OK, so its been ten weeks from the time we first submitted for permit until we finally got approved this week.  What gives?

First of all, let me say before I go into any other details, that Inspector K has been uniformly friendly, responsive, and endlessly patient in working through all of this with me.  I really couldn’t ask for much better.  But that said, this friendly patient man is enforcing some really tight rules.  I have heard from many of the contractors we are working with that our city jurisdiction exerts the greatest scrutiny over both the plans and the buildings in their domain.  That’s good for ensuring the final quality of your home, but exasperating when trying to get paperwork in order.

I originally submitted 25 documents with the permit, including drawings of the site, multiple different views of each floor, elevation views, grading and drainage plans, construction site plans (where the dumpster the dirt piles, and the porta-john go) cross-sections of walls, and multiple pages of written specifications.  All of this is governed by several different code books, including the 2015 International Residential Code (IRC), the 2014 National Electrical Code, the Illinois Plumbing Code, the International Energy Conservation Code and so on.  Many of these code books are in the hundreds of pages, written in stilted formats referencing other chapters and paragraphs like “Framing members must comply with the specifications of section 803.2.10.1a.2 except under conditions in table 604.17.2.1”  In order to reach compliance, either my drawn plans or my written specifications have to spell out plainly how each aspect of code is to be met.  This gets right down to specifying the length and thickness of nails and the pattern of nailing to be used in installing the exact thickness of exterior sheathing to be specified.

I fully expected my first submission to be sent back for revision, and I expected it would take a few rounds to get through.  The inspectors have 5 days to respond, so I figured 2-3 weeks would be a good estimate for passing plan review.  Hah!  Should any intrepid reader ever think about doing a project such as this then my first great piece of advice to you is: FILE YOUR PERMIT EARLY.  I should have filed mine back in February to be ready for building in June.

In truth these code compliance issues mostly went as I expected.  My plan was returned needing a lot more documentation, which Inspector K was helpful in directing me to.  There are lines in the code such as “Fireblocking shall be provided horizontally at intervals not exceeding 10 feet.”  I would have thought this is a thing every framing crew knows and that the inspector would check for once constructed.  But in my jurisdiction, they want a line in the plans or the specs that literally says “Fireblocking shall be provided horizontally at intervals not exceeding 10 feet.”  I had to add several dozen specific things like this throughout my plans in order to get it all qualified.  You also need to fetch external documentation like the specific manufacturer and grade of engineered beams with published span tables from said manufacturer to be provided.  Its a lot of work, but mostly work I expected.

No, what killed our progress were the handful of aspects in our design which would not fit into the code at all.  In particular, our house was designed using an innovative insulation-on-the-outside method called REMOTE which Amy had found a couple years back.  (Its mainly used in Alaska for their extreme cold, but it would work here with both heat and cold.)  And we could have got away with that insulation model, except our house is also designed with a traditional brick exterior.  Apparently nobody in Alaska tries to build a brick house, because I could not find examples of this kind of thick outer insulation and brick design.  This combination of just two design features led us down a set of twisting alleys.

Now in a normal stick-framed home with brick exterior, the studs go up, sheathing and housewrap go on top, and then there is an air gap between the sheathing and the bricks.  Brick ties (little metal tabs or rings) are screwed into the studs and then mortared into the brick wall at regular intervals.  The weight of the brick bears all the way down to the foundation of the home, while the brick ties keep the brick from falling away from (or leaning into) the home, particularly in high winds.  But if you put 4″ of insulation on the outside of your house, suddenly your brick is floating at least 5″ away from those stabilizing studs.  This is too far to fit the IRC, and it creates weird issues like the one over our East wing where the brick on the second floor has to be suspended above the first by a beam, but the beam is now floating 5″ away from the stud wall.

I read through details of the code and managed to find solutions for things like the lintels over the windows and that East Wing brick issue.  But I ultimately would require the stamp of an Architect or a Structural Engineer to get the city to sign off on brick more than 4″ away from the studs or for the Thermomass foundation I had specified.  (I will post about the 6 week wild goose chase of Thermomass in a separate post.)  In the end I compromised on the insulation design, using just 2″ of exterior polyiso and 2″ of interior closed cell spray foam.  It will be slightly less efficient and slightly less convenient, but about the same money and it solved a major roadblock to permit approval.

With every significant revision or turn of events, we would resubmit and have to wait for response.  When I finally abandoned the most novel aspects of the design and submitted something that should be within the 2015 IRC, I got a polite “out of office” from Inspector K and had to sit on my hands yet another week til he was back in the office and 4 days til he could review it.  But in the end, approval was ours, and the next chapter could begin!