Thread: No landing in garage

Brand new home in Edmond sub division which usually has pretty good city inspectors. No landing where door from home to the garage swings outward over the garage floor which is an 11 inch drop from the top of the threshold. The home has final approval. Am I missing something or are they just allowing this for some crazy reason?

It's wrong
Should have a landing and one step

Originally Posted by Frank Bombardiere

Am I missing something or are they just allowing this for some crazy reason?

You are not missing either wrong hazard.

And they probably are not allowing either, ... (either, either? That sounds weird. )

They probably just didn't notice either of them - may not have gone out that door.

Are you allowing that door?

Or did you miss it?

Yes, call for a landing and a step.

A while back, I had a similar one foot drop from a sliding patio door to a patio, new construction. I called for a landing and a step for my clients, a nice Filipino family. When you are only 5 feet tall, a foot is a long way down.
No, the dickhead builder said, don't need to build them a landing because the muni inspector had granted final occupancy. Frustrating, but we have to persevere.

Originally Posted by John Kogel

... builder said, don't need to build them a landing because the muni inspector had granted final occupancy. Frustrating, but we have to persevere.

Something like this provides a good cause for you, the home inspector, to introduce yourself to the inspectors/building official and ask if they saw this and if they approved it - I am going to guess that the inspector/building official will say something to the effect of 'No, we didn't see that, and if we had we would not have approved it', or, 'The builder said they were going to fix it by making a step there, I see that they did not fix it as I was told, I will have to follow-up with the builder and get them to make the step as required'.

You could recommend your client contact the inspector/building official, but it will be a feather in your cap if you do and gives you an opportunity to show the inspector/building official that home inspectors are 'not stupid' like builders try to say they are, that it is the builders who 'are stupid' for doing things like that.

Address the step when talking with the building official ... once they have agreed with you about the step, ask about the door like you are trying to find out if that meets their requirements for the garage to house door - chances are they never thought about those types of doors and how thick ... er ... thin ... the door is at the recesses around the panels.

The inspectors in my office typically go out with 15-25 inspections per day spread over a large county area so they do miss things sometimes, but I doubt this would have gone un-noticed. If that was the only item on his punch list at the final inspection he/she might have, like Jerry said, just asked the contractor to fix it and signed it off on his word. On the other hand, the house may not have had its final inspection yet. We have a lot of permits in our system that have expired without a final inspection because the homeowner paid off the contractor, removing his incentive to finish the job. As Jerry also said, a call to the inspector may clear up the confusion.