by Andrew Getty
Q&A
Q: We are building the handrails for our new deck. How high do they need to be?
A: 36 inches is the minimum height requirement for residential.
Q: Is 33 inches high close enough?
A: Seriously?
Q: We are installing a new septic system leach field at our house. How much masonry sand is required around the Eljen bio-mats?
A: The minimum, as shown on the Engineer’s drawing and the Eljen design manual is 6 inches of approved masonry sand below and next to each unit.
Q: Is 8 inches of sand under and none next to the units close enough? And, can we use the sand from along the shoreline?
A: Seriously?
Q: We can buy trusses really cheap for our house from someone who had some left over on their project. What is the minimum snow load design for this area?
A: Depending on the actual elevation of your building site in the Town of Webb, it will range from 96 lbs per square foot to over 100 lbs per square foot, ground snow load.
Q: Is 55 lbs a square foot close enough?
A: Seriously?
Q: We are trying to figure out how we want to place our new garage on our property. How far from the property lines does the building need to be?
A: It depends on several things. If it is attached to the house, 25 feet is the minimum. If it is detached and less than 600 square feet in size, 10 is allowed to a side or rear line.
Detached and larger than 600 square feet in size, 25 feet is required to side and rear, same as the house.
Q: We want ours to be detached and 26 X 30 feet. That equals 780 square feet in size, not too much bigger than 600 square feet. Is 10 feet from our neighbor’s side line close enough?
A: Ummph.
Q: We are putting the insulation in the ceiling of our new home. The plan calls for an R-49 in the ceiling. Is an R-30 close enough?
A: Why would you even ask that question?
Q: We got the permit for our new dock. By both Town and APA regulations, we know it cannot be larger than 8 feet in both directions. However, we really want 10 X 14 feet. Will that be close enough?
A: Let’s see, do the math.
Q: We are wiring the smoke alarms in our new addition to the house. Where are they required?
A: One in each bedroom, one outside and in the vicinity of the bedrooms, one on each level including basements or crawl spaces.
They must all be inter-connected with battery backup.
Q: If the bedrooms are all on the second floor, will one detector on the first floor be close enough?
A: This office suggests having a competent electrician put them in.
Q: Our septic system started smelling several years ago. Someone told us to just put some more dirt over the top of it to hide the smell. We don’t need a permit for that, do we?
A: For adding dirt to a yard, of course not. However, adding dirt over the top of a bad drywell or leach field in failure will not fix the problem.
You probably need to replace the absorption area.
Q: We were told nothing is wrong, it just smells really bad all of a sudden. Is 3 inches of dirt enough?
A: If the system did not stink for years, and now it does, 3 inches of dirt won’t help.
Q: What if we saturate it with Clorox?
A: Seriously?
Q: Our contractor is installing our septic system right now. However, digging the hole for the 1,500 gallon septic tank, as required for our five bedrooms, we hit too many rocks and we can’t fit the tank there. Can we instead install TWO 1,000 gallon, low-profile septic tanks in series, will that be good enough?
A: FINALLY !!!!!!! YES. YOU CAN DO THAT!!!