On building codes

First, the weather. We got another dump of snow yesterday which I was able to remove around noon. More snow came later yesterday but not enough to cause a problem. And, at 8C, we're in full natural melt mode now so we'll be ok for at least a week.

And now to the regularly scheduled rant.

It seems to be a popular past time in every place I've lived to build or re-build stuff with no government oversight ... or its inherent cost. My landlord seems to be an exception to the rule where he actively involves the building inspectors for every facet of his new and reno projects. He says that the inspectors take lots of time on multiple trips to make sure everything is done according to current standards. If he ever sells his property, he'll have lots of paperwork proving his diligence and, for that, he'll likely be rewarded financially in excess of his expenses.

For the construction of small outbuildings, most people figure that nothing bad could happen so why bother? Examples of these abound on the property used by our farm. I sometimes imagine Mike Holmes showing up and, hours later, presiding over the torn-down ruins of virtually everything on the property. A tractor shack sheathed with rain-soaked particle board (who knew it rained in a rain forest?); a bike shack whose bottom 4' is comically overbuilt but whose poorly-home-built-extruck-cap roof was greatly strengthened recently by a double ply of 6 mil polyethylene; and, of course, a kids' playhouse cum chicken coop which seemed to have been well-built ... until the appropriate lumber ran out and the builder had to make do with 1X4.

The visible parts inside the structure are a combination of decent construction and sketchiness. Some 1X4 at the ends but mostly 2X4. Or so I thought. Yesterday I decided to pull off an interior sheet of 1/8" wood panelling so I could use the extra 3.5" stud space to recess some nesting boxes (the nesting boxes were originally ... nesting boxes in the chicken coop cum tractor shack, before I hung them on a wall for use as small-object storage). The "space" part of stud space better describes what I found behind the panelling. A couple of mouse nests, miscellaneous dirt and wood chips and 3 sticks of 1X4, randomly spaced and oriented. I would be embarrassed to show that too. The visible open wall above and on either side of the panelling is 2X4 but the portion inside the wall, not so much.

My 10 minute job hanging the nesting boxes turned into more than an hour as I had to scrounge for 2X4's all the while working in the very confined quarters of the chicken coop. I'm guessing that the other lower side wall, which is covered end to end with panelling, is of similar construction. The question is weather I want to deconstruct the perches I built onto that panelling and then rebuild that wall, too. After all, the playhouse, despite its dubious structure, has held up for many years of wind-, snow- and kid-load. It's much sturdier now than before even if not uniformly so. I think I'll leave it as is, at least for now.

Best not to think about the house...