Show Notes:

Permitting and building departments. Working with tough building departments.  How to obtain permits when codes are changing and tightening up. Design and code impact when building in different building conditions. The value of unified plan sets where all the information is uniform and matches.  Green and energy codes and sun analysis to make your home more comfortable and enjoyable.

Transcript:

Interviewer: Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. As always, I’m your host Stephen Savage and with me is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build the new home that they want where they want it since 1993 and that is my good friend Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you doing?

Steve Landmark: Excellent. It’s another great day.

Interviewer: So I’ve been kind of going over what I wanted to run by you in this episode and I think I would really like to start here talking about permitting processes.

Now I’ve been hearing that building departments are tightening up not just in California where I live but really across the nation. Tougher regulations, more stringent codes, et cetera. I’m kind of wondering, how can Landmark Home and Land Company help me deal with these tougher regulations?

Steve Landmark: Well, basically, we do it every day and we’ve been doing it every day since 1993. So through that, we get experience. We have an understanding of the code and we understand the processes that are necessary to achieve all the code requirements. So a lot of people think the code is something there that someone put there to hassle you. But most of these are there for safety reasons.

You want to make sure that the beams are sized right. So roofs don’t sag or floor systems don’t sag. You want to make sure windows are the right size, so that you can get out of them in case of an emergency. Now in some areas, they’re asking for sprinkler systems just because a sprinkler system will put a fire out very quickly in relation to the time that it takes a fire department to come through.

So yes, building codes are tightening up and not just the code but the enforcement by the building departments. That’s the interesting thing because they do get complex and building departments are learning how to enforce the codes better. It’s not always just a money grab that some people think. Sometimes it’s just there to enforce it because some builders don’t know what it is.

So what we do is we develop a set of plans that’s complete and detailed to the building department requirements. The customer turns them in and works to obtain it. So the tighter requirements aren’t a big deal. We’ve worked all over the country. Some jurisdictions are lenient. Some are extremely tight.

So we combine all that experience over –since 1993 and we end up with a knowledge base where we’re able to take care of it. Whether you’re building in a city, if you’re building on an ocean say Key West or along the East Coast where there are hurricanes. If you’re going into Colorado with high snow loads or expansive soils and high wind conditions or if you’re going say in the West Coast, specifically California with earthquakes.

California is unique. You know, it has got beaches. It has got mountains. It has got deserts. So there’s a whole blend of opportunity to design a house properly there and I think that that’s an extremely important part that people don’t understand is the codes are there to make sure that your house is safe and usable and not just that. It maintains its value.

All of us have driven through communities where there are houses that are a little dilapidated. You know, maybe they just weren’t built right.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Landmark: And that’s why they’re falling apart and where better built communities retain their value.