Inspection stories

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suprz

suprz

Member
Sep 24, 2012
219
Rhode island
Just wondering what the inspector did when he came to your house to inspect your stove and chimney. My inspection was done by a retired fire fighter who actually taught the "decorative heating appliance" class that my installer went to. (Required in my state) he even remembered the installer. Overall it was a fast and painless process. I got the permit signed, and my green "approved" sticker. He knew his stuff and by the looks of him he has been doing this for quite a while.
 
Mine of more of a non story.......

I called my insurance broker and told him I was considering putting in a wood stove insert inside my existing fireplace. I asked if it would would be charged more or if they had to come out and inspect it. He asked if I was going to have it professionally installed and I said yes. He said I would not be charged more on my premium and they would not have to come and inspect it.

Next, I go to the town hall building department and ask them what the process is for installing a wood stove insert. The Lady said it did NOT need to be inspected, and then asked another guy in the office and he agreed. She then asked me if I was refering to "One of those Amish things advertised", I said no this is going to be burning wood and would be vented out the chimney. Of course I was suprised and disappointed. If I'm paying to have it professionally installed I want it inspected even if I have to lay out a few bucks for the permit. The guy at the fireplace shop told me it would be inspected by the town and he would take care of it.
 
If you want it inspected, have a certified sweep or a qualified pro do it. We've heard several woeful tales here of people buying a house and paying a building inspector, only to find out he didn't know squat about fireplaces, stoves or chimneys.
 
begreen - in the tales you've heard, did the insurance companies reneg on the coverage? salt in the wounds?
 
Mostly it was the home owner's spidey sense that something wasn't right or they got the cold truth the first time they got the chimney cleaned. I haven't heard what folks have done when damage occurred due to a faulty installation, but I am sure there are multiple tales on that end too.
 
I was mildly surprised by the rather thorough inspection done off a checklist by my fire chief in the town that I live . . . I would expect a pretty good inspection where I work which has a full time fire inspector, but I was surprised by our local inspection as I expected something a little less thorough.

That said . . . some of the info he was going off was dated and I did take some time to educate him . . . I think that since he knew that I know my stuff he was willing to listen . . . but I think he still is thinking "old school" since the other day he talked about folks smothering their fires and how most folks probably shouldn't be using their woodstove yet since it is still relatively warm and doing so will lead to more folks suffocating the fire.
 
It's not required where I live. We have more Amish than English in my town. The only time we had an issue was when there was an old style OWB installed whose smoke was getting taken into the local school's HVAC system.

All my insurance company required was that it was professionally installed. Because the house already had a zero clearance wood burning fireplace, the rate stayed the same. Fine by me.
 
Our inspector came out with a measuring tape and measured the hearth first then the stove to wall clearances. He proceeded to walk outside look at the roof from the sidewalk then smiled and said wow you did a good job I can tell from here. He looked in the 2ft tall attic door at the ceiling kit and said good enough and signed off. More than some do for sure !

Pete
 
Hmm, after my third stove install I probably should ask if any inspection is required. I'm pretty sure not, they dont seem to inspect anything around here. No inspection or anything when I built my pole-barn / garage (even though it was right up close to the septic) and I even wired it myself - no inspection required. Now where my MIL is... she is planning on putting up a garage in the same spot as there was one previously and they are making her jump through hoops. She had to prove the septic didnt pass through there even though its like 200 feet from the house int he opposite direction the septic line goes out of, and its uphill a ways, the ground there is as high as the roof of her 2 story. WTF? And she is having problem finding her septic she has already paid a few hundred dollars and had folks out 3 times and digging up the whole yard. They havent found it yet.
 
I've had 2 inspections.

The first was my introduction to woodstoves as a homeowner. I built a masonry chimney against the back of the house. The inspector knew I was new at it and came out to check each step... foundation, chimney, thimble, etc. When I got the inside done he checked that too, although he didn't care about the hearth R value stating that heat doesn't go down.

The 2nd was the end of the summer in a different county. I decided to go with a SS chimney this time. The inspector had a checklist he went down and wanted to see the manual the stove came with to make sure all clearances, etc were met. It was a fairly complete inspection with him even measuring the distance between the stove and ceiling to make sure it matched the manual. He never requested to see the areas in the attic though. The CTCs could have been non existent up there and he would have passed it. He took a glance at the chimney outside, but I don't know what he was looking for. He couldn't have verified anything more than the presence of the rain cap with the amount of time he took.

Matt
 
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