relating to permits

[dbhost]

You might want to PM LarryL from here in Texas. He went through the fire (look up the thread Tough Year For My Shop" earlier this year, but his insurance company took care of everything. He doesn't have a basement shop, but rather an outbuilding. Not sure about Lorena TX, but I know here on the coast, a basement would be an indoor swimming pool. I bet he can give you plenty of pointers on things that took him by surprise...

[unclecritic]

Havent posted or replied in a while, but this thread seems pretty fitting : )

If i were in your shoes, i would do as others and go to your local office and ask if an actual inspector is on hand to answer a few questions.. from my expierence senior inspectors have a pretty good feel of situations similar to this (i.e. insurance claims and what not). Just be kind of vague of the area of town you live in and ask them what would be required if you were to build a shop in your basement, and mention any exhaust and intake vents and your dust collection system. Any exhaust and intakes need to be inspected by a mechanical inspector to make sure certain criteria are met. Like making sure a water heater vent isnt 3" away from your make up air hood. And depending on your area they might request to inspect your dust collection system mainly checking for fire safety and the like.

Permiting is definitely a money making process for the gov., but they do have a job and that is to make sure something deadly isnt being done and making sure people dont die. I'm not sure if it would increase your prop. taxes or not but it will probably change your insurance rates. I guess what im saying is if your doing some work that you are not 100% comfortable with its always good for the piece of mind that comes along with having it checked out. I once replaced a furnace for a friend and didnt have it inspected and to this day everytime I hear of a house burning down in his area i alwaya get a little nervous. Be forewarned that in some areas once they are in your house they technically arent supposed to be looking for other things that arent up to code but I have heard some horror stories.

I look forward to hearing more about your shop... its going to be a few years before I can build mine

[LCHIEN]

... I'm not sure if it would increase your prop. taxes or not but it will probably change your insurance rates. ...

I'm not sure I agree with either end of this statement... the permitting being done by the local gov't is usually a flag that improvements are being made and therefore will likely always increase your taxes since the local gov't is also a taxing authority. Wise gov't (an oxymoron?) but even stupid ones know that improved property = more tax money and they don't miss out on it.

OTOH the insurance company won't really know about permits or that your house is improved... they won't raise your premiums unless you call them and claim your property is more valuable and then they'll raise the premium if they increase the maximum valuation and keep the same rate. So it's not automatic like tax valuation going up. Insurance Rates don't change unless the riskvaluation changes.

[unclecritic]

Whoopsy, fingers are faster than the mind on that one... Loring, good catch as always, I done built my sentence backwards lol

Sorry about that