Really picky building inspector!

[Dan Dubeau]

Around here the environmental whackjobs have rezoned everything environmentally protected. It's impossible to get a building permit for a shop without a 4 season environmental study done on the impacts to the surrounding land. Of course it's just extortion, and a kickback revenue stream for the local cronies. Grease the right palms with the right rewards and you can get anything done. You would have been fined big time for that here. Unless you oiled the machine correctly......The average broke Joe homeowner like myself is made to jump through too many stupid hoops.

[JoeLee]

Maybe you should have buried the inspector on site. You have the excavator right there.

JL...................

[DR]

In Seattle a remodel means you use the same exact foot print. But, you do need a permit if it's an extensive remodel..

[Tom S]

Around here the environmental whackjobs have rezoned everything environmentally protected. It's impossible to get a building permit for a shop without a 4 season environmental study done on the impacts to the surrounding land. Of course it's just extortion, and a kickback revenue stream for the local cronies. Grease the right palms with the right rewards and you can get anything done. You would have been fined big time for that here. Unless you oiled the machine correctly......The average broke Joe homeowner like myself is made to jump through too many stupid hoops.

Don't even get me started on trying to build in Ontario.

I live in a town of 4,000 people surrounded by farm land. Used to be that a farm was able to sever off a residential lot every year or two and sell them. What would happen over time is that clusters of houses line the road with large acreages of farm land behind them - a great situation in my opinion, people have space to live and there is still plenty of farm land. That all changed a good number of years ago, no more severing lots because they want to preserve the farmland. The only feasible way for a lot to be severed and rezoned is that there has to be a municipal road or navigable waterway plus a habitable residence in place already. So basically no more building lots. Unless of course you're a massive developer with the resources to turn a couple hundred acres into stupidly dense residential housing that is built like absolute crap.

And on top of that, over that same time period a lot of the smaller farm acreages were purchased and amalgamated into larger farms as older farmers passed away and the kids didn't take up farming. A lot of these farms that were purchased have older farmhouses on them, but the buyer can't sever off and sell that house without jumping though hoops so they don't bother and the houses just rot and fall in on themselves over time.

This is further propagated by city folks (many who live on mature lots of 1-5 acre size) with 'save the farmland' campaigns that result in urban boundaries not being expanded in favour of more dense residential zoning. Great. So now we can all live in apartment buildings and condos. Screw that, there's a reason I don't live in the city.

So what do people do? Buy a house in a old subdivision, knock it down, and build a new one on the same lot. Sure, like the rest of us normal people have the funds to do that.

And to top it all off the same people who want to save the farmland (and have never set foot on a farm) are the same people who will want the government to fix the 'housing crisis' and grossly inflated real estate prices. Stupidity at it's finest. Eliminate the supply of houses and then act surprised when prices get super inflated as demand increases.....

I really hate the Ontario real estate market right now.....

[boslab]

The rules over here (U.K.) retain a 10’x6’ section of wall, i ****e u not, if you do it’s a rebuild, knock the thing down it’s new, having been involved with building control for a long time I will say that by in large they try to protect folk from builders and themselves ( there’s the odd one that seems power mad)
like the tower, had one up a while ago the bloody thing got struck by lightning certainly messed the control panel up, I saw the flash
hope it works out, looks nice
mark

[Baz]

As bosab says. They did one at the top of my road, perfectly good house but they wanted to absolutely fill the tiny plot and at the moment are living it it half finished 'cos of materials shortages. Round the corner another plot was prepared but after months of no progress the little bit of wall remaining has fallen down. Not sure what that does to the situation.

[gellfex]

And to top it all off the same people who want to save the farmland (and have never set foot on a farm) are the same people who will want the government to fix the 'housing crisis' and grossly inflated real estate prices. Stupidity at it's finest. Eliminate the supply of houses and then act surprised when prices get super inflated as demand increases.....

This restrictive zoning is the universal 'Original Sin' of the housing crisis. Especially in the areas close to major cities that should be getting denser. California has added like 1 new home for every 6 new jobs in the last few decades. We have people here in the same breath complaining about gentrification, high housing costs and proposed denser new construction. Were people always this stupid?

[tom_d]

So I asked the local building inspector if I needed a permit to repair the barn. Germany is really anal about building any kind of building.

Do they require a permit for an old barn to collapse in on itself unattended?

New one looks nice! Old one had a certain "Appalachian Architecture" style to it.

[alanganes]

In my town here, they require "one wall" of the original structure to remain for it to be a renovation rather than new construction. So on occasion you will see a new 3000 square foot house being framed where an old 600 square foot house once was. Part of the new framing will have a small section of 90 year old 2x4 wall, right up to the peak of the old gable, embedded in the new framing. It's sort of hilarious.

[RB211]

Two types of people in this world, those that make it happen, and everyone else.

[Paul Alciatore]

Appalachian? OK, but it would have been at home in Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and probably dozens of other states. There is something that seems to prevent farmers and ranchers from picking up a paint brush. Or spray gun.

Do they require a permit for an old barn to collapse in on itself unattended?

New one looks nice! Old one had a certain "Appalachian Architecture" style to it.

[Tundra Twin Track]

Appalachian? OK, but it would have been at home in Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and probably dozens of other states. There is something that seems to prevent farmers and ranchers from picking up a paint brush. Or spray gun.

Their hasn’t been a building built on our Farm for over 50 yrs that wasn’t Metal Clad right from the start,old building were also done.

[macona]

The Barn of Theseus

Here you have to have one wall still up to consider it a remodel. Replace the three walls. and then replace the last one later.

[Mark Rand]

At brother in law's and sister's farm near Löningen, they jacked up the barn, put new foundations and footings in and raised it by 500mm in the process for better access with the tractor and loader. that barn has brick halfway up and wood above. Quite recent though, only 1812.

[alanganes]

Two types of people in this world, those that make it happen, and everyone else.

I'm in agreement with that really, however that works well unit it doesn't. A friend of mine was the epitome of the "make it happen guy" around his place. That was great until the time about 15 years back that he cleared some silt and debris that was blocking flow to the farm pond that his grandfather dug sometime in the 1930's. He spent two years and some obscene amount of money on attorneys fighting the $5000/day fine (the con-comm gets to decide how many days...) for "disturbing wetlands" without a permit, etc. It just takes that one unreasonable person.

Yes it's stupid and well over the top in my opinion (and obviously varies by where you live) but it's the often world we live in unfortunately. Apply "make it happen" with due care.