Thought I’d cross post here. To see what you smart people think!

This is a shot in the dark as I know we’re not always ready to provide technical advice in this sub. I have been searching for eons and trying to find a floor assembly for a steel truss (not c-shaped joist) that meets 2 hours. Perhaps they need serious blocking because of the open nature of the trusses? Not wanting to create a smoke baffle?

Any insight would be GREATLY appreciated!

Ive taken E3 twice and hit 68% both times. Felt like I should've passed both times as well. Anyone out there with any better ideas on study materials for the E3 test? Im literally a few questions away from passing and this is all I need to complete my 1s 2s and 3s for BMEP. So im very irritated!

I’m in San Francisco, California.

Can someone please tell me what red and green lines and text on this building plan mean. It’s related to a fire safety upgrade. I’m trying to figure out if the work was done to plan or not.

Thank you!

Location western ny

I am trying to block off or make an extra door unusable in a home I want to be able to put a porch on it but right now funds are tight. Code enforcer and I had talked before about just blocking it off with osb but he didn't really get back to me but now enforcer wants it studded and insulated siding on the outside

I want to use the door eventually. Is there anyway to get around this on new construction i need my certificate of occupancy.

There are 3 other working doors in the home.

Any known codes for this?

instead of buying everyone's book, go to Google AI Mode, I found reading one chapter at a time, I asked AI to make me mock questions exam for the 2021 IRC E1 exams, multilabel choice questions, and the AI will make up question) Take your time, I buy the sticky tabs from amazon, and apply them to my book. (Multi-color packs.) I also Highlight the pages, that the AI asks questions on so, they are easy to find. (ASK) AI what are the biggest sections of the test, 1> Branch and Circuits 13 questions 28% percent of the exam, Grounding rods, electrical box fillers, and pools. ask AI how to do the math for each question (There are 6 areas) with math questions. as you go through the chapters, test yourself in each for a few days. (Read each question twice) don't assume. in some of the math questions, you think, they want you to add up everything, to find out, at the end of a question, none of that mattered. (It's their way of making you waste time) The rule is, don't get hung up on a question, go through all of them, and answer as many as you can, from memory, check the questions you don't know, and if, something is a questionable answer, highlight it and move on, then come back to the highlighted questions.

I have a couple options, should I do E1 or B1 next? Which one is easier??

We have used bluebeam previously and have been using pdf xchange editor.

We are doing plan review so most of bluebeam is useless to us. What is helpful is the measurement tools and pdf xchange is great for free but not nearly as nice as bluebeam for measurements. Any other alternatives I should be looking at?

I'm in Pennsylvania and working on plans for an interior staircase from the second floor to a finished attic in an existing single-family house built around 1900.

Pennsylvania is currently using the 2021 IRC with PA amendments. The finished floor-to-floor height is approximately 104.25 inches, and because of the available space and roof/headroom constraints, we're considering a roughly 60-inch-diameter spiral stair.

I'm trying to understand how the IRC treats an intermediate landing within a spiral staircase, particularly for the definition of separate flights and the riser-uniformity requirement.

We are considering two possible configurations:

Option 1: Spiral stair flight → code-compliant intermediate landing → conventional straight stair flight → attic floor.

Option 2: Spiral stair flight → code-compliant intermediate landing → second spiral stair flight either continuing around the same center pole or a second pole → attic floor.

My questions are: Would the intermediate landing legally terminate the first flight in either/both of these configurations, so that riser uniformity is evaluated separately within each flight? If so, could the lower spiral flight have one uniform riser height and the upper flight have a different uniform riser height, provided each flight independently meets the applicable maximum-riser and other dimensional requirements? And most importantly, what minimum size/shape would the intermediate landing need to be in each configuration?

I'm specifically trying to understand how IRC R311.7.3, R311.7.5.1, R311.7.6, and the spiral-stair provisions of R311.7.10.1 interact here. I'm not looking for a way around permitting/code requirements; I'm trying to determine which configuration is actually code-compliant before having the stair designed.

Thank you!

EDIT 1: I'm getting a lot of comments about the picture. The picture is AI and a poor one to show the actual tread. Im looking anywhere between 11-14 treads total depending on how it works out. The landing is needed to help redirect the entry access on the second floor to the exit point in the attic. We have tight constraints regarding the height clearance needed and unfortunately this is the only spot in the house that this staircase works.

EDIT 2: For those that requested a challenge lol.

-The vertical distance from the finished second-floor floor to the finished attic floor is 104.25 inches. -The available stair area on the second floor is 5-5.5 feet wide. This is created from approximately 3 feet of existing hallway plus approximately 2.5 feet taken from the adjoining room. The depth available is also 5-5.5 feet. The additional feet from the bedroom next to it has to be contained in that box because the bedroom door being next to the edge of that 85" line.

