If you are doing anything related to your porch, you will need a permit and, in many cases, a zoning variance. The problem with not getting them is you will have trouble at the time of sale if you say put a new deck on, but never got the legal paperwork for it. You, or the person you are selling to, might be required to go back and re-file for that stuff and pay late fees. and if you are talking about putting on a new deck, you will be required to dig up the ground to show the inspector that the footers for the deck are correct. of course the alternative would be to buy a house with a deck that might not support your next bar-b-que. but there might even be legal problems with the sale.
we own a construction company, old city construction, and while L & I,etc are real pains, sometimes, especially with structural and electric, it is really important. there is a fair amount of shoddy work done out there. bad electrical can start a fire in your house that spreads down the block. and porches, etc that aren't properly built can become dangerous in a few years. unfortunately, of course, inspections add time and money to the job. i would always reccommend a homeowner have electric done by a licensed, reputable electrician and if it is a fair amount of work they should be getting permits, etc. same for porches and other structural & exterior work. for interior, permits are a little less important, since it will add time & money (waiting for the inspector to show). but make sure the contractor does quality work. if he's the cheapest or near the cheapest, there is a reason. either his work isn't the best, he takes forever to finish a job, doesn't clean up after hims! elf, carries no insurance if he accidently breaks your mung vase or puts a giant scratch in your wood floors. i always see these things in the news complaining about bad contractors & they are certainly out there, but you want to ask the people, "was he hundreds of dollars less than everyone else? did you check if he had insurance and a business licence?" sue ============================================================ From: Jeff Abrahamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 2002/06/03 Mon AM 03:49:32 EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [UC] Re: Carpenter/Architect recommendation? On Sun, Jun 02, 2002 at 06:44:57PM -0400, William H. Magill wrote: > > Let me second David's inquiry--I'm looking for a carpenter to do a > > deck/fencing, so any contractor recommendations would be much appreciated. > > > > > hi. I have rather a big project to do. My very old back > > > porch is pretty much falling off the back of my house. I > > > want to completely tear it down and replace it with > > > something similar. It's a simple closed-in porch which i > > > use to store tools and things like that. It also has an > > > electric outlet and an outdoor light, both of which I'd > > > like to have in the new porch too. > > > > Just remember, you don't live in a Historic District yet, but -- any work of > this sort is still required to be APPROVED by The City BEFORE work > commences. And in the case of structural work, like decks and porches, you > need to submit drawings of the work to be done. > > 99% of all renovation work done in University City (and the city at large) > is done by contractors who take the attitude -- "L & I will never catch us. > So we'll do the work and if an Inspector stops by, we'll pay the > Inspector... er the Fine, and won't loose a day or more getting the permits > we need." > > Of course, without permits, you the homeowner will never know if the work > was legal or not, code conforming or not. Without a permit prior to the > work being done which stipulates the inspections necessary, you have no way > of knowing if the work was required to be inspected for code conformance Absolutely correct, but, let me play the idealist, L&I would get more compliance, more people pulling permits, if they were easier to deal with. Why on earth should it take a day or more to get permits and inspections done? But, as you say, it does. That's a lot of overhead for a small project like a deck that might only amount to a few days of construction. I'm not advocating doing stuff illegally, but if we want things to be done legally, it's important to be aware of why it's often not. -- Jeff Jeff Abrahamson <http://www.purple.com/jeff/> The Big Book of Misunderstanding, now in bookstores and on the web: <http://www.misunderstanding.net/buystuff.html> ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>. ============================================================ ********************************** Sue McNamara Tancredi Philadelphia Coordinator Tri-State Transportation Campaign 327 South 43rd Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 215.243.2026 phone 215.243.2029 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
