Uncle DT's Random Image Thread

[Kruger]

It's certainly been a challenge.  I'm not used to mobile home construction, it just doesn't seem right.  The previous owners did do the work to properly convert it to real property, so that at least saves some time and money.  But the plumbing is off.  I wanted to replace the vanity in the main bath but there isn't a shutoff valve on the hot water side and the water heater is sealed behind a panel in the laundry room.  Option one, turn off the water at the main, (thank god we had a shutoff put in out there).  A year ago the county decided in their best interest to replace all meters and shutoffs with electronic shutoffs.  It turns out that people that had vacation homes would just shut off water service and manually turn it on when they stayed at the house avoiding any reconnection fees.  So to stop that there is no way to get water without having an active account with the county.  Stay at the house for two or three weeks a year and you're still paying for a full year of service.  Anyway, we had a shut off put in so we can manually shut it off and not have to worry about a pipe burst while not there.  Option two is to unscrew that panel and shut the cold off to the water heater.  But it still doesn't resolve the differences between mobile home vs regular residential plumbing and I'm not sure I want to pick up the tools necessary to deal with the odd sizes.  Plus the limited options of fixtures available as well...  Solution, we've got a plumber lined up and will be replacing everything in the house with residential standards...

[Blaze]

That's gotta be a big pain in the butt. I know here, there are two separate building codes for traditional and manufactured. I was in one manufactured house and was like, why is nothing standard? Plumbing's a hassle, but it must be more so in a manufactured. At least it looks like you have easy access under the house so you got that going for ya...

[Kruger]

Yeah, same here, they are different codes, and I don't know mobile home code.  But the plumber that we have down there is really familiar with it since there are a ton of mobiles homes there so it's pretty common.  But I do know based on what I'm seeing, I am not going to like it if we end up keeping the existing...

[Blaze]

Building codes are a rabbit hole of information. While designing my new home plans, knowing that I want some bedrooms in the basement I look up egress requirements. Then that leads me to the minimum natural light and ventilation required for a bedroom. And the code says that the windows need to be x sq/ft based on the size of the room. Then I'm looking to see what the minimum gap between windows is on a below grade foundation wall. That leads me to a table describing sheer walls and reinforcement. By the end, I'm calculating live and dead loads for various beam types (LVL, steel, lumber - and if it's southern pine, douglas fir, or ponderosa pine), joist orientation based on HVAC and plumbing routing. Hours go by and I'm exhausted. And I still don't know what the egress requirements are...

[Kruger]

Oh yeah, building code is a rabbit hole.  Studying for the national builder certification consists of 25 books and if/when I pass it'll let me build in 17 states and the USVI, assuming I pass each individual state's business code requirements.  Unfortunately CT and VT are not yet accepting NASCLA standards...

Just keep in mind that building codes are occasionally conflicting and inspectors just ignore them and look the other way.  One of the houses that we worked on and we re-tiled a master bath shower and one of the potential buyers got an inspection.  The inspector failed the shower because it was 29" on one side and code is minimum 30" x 30" or 900 in sq.  There are exceptions for smaller dimensions on one side but the other side is larger and overall square footage is more than 3.7 ft sq.  So we asked him how a 30" corner shower fits code if it's less than minimum area and he said they just look the other way when they see it.  He's not sure how it passes but inspectors always ignore those...

[Blaze]

I was told that building to code was doing just the bare minimum. I hear ya on the inspection side. When I wired up my electrical panel for a generator hookup, I actually reached out to our building inspector with two different interlocks I was looking at. One had a UL listing and the other didn't. He said either would be fine, I went with the UL listed one despite it being a bit more, but figured on the insurance side of things, that one would probably save my butt. So I put in the new breaker, having to shift all the other breakers down two slots. While in there, I neatened up all the wiring with that little touch of OCD. Printed up a new breaker room list, labeled all the important breakers with red and the rest with white labels. Pretty proud of myself. Put up a new board to mount my meters, GFI outlet, and the conduit. Inspection day comes and the inspector takes a look. Asked one question about labeling the panel and breakers before he opened the door which was immediately answered when he looked at it. I then asked him if he wanted me to unscrew the panel so he can inspect the breakers. Nope. "I trust you". Damnit! I worked hard on this! I wanted him to see it. It does give me that bit of a confidence boost that I'm not a total idiot and I know what I'm doing. But that's one of the nice things I like about this state, the homeowner is allowed to do all of their own work without requiring a contractor. VT is going to be even more interesting since they're like "We're not going to scrutinize whatever it is you're building, just make sure it doesn't kill anyone"...

[Kruger]

Doing your own work is the same here in NC as well, you can pull your own permits and do your own work until you hit three trades.  Once you get to that point, then you need to bring in a GC to pull permits and manage the job.  But then again, if you want to replace a receptacle or light fixture, the state also requires you to pull a permit for that as well.  You know they need to get their piece of that pie...

If it makes you feel better, please send a pic of that panel, I'd love to see it.  Knowing your OCD I know those wires are all perfectly aligned and parallel and it looks pretty...

[Blaze]

If I get around to it, but I still get all wigged out anytime I have to pull the panel off. There's always that fear I pivot the panel and it somehow touches the mains coming in...