In exchange for nearly a thousand dollars in bribes protection money fees, the City of Seattle and King County have graciously permitted me to make improvements on my own damn house. Assuming, of course, that I do every last bit of work myself, because apparently if a contractor even looks at the house, they’re responsible for pulling the permits themselves.
Really, about the only upside here is that I’m covered for all the work I do for a solid year (18 months for the building/framing permit), and as long as I can squeeze everything into that timespan I don’t have to go back and give them more of my money.
I was somewhat nonplussed to find that only the building permit people actually cared about what my plans were. The plumbing and electrical just totted up the number of fixtures or switches/receptacles/lights/dedicated circuits and charged me a fee. I suppose it’s entirely up to the inspectors to certify that I’ve done it all right.
Speaking of plans, a spiffy new PDF showing all the structural changes to be done is here:
This doesn’t show the plumbing or electrical plans graphically, but the scope of work describes what we’ll be doing to those systems as well.
#1 by Gene on September 12, 2009 - 9:14 am
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That sounds about par for the course. You’re not making any big structural changes, so there’s not much to check ahead of time. The electrical and plumbing fall to the inspectors to make sure you’ve done it right.
#2 by Leonie on April 19, 2014 - 8:33 am
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The first respondent is ablesutoly correct. If you can contact a local plumber, tell him / the company what you need to have installed, as in how many fixtures, drains, etc. You may be able to get a ball park price on the plumbing installation.Keep in mind however, that in order to install the plumbing (water supply) to all the fixtures, the walls and crawlspace will be torn apart all over the mobile home. The repair costs of these are rarely included in any plumbers’ bids.If you want to have expensive repair costs, ALWAYS have your plumber do your sheetrock repair.The other consideration is the crawlspace repairs. In order to get access to all the water piping in the floor, the vapor barrier and insulation must be cut and removed for access. The resultant mess is repairable, but usually it takes somebody who really knows their stuff to put a vapor/ rodent barrier back correctly so that it protects the system and the house from freezing.I have seen more than a few cases that wasnt done, and I ended up chasing the frozen piping the full length of the house, repiping the whole house in the dead of winter.The cost of doing the plumbing work and repairs afterwards will probably cost nearly half the cost of moving another mobile home/manufactured house to the lot.I hope the PROPERTY purchase is a good one, at a great price for you.Good luck.