Footings Poured and Buried Without Inspection, Plus an Unpermitted Bedroom Conversion
A permit was issued for a 2,400-square-foot two-story dwelling on a 0.3-acre lot. Three weeks into construction, an inspector making a routine stop finds the continuous footings and 4-foot stem walls already poured and the footing excavation backfilled and covered with 8 inches of gravel. No footing inspection was requested and no inspection record is on site. The permit holder says concrete delivery tickets and dated photographs exist. The same visit shows that the first-floor den on the approved plans has been reframed with a closet and a door, and the originally approved 5-foot-wide window has been replaced with a 2-foot-wide fixed unit. Wall framing is complete but not yet covered.
1. The footings are poured, backfilled and covered, and no footing inspection was ever requested. What authority does the inspector have now, and what is a defensible way to close out the missing inspection rather than simply approving concealed work?
Read the worked answer
Concealed work does not become compliant because it is buried. Chapter 1 places the duty on the permit holder to notify the department when each stage is ready for inspection, and it gives the building official authority to require that work be exposed for examination and to withhold approval of work that cannot be verified. In practice:
- Issue a written correction or violation notice stating what was concealed and when it should have been inspected.
- Require limited exposure, for example opening two or three representative lengths of footing to verify width, depth, bearing on undisturbed soil, reinforcement, and the relationship of the footing bottom to the frost line.
- Treat concrete delivery tickets, dated photographs and a sealed evaluation from the engineer of record as supporting evidence for a decision, not as a substitute for inspection or for the official's judgment.
- Hold backfill, slab and framing approval in that area until the foundation is approved, and record the decision and its basis in the permit file.
Approval is discretionary, so the file must explain why the chosen method was sufficient.
2. The den has been reframed as a bedroom and the approved 5-foot window replaced with a 2-foot fixed unit. Can the inspector simply note the change on the record card, or is something more required?
Read the worked answer
Something more is required. Construction documents are the basis of the permit, and a field change that affects code compliance must be submitted as a revision and approved before the work is done, not merely annotated in the field. This change is not cosmetic:
- A sleeping room requires an emergency escape and rescue opening: an openable window with a net clear opening of at least 5.7 square feet, at least 20 inches wide and 24 inches high, with a sill not more than 44 inches above the floor. A 2-foot fixed unit fails every one of those tests.
- Creating a sleeping room triggers smoke alarm coverage in the room and in the adjacent area, and typically AFCI protection for circuits serving it.
- The new closet and door change the room's egress path and the light and ventilation calculation.
The inspector should write a correction notice, decline to approve framing in that area, and require a revised plan showing a compliant escape window and the added alarm coverage. Only the approved revision is subject to inspection.