building codes (Mariaville: home, legally, plumbing)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

The pressure tank and hot water tank both should be drained. They will gravity drain and generally total 60 gallons between the two. You have several choices. My cellar gravity drains as all cellars should in my opinion. You could drain the tanks into a plastic tub and pump that out with a sump pump or you could just carry it out in buckets. I went through the winterization process in detail back in November.

[boonelsewhere]

The pressure tank and hot water tank both should be drained

Well live and learn, tanks are 2 inchs bellow hardwood floor on DRICOre Subflloor. we want the water during contruction have to install tank on concrete floor, i should have build a platform for those tanks, did not realize that after the floor are installed.

[contented]

one thing a lot of folks don't think about as they prepare for their two week cruise in january or february is throwing the breaker to their well pump.

they set the thermostat lower and head out but should the worst occur (power outage that chills the house down and that cold water feed pipe under the sink freezes and breaks) if the breaker is not shut off, and it warms up enough, that break will pump water out of itself till the well runs dry.

always throw the breaker to the well even if just for a weekend and always keep all the cabinet and vanity doors open, especially the ones on outside walls.

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by Bydand

Actually the electrical code does meet all buildings that are built. There are many sections and every type building is covered somewhere, if not named directly then it has to meet the general code requirements (No matter how flipping foolish it is at times to do so). As for who is actually doing your work, that is fine according to all codes, homeowners can do all the work 100% in their own homes as long as it is checked by a licensed individual after the work is done. That is easy to do and actually for most homes there is very little that is not common sense. Some places have a hairy conniption and are so stringent that it is firmly in the "Stupidity camp", but it is still legal.

Many homes and camps are built from the ground up this way around here.

This is one of the beautiful things about living in Maine!

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

With all due respect, the above statement is not in compliance with my past experiences.

I have owned homes stateside in California, Connecticut and Washington; and I have had to get work done in each of those homes. In both California and Connecticut, you need an electrician [Washington was easier to work with].

All due respect Forest, you do not need to hire one in Maine. Maybe other States but not here. I have looked at many complete houses done by individual homeowners and never pulled an inch of wire or twisted a single wire nut. I was just there as a quick once over before the inspector came on the job to look it over.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

then a final building inspector is needed to do the 'finishing' inspection.

And these are rarely the same building inspectors.

Not here, most townships are too poor to hire one full time let alone a couple. In our little town the same guy does building, plumbing, heating, electrical, groundwork, all of it. He is the first to admit he doesn't know it all and relies on the tradespersons to fly by the book on a LOT of things. We do things right, because he trusts us, It makes it nice for both parties involved.

I have a buddy Ricky H. [that served on my first sub with me] he works for the city of Dearborn Mich as a ditch inspector. He drives a radio-dispatched little pickup, he goes out to a construction site, and before you can put anything into the ground, he measures the hole, and signs off that portion of the paperwork. He has a 'T' shaped measuring stick that he lowers into each ditch to measure it's width and depth before you can lay any pipe or wire into the ground.

That is how anal many states are with their building inspectors and codes.

Dearborn is MAJOR anal when it comes to inspections. As is Lansing, Michigan. Worked in both of them and can attest to that fact. Other parts of Michigan are a LOT like Maine when it comes to inspections. I have had an inspector on a gas station job tell me as soon as he got out of his vehicle that he had zero knowledge of hazardous location work and that I was going to have to hold his hand and walk him through what he should be looking for on the next one he did. That was about an hour North of Dearborn.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Bydand

All due respect Forest, you do not need to hire one in Maine. Maybe other States but not here. I have looked at many complete houses done by individual homeowners and never pulled an inch of wire or twisted a single wire nut. I was just there as a quick once over before the inspector came on the job to look it over.

Perhaps I worded it badly.

That was my point.

Most other states require that you hire licensed contractors to do each step of construction. and each step must be separately inspected.

But not here in Maine.

[starwalker]

Thanks to the Powers That Be... I could not LIVE in a place where I couldn't do my own work... did in CO and WI...

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Perhaps I worded it badly.

That was my point.

Most other states require that you hire licensed contractors to do each step of construction. and each step must be separately inspected.

But not here in Maine.

[budgey]

Would I need a building permit to build a new home around Mariaville, Me? If so, where would I get the permit? Thanks

[AustinB]

Code enforcement officers are not always building inspectors. Our town has a code enforcement officer to check on possible shoreland and subdivision violations. They also hand out permits for minor shoreland applications.
The plumbing inspector is someone else and follows state rules.