Google Earth Used To Find Unpermitted Pools

Wow, it took 5 pages to get to some intelligence, but at least it got in here at some point with some nice posts.

Thank you: SEALTeamSix, RumpleForeSkin, and Lou Cypher.

There are probably other good posts later on, but you guys pretty much made any point that needed yet to be made. Done.

And just to re-iterate, people need to stop bitching about their own little worlds 2 feet in front of them, relax, and spend your short time in this life better.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I dunno, maybe they can look at usage records instead? I'm pretty sure they might have all that nifty information in a spreadsheet or something.
Click to expand...

The way I see it is they're just simplifying their task and making things more cost effective. Telephone instead of Pony Express. Cars instead of walking. Planes instead of wagons. Email instead of snail mail. Microsoft Word instead of paper and pencil.

Things advances. This is just one more way to save money. Use existing satellite images and check the address against the permit records department. In a small town or county it only takes a guy or two a couple months to look around on Google maps.
 
Building permits exist so the city can keep records of home improvements to assess taxes, and to know who's doing the work in case there is a problem. You may think it's your property you're building on, but if you have a mortgage, as most homeowners do, then you're actually building on property that belongs to a bank that you're still paying for. They protect not only the bank that holds the mortgage but also any future home buyers from shoddy workmanship. Improper wiring, especially around water, is dangerous. Bad wiring creates electrocution and fire risk.

There's a reason people are supposed to be certified to do certain kinds of work. Say you install a pool yourself and screw the wiring up. Then two years from now you sell the house. Then four years from now, the new home owner's kid gets electrocuted because the wiring shorts to the pool and a breaker fails to trip. If a proper installation had been done it would not have happened. Laws for things like permits exist because of mass ignorance. Do not confuse this with mass stupidity. Most people ARE ignorant of proper electrical wiring, proper plumbing technique, proper structural engineering, etc. You can hold a doctorate in neurosurgery and not know the difference between a hot wire and a hot potato. That's why there are standards that professionals are required to adhere to. This is called the Local Building Code. Local building codes exist to protect the individual from their own ignorance, and permits exist to make sure the individual is protected not only from their own ignorance but also from fly-by-night contractors. This also ensures that inspectors have consistent rules to look at when it involves electrical, mechanical, and plumbing when someone buys or sells a property.

I'm not saying all building codes are perfect, there are some pretty stupid rules out there, but overall this is why this sort of thing is in place. If everything was just "do as you like" there'd be no order to construction methods. Engineering, whether it's for a nuclear reactor or for a kitchen faucet, has to obey certain rules to be done correctly. That's why permits exist and should be followed. In most places they're not that expensive. Is $25 to $100 for a permit really all that much trouble if you're going to build a pool that costs several hundred to a few thousand?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top