Years of bloodhound-like neighbor-hood exploring on the mean streets of Scottsdale, Arizona, have served Jeffy well in his new career as a junior building inspector. Check out the IRC violations he sniffed out on a visit to this prototypical modern home.

1. The ironic 1970s princess touch-tone phone buttons serving as house numbers can’t be seen from the street.

2. The off-center pivot front door doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for egress. It needs to be side-hinged and at least 32 inches wide.

3. The eight-burner restaurant-grade superwoktop requires a restaurant-grade superrange hood.

4. The Danish woodstove was installed too close to surrounding combustible construction, thereby voiding its (IRC-required) UL listing.

5. The space between the imported Spanish glass stair treads allows a four-inch imported Spanish glass sphere to pass through.

6. The Tokyo-hotel-style sleep capsule is too small to be considered a bedroom. A room has to be at least 70 square feet.

7. The hyperthin ferropolymer-frame window in the bedroom is too small to be considered an egress window. For ground-level windows, the minimum net clear opening is five square feet.

8. The experimental translucent R-11 insulation in the translucent exterior walls does not meet the minimum R-13 requirement for Scottsdale, Arizona (zone 3 on the IRC climate zone map).

9. The steel reinforcement put in the reclaimed-cypress concrete foundation was never approved by the building inspector.

10. The penguin-feeding platform is cantilevered over the penguin lap pool more than 30 inches, thus requiring a guardrail.

11. Commercial animal breeding in a residential area isn’t approved of in Scottsdale’s zoning ordinance.

Also Appears In

An Introduction to Building Codes

Moving Violations