15 Steps – Construction Inspections and Inspectors

While there are some exemptions, most remodels require a building permit. Just about every building permit requires one or more inspections by a building inspector employed by the authority issuing the permit. (In some cases, the inspections are subcontracted to an independent company.)

The inspections, coupled with the permit, are in place to make sure that the remodel is safe. Building codes have been with us, in some form, since Babylonian times. In the United States, permits became more widespread after the citywide fires in Chicago and Boston in the 1870s.