A little story for you all. Just recently I decided to put a swimming pool in my back yard. I have been thinking about extending my back deck to include a platform for the pool as well. But today I started looking into the permits associated with it. My god, what has happened to us?It isn’t bad enough that I have to ask our town government for permission and a pay a fifty dollar permit to put the damn thing in, but now I have to pay another ninety bucks for an electrical permit because NYS decided we aren’t smart enough to plug our pool filter into a safe electrical socket.
Yep, they are making me install a special safety electrical socket and then pay the government to inspect the work on my own house. When is enough , enough? We have all been telling our government to knock it off and leave us alone. Let us live our lives the way we want and get the hell out of our lives, but they will not listen to us.
I think you should check out this link and give it a think! Time has come to stand and pick a side. Independence or more tyranny.
Ford,
you obviously have no idea why these permit fees and inspections exist. There are things called the international Building codes which NYS and the TOH follow to the “T”.
These codes are for your safety and for the safety of anyone who may visit your home and swim in your pool or choose to be around it.
The fee for the NYS underwriter or 3rd party inspector for the electrical pays his labor/ admin costs. And no ! the general publis is not “smart enough” to know what is required for the GFCI for a pool so they dont get electricuted. They are not smart enough to know that it has to come from a dedicated circuit. Thats why the codes exist, becuse many people have died being “smat enough” to do it.
You will also have to install a pool alarm that is mandated by the codes. Wait till you price one of those.
The codes are there for your protection as well as others. They have been developed to reduce the hundreds of yourng children that are killed yearly around and in pools. Better make sure your deck meets these stringent codes and better make sure that your contractor knows the codes before you hire him. Fines for not installing proper gates and barriers for pools can be very stringent in NYS and the way you piss people off in the town, I woould make sure everything is by the code.
In other words, government must interfere with our lives once again by telling us how smart we are. Get a grip, and get government out of my home. I insure my home for the very reasons you say we must get special permits. If someone gets hurt because of my work, then I suffer the consequences. It’s not for you or anyone else to decide if I am capable of doing this stuff myself.
If people are so concerned that I did it wrong, then they always have the option of staying the hell out of my pool. Anyway you slice it, it’s just the Demon-crats trying to rule every aspect of my life and I’m tired of it.
As far as the hundreds of kids who get killed as you say, my answer is this. My kids are MY kids and I will be responsible for their safety, not you. If something happens to them, then I will suffer the consequences, until then … get the hell out of my home, stay away from my family and quit trying to tell me I need bigger government to help me live my life.
I agree with you here Ford. Why is it that we need people to tell us its ok to build a deck off our house. We buy the property and pay taxes every year. It should be our right to do as we please. However, I also agree with having it inspected for safety. ONLY for insurance purposes and to cover my ass if anything were ever to happen. You should only be assessed a fee when its inspected and something is wrong or dangerous.
So Ford, you insure your home to pay out when you do something wrong and kill someone? Wouldn’t you rather do it right and by the code rather than have someone die because of your negligence? The codes are there because of past tragedies and are usually reactive, not proactive.
I was unaware that you were now a licensed electrician or knew all the codes in regards to barriers for pools. Does that mean that you can build the deck yourself and not go by the standards? Maybe you think you have the knowledge to do this stuff by yourself but the fact of the matter is that normal homeowner does not. Most homeowners do not have a clue what the right way is to install a deck and proper gates that prevent access by a young child.
Children are curious and although you may not think that “things happen” children die every year in pools that are improperly installed. That is a fact that can not be ignored. They may not be your children, they may be a neighbors child or they may be a friend’s child who is visiting your home, it could be a
The “demon-crats” as you call them are not the only ones who decide what codes are to go into effect. They are developed by a contingency of multiple tradesmen, code enforcement agencies and multiple other groups across the nation, know as the ICC.
These codes have nothing to do with “bigger gov” as you say; they have to do with safety! Your safety, your kid’s safety, your neighbor’s safety and safety of everyone in general.
I could post hundreds of instances of code changes put forth because of multiple fatalities but I do not think you would care. I think that you would just blame someone for the deaths and say that government should stay out of it, but the reality is that “accidents happen” and prevention of such accidents in the future is not a bad thing. Even if it means coming into your home when you do some construction.
As for “getting a grip” I have a grip on reality what about you? I realize that I do not know everything and need a bit of help every once in a while. I realize that the codes are there for the safety of everyone and I realize that the codes enforcement people are there to provide safe construction and to prevent some one from getting hurt or getting killed. You on the other hand seem to “know it all” and seem to have lost the grip.
Code changes are put into effect because some parent, somewhere, didn’t do their job and their kid got killed or hurt. PERIOD! I shouldn’t have to put up extra safety anything because my neighbors kid may not be watched properly and the damn kid drowns in my pool.
Parents should be held responsible for their own kids and quit putting restrictions on me because some other jack ass can’t take care of their own kids.
This is nothing more than government trying to regulate my life because someone else isn’t responsible enough to regulate their own.
Yes I have to agree with you that sometimes parents are not doing their job watching their kids but, how would you feel if a young child died on your property knowing that something that you didn’t know and you didn’t do to prevent this tragedy contributed to their death. I would have to think that even you would feel just horrible.
Remember Ford, not every one has the same common sense. We all have different back grounds. We can’t all be a know it all and have the knowledge of everything. Having some one such as a code enforcement official tell you how it should be done to keep things safe for all is just an insurance policy to help you prevent such an accident.
Please remember that even your family members could be subject to an accident involving a pool. You can not watch the children %100 of the time. Things happen, children sneak away. You leave your child in the living room playing and go to the bathroom. You come out and the child is gone! What do you do? Where is the first place you look for the child? The time you spend just checking the rooms in the home or glancing out the windows for them could be critical. 4 minutes under the water and brain damage begins.
While I don’t always agree with your reasoning on this site, you do have some good points and have valid reason to bitch about what goes on in this town but, I think your reasoning on your knowledge and how to build a deck and install a pool are completely wrong. I find on a daily basis, pool installers who do not know the codes and do not install pools to prevent such accidents. Contractors who install decks are found more often not knowing what is needed to meet the codes.
I could show you many pictures and quote many fatalities where reputable contractors have constructed things and people have died. Is it because they are dumb? No, it is because they don’t know updates of products and fatalities that have happened and what caused them.
Ask your contractor if he has ever heard of ACQ (in pressure treated lumber) if he can not explain exactly what it is and what it causes, I would look for another contractor.
I am not here to bash you or to fight with you. I work with the codes on a daily basis (and no, I do not work for the town) and have seen many things that have happened all over the states that have caused people to die. Many of which have not been caused by the lack of knowledge of the home owner or the contractor.
Lets keep the politcal stuff out of this one, this is about SAFETY, not politics