You would do well not to fight this issue, Tom. When dealing with the Inspector, there is no way to win. Be NICE to the man or woman! Make friends if you want to but don't make enemies, for heavens sake! There is a certain group who just has to fight the good fight, but the Inspector could start looking at your house's wiring, plumbing, heating and will almost always find something he/she doesn't like, and that could be costly, even with new construction.
Norm

In Md. you would not need a permit for your shed. As long as it is on blocks it is considered portable.
I would think gravel would cause the shed to sink. Every one I know uses the blocks. If it needs to be re leveled we use more blocks along with roof shingles.
I would consult the people where you got the shed from. They can be very helpful.

Some Busy Body has complained.Probably thinks the sheds appearance lowers there property values or something like that.I would hate living in town and dealing with that kind of nonsence.

Seeems odd this become an issue after 3 1/2 years. Did a nosy neighbor complain? Dryndusty is right, this is not a good time to pick a fight. Can you talk to the woman's supervisor or the inspector to find out what exactly is required? Maybe the bylaws have changed in the last few years.

What's the big deal here? You took out a permit and when you do that, inspection comes with it. That's the way things work. Somehow, your permit fell through the cracks and they have caught on to the fact that the inspection never took place.

Let the inspector come out and see what you have in place. Tell him/her that the shed was professionally installed by the people who sold it to you. I don't forecast any major issues here but if there are, then you will have to comply. Most inspectors are very easy to get along with PROVIDING you treat them with respect. If you get all pissy with them, then they have the power to make you comply to the letter of the bylaw.

But if the problem is a minor one, they can also look the other way. If this shed is fastened to concrete blocks, that's better than having it sit on a bed of gravel. I don't see gravel as being better than concrete blocks or slabs.

No point getting excited or doing anything in advance of the inspector's arrival. Keep the coffee maker going and show a willingness to work with them. It's probably nothing more than a housekeeping exercise and no one has complained.

I agree with Castoff. You got a permit that allowed you to proceed with the shed per your plan. For some reason you didn't follow the permit process which requires an inspection to close out the permit and make sure you followed the requirements. Your permit paperwork states all of this.

Did your original permit include water and electric hook-ups? If not, you may have more problems.

How about that fence? Did you get a permit for that?

My advice is to plead ignorance and be nice.

Well, the building inspector was just here. He took a quick walk over to the shed, said it looks fine. I didn't want any trouble, and either did he.

The fence is 4' high- requires no permit.

Just wondering - this potential problem started because I didn't know 42 months ago that I needed to call for an inspection. But what if I had called, but the guy never showed up. Does that mean that 4 years after the fact, the building inspector can show up and fail a job? Is it my responsiblity to get the guy to physically show up?

Seems there must be a "drop-dead" date to fail construction work. Otherwise, it should be good to go. Does that make sense?

Just realized, before the guy got near the fence/shed he said "From the street it looks like you have a swimming pool here".

In this pic {{gwi:297205}} you can see the excavator. That machine was here for three weeks, but was used to level 100+ yards of topsoil around the fence.

My neighbors have kidded me about my "pool". Maybe the joke went around. I wonder if today's visit was the town's way of finding out if I had actually installed an inground swimming pool without a permit.

bingo...

But, I wouldn't blame your neighbors just yet. If that was visible from the street, an inspector may have noticed it while driving by several weeks ago and did some research to find out what's going on. They catch a lot of people that way.

Yep, an inspector can fail a job four years later because the work must be inspected and passed. The permit is not completed until an inspector signs off. If the paperwork puts the onus on you to call, then it was up to you to keep calling until someone came out and viewed the job. As such, no drop-dead date is stated or implied. Suppose that the installation was completely unsafe for some reason? Would you expect the town to look the other way because an inspection did not take place within a given timeframe?

If they did and someone was injured or killed as a result of this faulty and dangerous workmanship, then who would be responsible? You, as the homeowner that was about to be sued for everything he owned would be looking to put the blame on the company that did the installation and the town that failed to inspect in a timely manner.

Need I say more?

I've lived in several states in the mid atlantic region and have obtained permits for various projects, the permit paperwork has always outlined the inspection procedure, which in every case tells you it is your responsibility to call and schedule the various inspections.

rosemallow, I live in AA county Md. and here a detatched shed over 64 sf requires a permit (that's not to say we all comply with this requirement). If its over 400 sf, it requires a foundation plan.

Here is a link that might be useful: AA county permit requirement

Some of you guys are missing my whole point.

As some here had advised, the Inspector is usually there to work with you, so you need to work with him. I was originally afraid that the guy was coming over to bust my chops - not the case at all.

In fact as soon as the Inspector got no closer than 100 feet from the shed, he declaired "That shed's fine, nothing wrong with that".

He wasn't interested in inspecting the shed 40 months ago, and he wasn't interested in inspecting it yesterday. All he wanted to do was check that I hadn't installed a in-ground pool. He couldn't see that from the street, but he could see it from 100' away.

The guy was just doing his job. I'm fine with that.

Just a quick question about your fence. Is this fence used to stop deer from munching on your veggies?

Hi NJ BT

The whole point of the exercise is to keep the deer out. This spring I will finish the fence project by connecting a 5K volt multiple ground system on/around the cedar fence structure.

