-
What are Permits, Inspections, and Codes?
With just a few exceptions – any kind of new construction is going to have requirements by the city, county, state, and/or HOA/CC&Rs that will dictate the terms of the build. The HOA/CC&R requirements are going to vary wildly and be incredibly specific to a certain property. Thus, we won’t cover any of those here.…
-
Why You Should Pull Building Permits
Especially in residential construction there seems to be an unfounded aversion to inspections and permits. Whether you’re doing the work yourself or having a contractor do it – the entire process ensures that the work is up to and following an ANSI standard. Sure, there’s horror stories about a dense inspector on a power trip.…
-
Redundancy Design for Buildings
I love the imagery that “belt and suspenders” provides for redundancy – and we’re big advocates of designing redundancy in at the onset. There’s a direct correlation between how remote a place you’re building and the level of self-reliance required. One step further, I’d argue that as the self-reliance goes up, so does the importance.…
-
“Built to Code” is Not a Benchmark for Quality or Grade
First, we should cover a couple of terms. Grade is the craftsmanship of a work product. For example, windows of superior craftsmanship are going to cost a lot more than those of poor craftsmanship. And for good reason. Quality on the other hand is the degree to which something meets specification. To use windows again,…
-
Hello, World.
Hello and welcome to The Pretty Good Builder. Our name is a spin-off of what we named our a-frame cabin construction project – The Pretty Good AF. And that is a play on the wonderful platform for building a better home – The Pretty Good House. So as you can see – everything around here…
Pretty Good Builder 