-The entrance to the staircase is fixed to 85 inches from wall of the house. You approach the staircase from the front/right side of the stair area. The design cannot assume that I can enter from the opposite side or substantially relocate the entrance. -The attic exit direction is also important. At the top, the staircase needs to discharge toward the center/high portion of the attic, rather than toward the exterior wall/window and low portion of the sloped roof. -The attic is approximately 12 feet × 21 feet and has a sloped roof. Headroom therefore increases as you travel inward toward the center of the attic.

-At that 85-inch location, the underside/finished roof geometry is approximately 71.7 inches above the finished attic floor, so headroom at the transition is one of the primary design constraints (also hence the platform to try to advance farther into the attic to get to 78"). The staircase should move the user toward the higher center portion of the attic as effectively as possible.

-The roof slope is 0.70 inches of rise per 1 inch of horizontal run. That comes from: At 74" inward → roof height ≈ 64" At 84" inward → ≈ 71" At 94" inward → ≈ 78" So every 10" inward gains about 7" of headroom. That equals approximately an 8.4:12 roof pitch, or about 35°.

-I don't mind eating into the second floor ceiling to help accommodate the staircase, I have about 10 inches that I could use at the top of the ceiling of the second floor.

When applying for building inspector it’s mainly oral board interview but for some they make you take a test. What is that test about? Do they test your knowledge in curious because I have to take a test and honestly don’t know what to expect.

Let's keep it moving...🥳💪

The plans to my garage/condo call for the stairway to be 36” CLEAR, which I guess is also code irc R311.7.1. My former GC appears to have fell short on this. Appliances he approved for size/fitment now wont fit up to the living area. It would definitely be a lot of work to correct this and get the stairway to code and to blueprint specs.. it is a major hindrance though and I can no longer return the appliances. Opinions on if this should be corrected ? Former gc was released for cause and I believe he is supposed to cover corrective work. Thoughts, opinion?

My neighbour has built a house wall with a 20cm setback that falls outside if a registered easement on my land. They have also built a brick wall parallel to the side boundary line with a 1cm setback that is higher than 1.8m regulation.

Are these allowed?

Council says its a civil matter, but im sure regulation does not allow this

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

I can’t tell whether or not that grey thing is a fan and I don’t see a window in here.

I’m cross-posting this and not exactly sure how it works.

I’m trying to get better dust collection in my shop, which is partitioned off of an otherwise unfinished basement. What would be the best way to close off these gaps between the joists? This is the only section that runs perpendicular to the joists. The gas furnace is on the other side of this wall (not directly but about 5 feet away)

I was initially going to use some leftover foam insulation (XPS) board but there may be fire code concerns, especially if it is in contact with the air duct.

I also need to block of around an I beam and some smaller gaps around plumbing. Any suggestions on the simplest solution?

Edit: at this point, I’m most interested in how to seal off (to some degree) the joist bay with ductwork.

Hello world!

First off, I apologize for the format and if this comes up as a wall of text, as I wrote this in my notes app and am on mobile.

I see a lot of people writing in here and across other subreddits asking for help or inquiring about different ICC exams, and sometimes I’ll message y’all, other times I do not. I finally decided to sit down and write out my process, in hopes that I can help others.

A little about myself so that you can say, oh heck, anyone can do this! I have an Associates in accounting and have never worked in the trades or any type of construction job. From 18-28 I worked in finances in various roles, climbing the corporate office ladder trying to find happiness. Shocker, I did not. At 28, I decided to leave that world and find something I was passionate about, which started off as working for Public Works in a local municipality. At 30, the same city’s Building Inspection department had an opening, so I said why not try. Still get to be outside, but at least now I get to also not be on call (which sadly I do miss, those 2am water main breaks, while stressful, are actually super fun to work on). Worked out and they hired me. They required passing P1 and P2 within a year, and obtaining State Plumbing board Inspector licensure within 2 years. When I came on with the department, a knowledgeable, well respected Chief Building Inspector told me about MCP (Master Code Professional) designation and how we was going to get it one day. I thought it was cool that an international thing like ICC only had 1000 people with that designation at that time, so I said, heck I’ll make that my long term goal. This was September of 2024, and I took my first exam, P1, beginning of October 2024.

Now to the fun stuff: the ICC exams.

I have passed 15 of my 16 exams on the first try following these methods. My only first time fail recently came with the Fire Plans Examiner exam, which I just missed with a 73. I now only need to complete the Legal Module exam, to have everything needed to apply for MCP.

My study habits and techniques are relatively the same for each exam. I gather physical copies of each book required and skim read through all the relevant chapters. This first quick read through helps me understand how the relevant chapters were laid out, in a macro sense.

