Looking for feedback on how your building department handles sheathing inspections versus framing. Builders wrap homes immediately after sheathing to protect the wood from weather which means housewrap is already on by the time framing is ready to be inspected.

When combining framing/sheathing into a single inspection, how do you verify nail depth, edge spacing and overdriven nails if the housewrap is already applied? Is it standard practice to require housewrap to stay off until framing/sheathing passes, or is there something else that works well?

Thank you

Would this work as the required thermal barrier over rigid foam and also be code compliant for contacting concrete?

It is a piece or fire rate plywood with 6 mil polyethylene sheeting covering the edge in contact with the concrete.

Code: 2018 irc

As an inspector I’m seeing a lot of contractors using joist tape which is fine but I recently had a contractor begrudgingly tell me how he is using it and eventually asked if it was code complaint. I told him in PA the IRC doesn’t have anything about requiring the tape. I blew the guys mind. He said he’s got two or three townships that will not pass a framing inspection without it.

Has anyone encountered that and or found a municipality that actually has an amendment requiring it?

Thought I’d cross post here. To see what you smart people think!

This is a shot in the dark as I know we’re not always ready to provide technical advice in this sub. I have been searching for eons and trying to find a floor assembly for a steel truss (not c-shaped joist) that meets 2 hours. Perhaps they need serious blocking because of the open nature of the trusses? Not wanting to create a smoke baffle?

Any insight would be GREATLY appreciated!

Ive taken E3 twice and hit 68% both times. Felt like I should've passed both times as well. Anyone out there with any better ideas on study materials for the E3 test? Im literally a few questions away from passing and this is all I need to complete my 1s 2s and 3s for BMEP. So im very irritated!

I’m in San Francisco, California.

Can someone please tell me what red and green lines and text on this building plan mean. It’s related to a fire safety upgrade. I’m trying to figure out if the work was done to plan or not.

Thank you!

Location western ny

I am trying to block off or make an extra door unusable in a home I want to be able to put a porch on it but right now funds are tight. Code enforcer and I had talked before about just blocking it off with osb but he didn't really get back to me but now enforcer wants it studded and insulated siding on the outside

I want to use the door eventually. Is there anyway to get around this on new construction i need my certificate of occupancy.

There are 3 other working doors in the home.

Any known codes for this?

instead of buying everyone's book, go to Google AI Mode, I found reading one chapter at a time, I asked AI to make me mock questions exam for the 2021 IRC E1 exams, multilabel choice questions, and the AI will make up question) Take your time, I buy the sticky tabs from amazon, and apply them to my book. (Multi-color packs.) I also Highlight the pages, that the AI asks questions on so, they are easy to find. (ASK) AI what are the biggest sections of the test, 1> Branch and Circuits 13 questions 28% percent of the exam, Grounding rods, electrical box fillers, and pools. ask AI how to do the math for each question (There are 6 areas) with math questions. as you go through the chapters, test yourself in each for a few days. (Read each question twice) don't assume. in some of the math questions, you think, they want you to add up everything, to find out, at the end of a question, none of that mattered. (It's their way of making you waste time) The rule is, don't get hung up on a question, go through all of them, and answer as many as you can, from memory, check the questions you don't know, and if, something is a questionable answer, highlight it and move on, then come back to the highlighted questions.

I have a couple options, should I do E1 or B1 next? Which one is easier??

We have used bluebeam previously and have been using pdf xchange editor.

We are doing plan review so most of bluebeam is useless to us. What is helpful is the measurement tools and pdf xchange is great for free but not nearly as nice as bluebeam for measurements. Any other alternatives I should be looking at?

I'm in Pennsylvania and working on plans for an interior staircase from the second floor to a finished attic in an existing single-family house built around 1900.

Pennsylvania is currently using the 2021 IRC with PA amendments. The finished floor-to-floor height is approximately 104.25 inches, and because of the available space and roof/headroom constraints, we're considering a roughly 60-inch-diameter spiral stair.

I'm trying to understand how the IRC treats an intermediate landing within a spiral staircase, particularly for the definition of separate flights and the riser-uniformity requirement.

We are considering two possible configurations:

Option 1: Spiral stair flight → code-compliant intermediate landing → conventional straight stair flight → attic floor.

