One thing that happened Wednesday (Aug 29) was the arrival of the building inspector. He arrived because I asked him to, so that wasn't really a shock. What we did find out, however, was some information that changed our plans.
The inspector took a look at our walls and the beam that was to be cast. We told him about the reinforcing in the walls (the durowall, the rebar drilled into the bricks) and he was satisfied with that. We showed him the two balusters we had and how far apart we wanted to place them. He indicated that the regulations required that there be "no gap greater than 4 inches". That was slightly different from what we understood before, but not hard to fix. The only problem was that we will need 10 more balusters.
Next came the stairs. First, he wasn't impressed with the idea of having stairs that were built up with dry-laid blocks filled with dirt. "That's going to move," he said. Well, we can fix that when it happens was our response, but he really wasn't happy with that. So now we'll have to make a footing under the stairs and tie it to the deck so they will move together. Next was the railing - it was going to need a railing because of the height. I asked if we could make wider steps and do away with the railing - make each step closer to the ground wider. No good - if the steps are wider than 42", you need two. As it is, the opening is 40", so he'd be happy with one railing.
And then he left. I don't have to call him back until all that's done (I suppose - he really didn't say at the time). But we were left with a problem - a railing. The balusters don't really work out on the stairs, so some other idea was needed. Eventually, we came up with the idea of using the same precast pieces as the deck, but texture them so they aren't slippery. Next build a wall down one side and put some paving stones in the area between the railing and the deck. Maybe put the barbecue there. The wall would carry a small length of the same railing as the deck, but on top of blocks instead of balusters. The only thing left is to see if we can get some double-sided splitface, or 4" splitface blocks (back to back) and whether to leave some vertical spaces on the way down. More updates as information becomes available.
Meanwhile, I'll have to do some more digging for this new footing. Ah well - I'm getting practiced now.
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2 comments:
inspectors can be a real pain sometimes. I've had the same thing happen when trying to build my Raised Patio.
This guy isn't too bad - he kinda glossed over some of the concrete/masonry details, but my dad was expecting that. Not alot of concrete work done in residential, so these guys probably don't have the strongest background in it.
He did his job though, pointing out where we needed to follow code, specifically for the stairs. His argument was "you don't want the stairs to be moving - that things going to last forever." That was persuasive (not to mention the code ;) and it solidified our stair plans.
Thanks for the link - that is a sweet patio! Looks like it took a whole lot of work.
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