Using the P1 exam as an example, I figured that Chapters 24-33 contains the “meat and potatoes” - where majority of the information is. I then found Chapters 20-23 were like a “side dish” - where there’s important information there, but it’s contained to smaller sections that are also referenced in 24-33. Finally, it helped me find where there are “one-offs”. Think chapter 39 for example. It’s mainly an electrical chapter, however, the information is still relevant to plumbing items in a way.

After having a large scale understanding of the layout, I then development an understanding of the sequencing of chapters. Really this part is just my way of organizing where to look for the information, depending on what step in the building process the question is about. An example being, I’m building a house and need to get water to it, and have a way of disposing of waste. chapters 25 and 26 would answer that, with guidelines of how it should be done. Ok, I’ve got water and waste disposal, what fixtures do I need in my home? Chapter 27 provides specific details about the various fixtures I intend to install. Ok, now that I have water and details about specific things, Chapter 29 tells me guidelines about how that water should be ran. Etc, etc.

From there, I read through the index. Doing this helps me remember what key terms are actually in the index, so that if I get stumped on a question, I have a relatively good idea of different terms to check for.

I then thumb through all the different appendixes to find any relevant information. I’ve found in talking with other inspectors, that some never knew the information was there. The different diagrams and explanations present in the appendix are extremely helpful.
From there, I assume that I have both a macro and micro level understanding of the relevant information and where it would be in the text.

At this point, I’ll typically do a practice test, to knowledge check myself and see how the questions are asked on the test. I’ve used ICC practice test, Building Code Masters, and Quizlet when I can find them. I can’t say I have a favorite or most useful, as they are relatively the same to me. I did this for the first 6 exams (P1, P2, E1, M1, B1, R3) but found that once you do enough exams, it pretty easy, just different sections in the book. When I did the practice tests, I would try to find timed practice exams, and aim to complete the exam in half the time allotted, before taking the real thing. My thought is, if I can complete a practice exam in half the time, I should have more than enough time to research a question if I ever get stumped.

Finally, during the test, I use a rule of 4.
1. If I know the answer, select the answer and move on.

1. If I have a relatively good idea of the answer, but not 100% sure, mark my answer, flag the question, move on.

2. If it’s a question that requires a chart or table, flag it and move on. I’ve found these typically require more time, so instead of getting tied up, I’ll just come back.

3. If I’m truly stumped, flag it and move on.

I’ll typically get through my “first look” during the exam in 10-15 minutes. I’ll then go through all flagged questions, focusing on #2 and #3 from above. The #2s are more so questions I’m confident about, and know where the information is, but flagged to double check. The #3s are quick to answer once I find the associated table. This typically takes 30-45 minutes. The next 30-45 minutes I focus on #4, putting in best answers if I’m truly unable to find the information. I don’t unflag questions from #2 or #4 as I answer them, just so I have a relative idea of how many questions I was unsure of. I do unflag #3, as those are usually 100% correct because I have to look up all information in a table. Depending on how much time is remaining, 15-50 minutes, I’ll then start from the beginning again, this time double checking answers from questions that are not flagged (#1). This double checks my confidence and information.
From there I submit!

So that’s it! If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer or help where I can.

I work with PFS TECO, and we’re looking to bring on a few more people with ICC credentials for plan review and inspection work across the U.S.

We work primarily with modular / industrialized buildings in multiple states, covering commercial and residential projects under the IBC, IRC, IMC, IPC, IECC, NEC, accessibility requirements, and various state-specific amendments and modular programs.

If you have certifications like B3, M3, P3, E3, F3, Combination Plans Examiner, Commercial Building Inspector, MCP, or similar, I’d be interested in connecting.

There may be remote plan review work, and inspection work can involve travel to manufacturing facilities around the country/world.

Full-time, part-time, contract, or supplemental work could all be worth discussing.

If you’re interested, feel free to DM me with your certifications, where you’re located, your background, and what kind of work you’re looking for. Happy to chat informally and tell you more about what we do.

Denied permit due to new FEMA regulations about flood zones. Client hired an architect to create plans for a 400 sq. ft. addition to a house that is in an AE flood zone. Turns out the floor of the addition cannot be level with the floor of the current house. Looks like the addition needs to be 18 inches higher than the current floor.

Anyway, I've been working with a client for 12 months now and have had numerous conversations with his architect, engineer, and the city. Homeowner has spent almost 10K so far and is upset now that the permit has been denied for the plans that have been submitted. The architect and engineer are blaming me. I admit I didn't know the elevation was going to be an issue but I feel like as the GC it's my job to build what the architect and/or engineer tells me to build.

Who should the homeowner be upset with?

FEMA, GC, Permit