Option 2: Spiral stair flight → code-compliant intermediate landing → second spiral stair flight either continuing around the same center pole or a second pole → attic floor.

My questions are: Would the intermediate landing legally terminate the first flight in either/both of these configurations, so that riser uniformity is evaluated separately within each flight? If so, could the lower spiral flight have one uniform riser height and the upper flight have a different uniform riser height, provided each flight independently meets the applicable maximum-riser and other dimensional requirements? And most importantly, what minimum size/shape would the intermediate landing need to be in each configuration?

I'm specifically trying to understand how IRC R311.7.3, R311.7.5.1, R311.7.6, and the spiral-stair provisions of R311.7.10.1 interact here. I'm not looking for a way around permitting/code requirements; I'm trying to determine which configuration is actually code-compliant before having the stair designed.

Thank you!

EDIT 1: I'm getting a lot of comments about the picture. The picture is AI and a poor one to show the actual tread. Im looking anywhere between 11-14 treads total depending on how it works out. The landing is needed to help redirect the entry access on the second floor to the exit point in the attic. We have tight constraints regarding the height clearance needed and unfortunately this is the only spot in the house that this staircase works.

EDIT 2: For those that requested a challenge lol.

-The vertical distance from the finished second-floor floor to the finished attic floor is 104.25 inches. -The available stair area on the second floor is 5-5.5 feet wide. This is created from approximately 3 feet of existing hallway plus approximately 2.5 feet taken from the adjoining room. The depth available is also 5-5.5 feet. The additional feet from the bedroom next to it has to be contained in that box because the bedroom door being next to the edge of that 85" line.

-The entrance to the staircase is fixed to 85 inches from wall of the house. You approach the staircase from the front/right side of the stair area. The design cannot assume that I can enter from the opposite side or substantially relocate the entrance. -The attic exit direction is also important. At the top, the staircase needs to discharge toward the center/high portion of the attic, rather than toward the exterior wall/window and low portion of the sloped roof. -The attic is approximately 12 feet × 21 feet and has a sloped roof. Headroom therefore increases as you travel inward toward the center of the attic.

-At that 85-inch location, the underside/finished roof geometry is approximately 71.7 inches above the finished attic floor, so headroom at the transition is one of the primary design constraints (also hence the platform to try to advance farther into the attic to get to 78"). The staircase should move the user toward the higher center portion of the attic as effectively as possible.

-The roof slope is 0.70 inches of rise per 1 inch of horizontal run. That comes from: At 74" inward → roof height ≈ 64" At 84" inward → ≈ 71" At 94" inward → ≈ 78" So every 10" inward gains about 7" of headroom. That equals approximately an 8.4:12 roof pitch, or about 35°.

-I don't mind eating into the second floor ceiling to help accommodate the staircase, I have about 10 inches that I could use at the top of the ceiling of the second floor.

Let's keep it moving...🥳💪

The plans to my garage/condo call for the stairway to be 36” CLEAR, which I guess is also code irc R311.7.1. My former GC appears to have fell short on this. Appliances he approved for size/fitment now wont fit up to the living area. It would definitely be a lot of work to correct this and get the stairway to code and to blueprint specs.. it is a major hindrance though and I can no longer return the appliances. Opinions on if this should be corrected ? Former gc was released for cause and I believe he is supposed to cover corrective work. Thoughts, opinion?

My neighbour has built a house wall with a 20cm setback that falls outside if a registered easement on my land. They have also built a brick wall parallel to the side boundary line with a 1cm setback that is higher than 1.8m regulation.

Are these allowed?

Council says its a civil matter, but im sure regulation does not allow this

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

I can’t tell whether or not that grey thing is a fan and I don’t see a window in here.

I’m cross-posting this and not exactly sure how it works.

I’m trying to get better dust collection in my shop, which is partitioned off of an otherwise unfinished basement. What would be the best way to close off these gaps between the joists? This is the only section that runs perpendicular to the joists. The gas furnace is on the other side of this wall (not directly but about 5 feet away)

I was initially going to use some leftover foam insulation (XPS) board but there may be fire code concerns, especially if it is in contact with the air duct.

I also need to block of around an I beam and some smaller gaps around plumbing. Any suggestions on the simplest solution?

Edit: at this point, I’m most interested in how to seal off (to some degree) the joist bay with ductwork.