Shop foundation

["Wild Bad Bob"]

Check your local building codes. That wouldn't meet code here and you would get to do it over. A foundation like that becomes a rodent hotel.

I thought the only housing code in TX was a pick up truck in the front yard!!!!:D

[reible]

I would agree that your best bet is to check if you have building codes and if so abide by them.

Here where I live "sheds" can be on treated timbers but if you put in electrical you take a different branch of the code and more and more rules come into play. We are even limited to one shed, no more the 160 sqft. Building permits and inspections are required. Yes you also pay for those items.

Here if I were to build a shop I would have to put in footings below the frost line of 36" deep and cement walls to 6" above ground just to get started....

BTW if it is not to code the insurance companies will not insure it or the contents.

That is why I'm still in my garage, and wondering why I'm living here.

Ed

[JPG]

I would agree that your best bet is to check if you have building codes and if so abide by them.

Here where I live "sheds" can be on treated timbers but if you put in electrical you take a different branch of the code and more and more rules come into play. We are even limited to one shed, no more the 160 sqft. Building permits and inspections are required. Yes you also pay for those items.

Here if I were to build a shop I would have to put in footings below the frost line of 36" deep and cement walls to 6" above ground just to get started....

BTW if it is not to code the insurance companies will not insure it or the contents.

That is why I'm still in my garage, and wondering why I'm living here.

Ed

Where would you go? Seems like BOCA has contaminated the entire country!

[rjent]

Where would you go? Seems like BOCA has contaminated the entire country!

Not quite ....

[robinson46176]

Here in my county (not in the city) I can build a building up to 120 sq. ft. with no codes or permits on any foundation. If larger I can still build about anything "reasonable" as long as it is on skids (runners). It is not considered part of the property, does not have to be code and is not added to property taxes. If it is on a permanent concrete foundation then it requires a permit, must be code and is added to the property tax bill. The funny part is that it can be on runners and parked on a concrete slab as long as it is not bolted down to the slab. The bare slab is not considered a structure, it's landscaping. BTW, the building on runners can be anchored down with ground anchors like the screw-in ones or drive in duck-bill anchors just like a mobile home.
As a farmer I / we are cut a little extra slack for livestock structures, grain storage etc. I believe the law still reads "Must be used directly in food production" to not require a permit. A nice big new tool shed does not qualify as direct food production and needs a permit.

Silly footnote: I lived in a mobile home when I was at BSU and we had to leave the wheels on it or pay property taxes on it but no taxes with them on. Dopey...

Another silly footnote: At a mini-farm we have in the next county I can wire anything farm or residential from the meter on. No license, no permit and no actual inspector. They ran out of money and let him go. The power company guys do a quick glance at the breaker box before plugging in the meter. In this county it requires a permit, several inspections and a licensed electrician to sign off on it for new installation. The main service here is to a pole with a meter and into a big breaker box on the back of the pole with breakers for the barns and one for the water pump (so it can be kept running with everything else off in case of fire) and a main to the house and an auxiliary to the house. I will be replacing the main breaker box in the house (basement) this winter and I will just flip that breaker outside to change it. I bought the new box and breakers last fall to change last winter but opted for the 4 way cardiac bypass last winter instead. No permit etc. required here for that since it is down-stream of a breaker. Lots of funny law variations from locality to locality. The state follows the NEC but local rules prevail.

["Wild Bad Bob"]

A lot of states are using/going to USBC, Uniform State Building Code to eliminate that city to city, county to county BS differences. Now I am not saying that about farms, exp, a county just to my north has a "No Bill Board" ordinance along the state highway, but if it ss on wheels it is not fixed permanently, so you see all the old rusty semi trailers parked along it with sign banners on them.

[Ed in Tampa]

When my inlaws built around Anderson SC the only inspection was the septic tank. You could build, wire and plumb anything you wanted nobody cared. But put in a septic tank and you better have an inspection.

My Mother in Laws husband was in construction so he built and built and built. There had to be at least 15 breaker boxes, and enough plumbing to plumb a nuclear power plant. He had a machinist shed with plumbing a full breaker box. A wood working shed with plumbing and another full breaker box, a tractor shed with plumbing and breaker box. Almost any where on the 5 acres was within 150 feet of a water line 100 feet electricity.

Around October he started to put up Christmas lights and worked daily until around Thanksgiving. Thousands of lights needing hundreds of plugs. They would bring bus tours to see his Christmas decorations.

Always amazed me what he could build on his property.

["Wild Bad Bob"]

"But put in a septic tank and you better have an inspection. "
So that is why there are so many out house in SC!!!;)

[fredsheldon]

Your AC is it a window unit or something else?

Ed,

This is what I installed.
http://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/en/con ... t-showcase
Fred

[Ed in Tampa]

Ed,

This is what I installed.
http://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/en/con ... t-showcase
Fred

Thanks Fred but that now begs the question, "How much does it cost?"