I'm in Blairstown. Where are you?

You must have small deer. I've seen them clear a 6 foot fence with no problem at all.

I agree with Machiem. That fence wouldn't keep any of the deer around here out.

Nah, we have big critters around here too. I don't know how much the deer weigh, but last year's black bear hunt yielded one that was 612 pounds.

I've heard that deer can go over an 8 foot fence, if they get a running start. And if the animal is in the air, and touches the hot lead of the fence with a hoof, but no connection to the ground lead, no shock is given. So the height of the fence isn't the issue. The issue is to train them where the easy pickings are not.

With a hot lead at about 54 inch height, and the ground charged negative with copper ground stakes (and the stakes are kept wet), anything standing on the ground that touches the 54 inch high positive lead will get 5K volts. Of course, if a deer touched it with his/her tong or wet nose, it would be quite a shock.

The trick is, early in the season (April, May) to put peanut butter on the hot lead. All animals can learn.

Important to note: the manufacturers of these fence transformers design them so the charge pulses. In other words, if a person grabbed the hot lead with his hand, the charge fades, so the person can let go.

Also, I don't think the 5K is that high. I've gotten stung by auto sparks plugs. They are much higher than 5K.

But I'm not a fence expert. Any experts out there, please correct me if I am wrong with any of this.

Just to add, I'll have a second ground wire at 50 inches off the ground. So for any animal that has the notion to climb over the fence, if he touches the ground lead at 50 inches, and the postive lead at 54 inches, he will also get 5K volts.

Interestly, when we moved into this house many years ago, the garden had a old 4 foot fence with an electric system. The owner used it for years. It fell down a few years after our arrival. I took everything apart. But the deer would not touch anything in the garden for the next 10 years (no fence at all). Then suddenly it was like a jailbreak. We gave up trying to grow anything.

So, back to the electric.

You can see the high {{gwi:297207}} here, which I burried to "jump" past the gate opening.

I'm in Blairstown. Where are you?
-----------------------------------

HI tom in nwnj....

I live in Honesdale, PA where the deer population exceeds the human population! lol

I agree with the other posters regarding fence height. I have a neighbor who has a 8 foot wire fence around his property to preserve his apple trees.

Nothing pretty or tasty lasts here. The deer are hell bent on destruction.

I wish you the best of luck. Maybe an electric eye aiming across your yard with mirrors mounted at 2 feet hooked to a siren might work. Then again, your neighbors may not appreciate the wake-up-call at 3 in the morning.

I thought this was interesting, so I glanced over all the comments.

There is a guy in NJ, not far from I78 and the Delaware, about 30 miles from me in PA. Our houses and property are very similar.

As far as the neighbour complaining about a shed lowering the property value, I can see why the neighbour might complain (although we know this wasn't the case).

The property tax of my friends house is 3 times what I pay, and we're only 30 miles apart, but in different states.

The voltage is important to the shock sensation but more important is the amperage.

See something like this.

Tom,

Did the Building Inspector notice your electric fence? The reason I ask is that some areas have regulations about electric fences.

MM

OOOOHHH! And, what if a neighborhood kid decides to climb the fence, and gets shocked? Think you have troubles now? No amount of dissipating electric current will keep you from hefty law suits.
I built a small shed once. Set it on large timbers, painted it white with blue trim, then painted a black "dog entrance" on the front! Looked like a tall dog house!
Wife decided to put in a pool. The pool company intalled it, and left. After 2 years, one of the Borough folks asked me if i had had a permit! I told them i had one but it blew away! Didn't have one.
A friend was remodelling a house, needed a remodel permit. He pasted the end label from a large bundle of material, in a window, and never had a problem.
I had to move a deck on my house, from side to back. After construction was done, somebody said i'd need a permit. I said i didn't need one when i built it, why now? Nothing more from that.
Don't know how it is now, since the darling yuppies have moved into the Borough, but the powers that be cow-tow to them now, while the old timers die off!

Yeah, skip the electric shock addition. That will never fly inspection should the guy return.

You mentioned something earlier that you need to consider. Training the critters to go for easy pickings. You've got a big yard there. Somewhere near the woods or tree line is likely where critters will enter your property. Create a throw away garden near those trees just for the critters. Then keep planting throw aways they like. The critters will be much more likely to go for the unfenced stuff near trees they can hide quickly in then to wander out in the open to get to the real garden, just to have to jump a fence, even the low fence.

I have always found that not being there and leaving my wife home to answer questions is the best way to handle a building inspector. She acts like she knows nothing, smiles a lot, tells the inspector we will fix any problems immediately. The inspector asks a few difficult questions but just drops them when he sees that my wife isn't sure of the answers. If I was there I would say way too much and get angry. It has worked for me. Plus they never arrive when they say they will. I can't take days off of work waiting for them.

Re: deer in garden. I had heard that deer don't like jumping into enclosed areas. I wired my similar sized garden with T posts and wire (very ugly compared with your fence)but the deer never jumped into it even though they hung out on the front lawn grazing and fertilizing.

chas045,

If the enclosed area isn't too large, they won't jump in because they are smart enough to know they can't get a running start to jump out. For a much larger area, a second fence inside the outer fence will deter them for the same reason. If they are running, they can clear an 8-foot fence easily.

MM