Any tips on what building inspectors look out for on final check?

[oldcoop]

Probably a daft question... but any tips on what building inspectors look out for on their last visit?

 

We had full plans approval at the start so previous visits have been quite low key. They advised on fire escape windows (windows in the two existing bedrooms are low to be ground so Regs simultaneously want low opening for escape and high opening to prevent falls...)

 

But now we are nearing the end I guess there will be things that were not on the plans, like staircase, fire escape windows and balustrades (we have a sort of mezzanine landing upstairs).

 

Any tips would be great so I can try to keep issues to a minimum! Really want to get back in ASAP and stop paying rent!

[ProDave]

Personally I think it's like an MOT. Leave some simple "fault" for them to find that is easy to rectify so they stop looking too hard once they have found the fault.

 

Drain pressure test is something they seem very hot on up here. and electrical and gas cerificates.

[Ian]

@oldcoop

What they want varies a lot depending on where you're building. Scotland will be much more bureaucratic than England & Wales. 

 

Usually the minimum they will need is your final SAP calculations and EPC as well as electric & gas certs but the best way to deal with the situation is to write and ask them what they need from you in order to give you the completion cert. Don't volunteer info that they haven't asked for.

 

[Mr Punter]

They will look at mechanical ventilation, smoke detectors, opening windows, 100mm gaps to stairs and want to have access to Gas, Electric, EPC / air tests and will often want to witness an air test of the waste system.  Sometimes they can just get a couple of things that everyone gets caught on - like locks on escape windows or thumb turns on escape doors or spy holes.

[pulhamdown]

1 hour ago, Ian said:

@oldcoop

Scotland will be much more bureaucratic than England & Wales. 

 

Not necessarily.  Our building inspector here in Perthshire realised quite early on that my project manager, and main contractor joiner, knew much more about building modern low energy houses than he did.  In fact on more than one occasion, he asked for a specific explanation of various features.  On final inspection, there were no issues thrown up at all.  maybe we were just lucky. 

[Ian]

5 minutes ago, pulhamdown said:

Not necessarily.  Our building inspector here in Perthshire realised quite early on that my project manager, and main contractor joiner, knew much more about building modern low energy houses than he did.  In fact on more than one occasion, he asked for a specific explanation of various features.  On final inspection, there were no issues thrown up at all.  maybe we were just lucky. 

As a general process the system in Scotland is more bureaucratic than in England and Wales where the system was privatised back in the 1990s. In Scotland it's still exclusively run by Local Authorities. They usually won't let you start on site before they make a full assessment of your proposals which can lead to long delays depending on how under-staffed the department is. It's a lottery but in the case of a commercial job I did in Inverness meant a delay of 5 months before we could start on site and then during construction the BCO was never available when we asked him to do inspections. Before he would sign it off at the end of the job he insisted on us opening up completed areas of ceilings and walls so he could have a look into hidden void areas at the work he should have inspected at the time it was being built (he found no issues btw). In Glasgow our client was paying the LA's overtime bill for their inspectors to try and speed things up.

[Temp]

This is what I remember ours looked at 10 years ago.. 

 

General walk around outside and in looking for issues.

Hetas plates on wood burners, air bricks etc

EN marks on toughened glass (eg stairs, French doors)

Coatings on all sealed units (ours tested every single pane in the house)

Pressure tested drains

Smoke alarms (looked but didn't test)

Checked one of our doors was 30 min fire rated due to a window being bit too narrow.

 

 

[newhome]

I think so much depends on the building inspector. The first one who came round wasn’t here all that long and things we were concerned about he wasn’t really bothered about at all. Things they were hot on (Scotland):

 

SAP and U value calcs

Electrical certificate

FENSA compliance for the windows 

‘Form Q’ for SER scheme 

 

All those were completed offline via emails to the office. 

 

Things they looked closely at while here:

 

Any gaps round windows and soffits. 

Smoke alarms (position but did not test)

Drain pressure test (wanted to witness)

Disabled access (were happy with the ramp but not the smallest bit of height difference as you came through the front door). 

Fencing near a ‘drop’. We had a temporary fence (sheep netting) up outside that was put alongside a retaining wall. Said fence had to be replaced by a solid fence of a certain height to get sign off. Wasn’t an issue as it was in plan to replace anyway but I was surprised how much notice they took of it. 

 

If you’re not ready to do the VAT reclaim ensure there is something that is a definite fail (eg hold back the electrical certificate or something) or you might find yourself with the completion certificate ahead of when you want it. 

 

I know someone (neighbouring council) whose electrician put every single light switch at the wrong height for building regs The building inspector picked it up in his report but then unexpectedly turned a blind eye and signed the house off. So it just depends. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[oldcoop]

On 24/04/2018 at 09:06, Ian said:

@oldcoop

What they want varies a lot depending on where you're building. Scotland will be much more bureaucratic than England & Wales. 

 

Usually the minimum they will need is your final SAP calculations and EPC as well as electric & gas certs but the best way to deal with the situation is to write and ask them what they need from you in order to give you the completion cert. Don't volunteer info that they haven't asked for.

 

Thanks. Good tip. Interesting about Scotland being different. We are in England