I work for a concrete contractor who has over 20 years of experience and an unimpeachable reputation. About a year ago we began work on a housing tract in Riverside, CA that is governed by Riverside County.
We were hired as a subcontractor by the company who was grading the project. We did our due dilligence and pulled the necessary standard drawings from their website. We put the curb in first, with depressions for the driveways. They were sized for the driveway to have 3' wings, per the standard. We had the inspector, Sean, out to inspect our forms before we began the pour.
Now, almost a year later, we are going back to pour the driveway approach (the piece of the driveway that ends where the sidewalk typically does). The same inspector came out and told us that, per the most recent standard, the drive approaches are to have 2' wings. As a result we have to remove & replace 10 pieces of curb which were poured last year at a cost of approximately $4,000 and the grading contractor that hired us will suffer a $3,000 loss to correct it.
The first problem with all of this is that the "most recent standard" is dated before our first pour. The biggest problem with all of this is that this standard was never made available to the public. You can't get it in the book (which is available for purchase) and you can't get it on the web site. The only people that have access to this standard are the inspectors, themselves.
When I contacted their office to complain they explained that they are in a "transition period" in trying to decide which sections of the city will be governed by the city and which will be governed by the county. This new standard, apparently, doesn't apply to all sections so they thought it best not to release it until they had a clearer understanding of their situation. When I explained my situation they told me that I just had to work with my inspector to resolve this issue.
It bothers me that this inspector, who had access to this standard last year, didn't feel it necessary to say anything or provide us with the standard at a time that would have prevented financial loss to our company. It bothers me greatly that he has the authority to show up now and just basically decide that he doesn't like it that way anymore and wants us to change it. I think it also troubling that there seems to be no one supervising this guy who has the authority to be reasonable and decide to leave it the way it is.
0 comments