building departments and trying to accomplish more work with less people,” Williams says. “As a result of that, the cities aren’t willing to invest in an individual who does not have the training and experience. That’s where this gap has grown.”


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## Shaun Reed

Well I just got licensed and am looking forward to an opportunity to be involved in this industry.  So there are some people ready for their chance.


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## mark handler

Shaun Reed said:


> Well I just got licensed and am looking forward to an opportunity to be involved in this industry.  So there are some people ready for their chance.


Licensed as?


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## Shaun Reed

mark handler said:


> Licensed as?


Licensed as a building inspector


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## Mark K

In what state?  Please reference where in the state statutes it licenses building inspectors.

ICC certification is not a license.


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## inspecterbake

I just set in a class last week for 4 days and out of 18 people 4 were taking the electrical exam but only 3 were going to use it as an inspector. What I thought was very interesting was about half the class was retired police officers doing property maintenance and taking the course to understand the basics. I took a look at the ages of the class and other than a handful most were retired or going to be within the next 10 years.


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## linnrg

Mark K said:


> In what state?  Please reference where in the state statutes it licenses building inspectors.
> 
> ICC certification is not a license.



State of Alaska has home inspector licensing - they are a part of the Contractor licensing program


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## mtlogcabin

Florida has had a license requirement since the early 90's
http://myfloridalicense.custhelp.co...-a-building-code-inspector-or-plans-examiner?


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## Shaun Reed

In the state of Michigan


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## Shaun Reed

Shaun Reed said:


> In the state of Michigan[/QUOTE
> https://www.michigan.gov/documents/..._registration_app_530888_7.pdf?v=121920171235


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