Help needed with Inspection Blues

Subhashish · Oct 20, 2008 1:42 pm

Our Builder just completed the frame and roof cover and we got an independent inspector to get the frame inspection done.

He said overall the house looks good, but he raised a major concen. - - The Studs in the house appear to have F5 which is non structural !!

The problem is he is is NOT willing to provide a writting report till the "Building Computation Drawing' is provided to him by the Builder. From what i understand this is a Technical document with details of all engineering decision made etc.. The builder on the other hand is refusing to provide this document on the ground that the they have provided us the certificate of approval ( in the contract) for all engineering approvals.

We are on a limbo now and thinking what's the best course of action ? Should we get another inspection done with a inspector ( who is also a licenced surveyer). Apparantly only licenced surveyer can professionaly comment on structural issues and read the Building Computation drawings.

The plasters are supposed to go up from Wednesday so we have one day to sort this out if we do not wish to stop work (which we do not want to !!)

I have tried to erach out to Kevin (the well known Building inspector in this forum) to help us out but he is not reachable.

If there are any building inspectors reading this note, please do not hesitate to suggest or recommend your opinion.

Really hoping for some help from this forum as i have always received in the past !!

Our inspector also raised two medium concerns (few minor ones as well)

1)The ceiling height is less then 2590 mm by about 20 mm.
2) There are no wall-in-mount in the 2nd bathroom & WC to hold the towel rail and for the toilet rail. If the these are fixed to plaster, the plaster may come out. Wall-in-mount should be in all places where a fixture will be placed in future to avoid the plaster coming off.

snistr · Oct 20, 2008 2:58 pm

I have sent you a pm.

photogirl · Oct 20, 2008 7:07 pm

Hi Subhashish

Sorry to hear about the problems. Don't forget that frame stage is a mandatory stage for the building surveyor who issued the permit. You will have a copy of the permit with their details, either Council or private. You can contact them to find out if they have passed the frame because if there is a problem they shouldn't have. The builder can't actually proceed until that frame is passed. You are allowed to contact and speak to that surveyor and I would recommend that you do that asap.

I_BUILD · Oct 21, 2008 6:27 pm

Your private inspector doesn't really know what he is talking about I think. F5 90x35 is structural and most big builders use it as it is the cheapest option for framing. Non structural pine timber has exactly those words stamped on it 'NON STRUCTUAL' and that's why independent inspectors must be registered and you must check that they have a lot of knowledge and experience in this industry.

Subhashish · Nov 12, 2008 3:31 pm

Thanks for all the help !! ... In addition to the responses here, I also got lot of PMs from this post which helped me talk to some people to address my concern...

Fortunately , this (The Studs in the house appear to have F5 which is non structural !! ) turned out to be a false alarm !! ...we had really bad and panicked 48 weekend hrs, till we knew this...

H3nley also did a great job in calling a site meeting on the basis of my request (even in the absence of a formal report)... and addressed the concerns...

We also got a 2nd inspection done by Kev.. he suggested some good points and confirmed agian that this is a non issue... the builder addressed the issues raised by him promptly...

I also did not realise that the builder provides a "Next Generation Contract" which details the engineering designs... the builder could have done a better job in pointing me to this document the first time i called them ...but they made up for this with the site meeting...