# Periodic Inspections of Commercial Buildings



## Joker (Jun 29, 2015)

Good Afternoon.

We are in the process of restructuring how we inspect commercial buildings and I'm trying to get a feel for whats going on in the industry.

Our code calls for inspections as close a possible to annually on all commercial buildings. That isn't possible. Some people in our administration want to get rid of annual inspections all together since the Fire Marshall inspects assembly and high hazard buildings. I'm comfortable with stretching it out to 2-4 years as long as there's no complaints or violations. I know that some cities inspect: if there's a change of owner, if there's a change of the occupant, every 2-6 years, and some don't do it at all. My questions are:

Do you perform periodic commercial inspections?

On what occupancies?

How often?

What's your population?

What municipality?


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## ICE (Jun 29, 2015)

Joker said:
			
		

> Good Afternoon.We are in the process of restructuring how we inspect commercial buildings and I'm trying to get a feel for whats going on in the industry.
> 
> Our code calls for inspections as close a possible to annually on all commercial buildings. That isn't possible. Some people in our administration want to get rid of annual inspections all together since the Fire Marshall inspects assembly and high hazard buildings. I'm comfortable with stretching it out to 2-4 years as long as there's no complaints or violations. I know that some cities inspect: if there's a change of owner, if there's a change of the occupant, every 2-6 years, and some don't do it at all. My questions are:
> 
> ...


It is difficult to get the crowd talking.  I ask questions and I'm lucky if anybody replies.

Our fire department inspects commercial buildings but I don't know the frequency.  I have worked jurisdictions that performed a building dept. inspection whenever there was an application for a business license.  I would find all sorts of things wrong.  It made me wonder exactly what the fire dept. looks for.  One time I found a bootlegged 10,000 sq. ft. freezer full of crabs.


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## MASSDRIVER (Jun 29, 2015)

ICE said:
			
		

> One time I found a bootlegged 10,000 sq. ft. freezer full of crabs.


You found crabs _one_ time?

Riiight.

Brent.


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## ICE (Jun 29, 2015)

MASSDRIVER said:
			
		

> You found crabs _one_ time?Riiight.
> 
> Brent.


Honest Injun Brent..:devil:devil:devil..and they were the size of dinner plates.  The ones in the warehouse freezer were pretty big too.


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## mtlogcabin (Jun 30, 2015)

We are a building department that also does the fire prevention inspections. We do all schools annually per state law. No other inspections are required by law or ordinance. We do not have occupational licenses in our jurisdiction however the state license law requires annual inspections to renew their license on day cares, assisted living and liquor license establishments when their is a change in the ownership or operation of the facility.  All other occupancies are done when time allows it. usually winter months when construction slows down. We have a priority based on the occupancy type and size of the building. A 1200 sq ft flower shop might be every couple of years where a large box store we try to do every 12 to 18 months. Sprinklered buildings, large assembly buildings, R-1 occupancies are at the top of the priority list. We do not have any industrial or high hazard occupancies within the jurisdiction.

During are inspections we primarily use the fire code however we do look for violations of the other adopted codes also.


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## ICE (Jun 30, 2015)

mtlogcabin said:
			
		

> We are a building department that also does the fire prevention inspections. *We do all schools annually per state law. **No other inspections are required by law or ordinance.* We do not have occupational licenses in our jurisdiction however the state license law requires annual inspections to renew their license on day cares, assisted living and liquor license establishments when their is a change in the ownership or operation of the facility.  *All other occupancies are done when time allows it.* usually winter months when construction slows down. We have a priority based on the occupancy type and size of the building. A 1200 sq ft flower shop might be every couple of years where a large box store we try to do every 12 to 18 months. Sprinklered buildings, large assembly buildings, R-1 occupancies are at the top of the priority list. We do not have any industrial or high hazard occupancies within the jurisdiction. During are inspections we primarily use the fire code however we do look for violations of the other adopted codes also.


As I understand this, only schools require periodic inspections but all other occupancies are inspected as time allows.  With no law or ordinance requiring an inspection, do you get resistance to allowing you in to do an inspection?


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## mtlogcabin (Jun 30, 2015)

> With no law or ordinance requiring an inspection, do you get resistance to allowing you in to do an inspection?


We schedule appointments so we never have had any "resistance". Sometimes the local rep has to get approval from corporate but we have never been refused or stalled for any length of time.


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## FM William Burns (Jun 30, 2015)

Do you perform periodic commercial inspections? (Yes) 

On what occupancies?  New, Existing with Occupancy Changes/New Tenants 

Our routine inspections focus on Target Hazards First - (Historic Downtown, Assembly, Commercial Cooking, Apartment Buildings, Hotels and Hazardous Process Industrial)

How often? (Within 2 years for Target Hazards and 5 years for all others)

What's your population? (19,000 and growing)

What municipality? Rural County Seat (1900 commercial/industrial properties) 

Problems you’ll encounter depending on duties performed by the fire department is the on-going trend to continue to do more with less. Fire departments these days do many functions daily aside from emergency response. Depending on your staffing and demands for customer service like (meetings/consultations; public education/requests, plan review, inspections, complaints,training, emergency responses and investigations) trying to conduct even bi-annual inspection programs is tenuous with limited staffing. 

Unfortunately this is just the reality and I have and continue to be heavily involved at a state and national level (off duty of course) on code/inspection administration. My advice would be to research and focus on partnering with the building department and service the new business/industries first.  Focus on those occupancies presenting the greatest threat for life safety/hazards and those that present potential problems for your operations.  If the Chief and operations personnel would buy into it, develop a company inspection program to address the abilities to service more of community with the fire prevention inspection and sell them on the pre-incident planning capabilities of doing such a program (if not already doing so).  This allows gaining the biggest bang for the tax payers buck………JMHO.


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## Joker (Jul 18, 2015)

mtlogcabin said:
			
		

> We are a building department that also does the fire prevention inspections. We do all schools annually per state law. No other inspections are required by law or ordinance. We do not have occupational licenses in our jurisdiction however the state license law requires annual inspections to renew their license on day cares, assisted living and liquor license establishments when their is a change in the ownership or operation of the facility.  All other occupancies are done when time allows it. usually winter months when construction slows down. We have a priority based on the occupancy type and size of the building. A 1200 sq ft flower shop might be every couple of years where a large box store we try to do every 12 to 18 months. Sprinklered buildings, large assembly buildings, R-1 occupancies are at the top of the priority list. We do not have any industrial or high hazard occupancies within the jurisdiction. During are inspections we primarily use the fire code however we do look for violations of the other adopted codes also.


Thanks for the response!!


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## Joker (Jul 18, 2015)

FM William Burns said:
			
		

> Do you perform periodic commercial inspections? (Yes) On what occupancies?  New, Existing with Occupancy Changes/New Tenants
> 
> Our routine inspections focus on Target Hazards First - (Historic Downtown, Assembly, Commercial Cooking, Apartment Buildings, Hotels and Hazardous Process Industrial)
> 
> ...


Thanks for the response!!


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