All Forum Posts by: Ryan Normand

Yes. Check your city's planning and development website to be sure, but I've never encountered a city that allows you to add livable square footage without a permit. A garage is not considered habitable space and does not meet requirements for sleeping quarters, so you will need to bring it up to code in terms of insulation, electrical, egress, fire, mechanical,  etc. The city will want to see plans and inspect all of that.

I agree 100% with @Matthew Paul and @Bruce Woodruff. I have allowed customers to provide their own materials and sometimes even bring on their own subs, and 100% of the time (yes, LITERALLY 100%) I end up working for free to fix their mistakes. I'll still occasionally let customers do this if I'm feeling nice, but now I let them know ahead of time (and have a clause in my contract) that if something goes awry with their materials and/or subs, it's on them to clean up the mess. I still expect my check on time and I get to say "I told you so" when I go to pick it up.

Bottom line, the contractor's statement... "skeptical about providing a quote if they cannot use their own materials". In their experience "it has lead to a lot of headaches and delays with the project"... is completely valid. I would argue that it shows they are a seasoned contractor and this isn't their first rodeo. Read between the lines... if you provide your own materials it will lead to a lot of headaches (i.e. increased $$$) and delays. Is that what you want?

Short answer: Every city is different, but most likely the answer is going to be YES, you need a permit. Go check Atlanta's planning and development website to be sure. Every city publishes guidelines for homeowners regarding what does and doesn't require a permit.

Long answer: 

Generally any new construction that is going to be considered habitable space or sleeping quarters (i.e. what you are building) is going to require a permit, even if it is very small. In most cities, the only new construction that doesn't require a permit is a storage shed, and usually the city will place extremely restrictive limits on square footage, height, and utility services. I recently did a job in a PHX suburb where the city limited storage sheds to 120 SF or less, 9' max height (meaning your interior ceiling height will be more like 7'), and ZERO electrical. Yes, ZERO. If you wanted so much as an outlet you would need to permit it and classify it as an ADU. So even though you're starting with the shell of a storage shed, you'll likely need to pull a permit to hook it up to electrical, sewer, and water, at which point the City will probably call BS on the "shed" classification and make you permit it as an ADU, and at that point your prefab shed may not meet IRC standards so you're back to square zero.

Now, you may be asking "What happens if I just build it without a permit anyway?" and the answer to that question depends on how strict the city's inspectors are, if you have nosey neighbors, and what your risk tolerance is. Personally, I think your chances of getting busted with a 300 SF micro apartment are very high. I wouldn't do it. If it was half that size and tucked away in the backyard where nobody else could see it and you were only using it for friends/family (not renting it out) then MAYBE you could get away with it. But what you're describing, bite the bullet and pull the permit.

Depends on the SoW in the contract. In my experience it's usually the GC or one of their crew who does skilled punchlist items like this.

Permit requirements are highly localized, but in general installing a range hood by itself does not require a permit. However, some of the other tasks related to it (e.g. running new electrical to the hood location) may require a permit.

So who's pushing back on the client regarding zoning? Appraiser or city? I'm not very familiar with the lending/appraisal process, but in the construction world the city's opinion is the one that really matters. The appraiser can't fine you or make you tear it down - the city can. Can you explain to the appraiser or get written confirmation from the City that you can show to them?

I'm a bit confused as to how it got to this point. Does R3 refer to single family in your area? Every city has their own lingo and zoning codes. I suggest your client reads those carefully before proceeding. And what do you mean by "permits were submitted". Big difference between plans being submitting and a permit being issued. Plus there's no guarantee the original duplex was permitted in the first place and once you pull permits for a remodel the city can retroactively make you fix other issues with the property even if they are outside the SoW.

Bottom line they need to talk to some local experts about how difficult it is to get a variance in your city and from there decide if it's worth it to fight it or just cut a door opening between the units and call it a "SFR".

Around here it's about $3/sf for hang tape texture, materials and labor. Higher if it's a small job or has lots of patches. So yeah, seems like your drywall price is on the high side, especially selling to a GC who's expecting to get wholesale pricing. 

it sounds like you're more of a jack-of-all trades guy. Imo large drywall jobs (20-30+ sheets) are almost never worth it to do in-house. It's just too much labor for a generalist when you can hire a drywall subcontractor who can do it in half the time and a fraction of the price. It's literally what they do all day everyday and they've got lifts, stilts, taping machines, etc. to speed up the process. 

Local is best since they will know the specific rules for the city. What kind of plans are you looking for - new construction, addition, remodel? Most cities around PHX don't require an architect for minor additions and remodels. Draftsperson or GC can do the plans. I've design-built a couple myself. Feel free to PM me if you want. I'm based in Chandler.

 Lol sounds like he's just too lazy to go in the crawlspace and check. I've seen termites build unsupported vertical tunnels to reach the 2nd story of a house. I've seen them tunnel up the side of riser room in a commercial building to eat the wooden roof decking 20 ft above the ground. A little crawlspace isn't going to stop them.

Now is it termites? Maybe. It looks very similar to termite damage but I don't see any mud tunnels, which you'll usually see if you've got termites. Then again, the tunnels could be on the underside of the subfloor which is why it's important to go down there and get eyes on it. It could also just be general damage from a pet, furniture moving, or damage from install that maybe just went unnoticed till now. 

I think it's worth investigating the termite issue further. If it is termites and they're making it through your finished floor, chances are they're eating other parts of your house too. Fortunately if you catch it early on it's a pretty straightforward issue to deal with.

 Exactly. This is how 95% of these custom lighting features work. It's probably just basic off-the-shelf low voltage LED strip lights (12v or 24v). Low voltage wires then run to a transformer in a hidden (but still accessible) location, which is then plugged into a switched receptacle. 

In the case of your stairs, you just need to have a groove in the bottom of the stair nose that's wide enough to conceal the LED strip. Then poke a tiny hole through to the back side of the stairs (usually this area is just used as a storage closet anyway) and make up all of your low voltage wires and transformer there where it's out of sight.