11.5 NC Administrative Code & Policies: Permits, Inspections & Plan Review

NC Administrative Code & Policies: Permits, Inspections & Plan Review

Book A on every heating list. The Administration Code and Policies, 2018 Edition is required for the H1, H2 and H3 examinations at both classes. It contains no duct sizing and no combustion air tables — it is the volume that answers who may do the work, under what permit, inspected when, and certified how. Its provisions track Chapter 160D, Article 11 of the General Statutes.

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1. When a Permit Is Required

G.S. 160D-1110(a) prohibits commencing or proceeding with any of the following without first securing all permits required by the North Carolina State Building Code:

1. Construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, movement to another site, removal or demolition of any building or structure.
2. Installation, extension or general repair of any plumbing system.
3. The installation, extension, alteration or general repair of any heating or cooling equipment system.
4. Installation, extension, alteration or general repair of any electrical wiring, devices, appliances or equipment.

The $40,000 Exemption — and Why It Almost Never Helps HVAC

G.S. 160D-1110(c) exempts work costing $40,000 or less performed in accordance with the Code in any single-family residence, farm building, or commercial building — unless the work involves any of six listed items. The third listed item is:

"The addition, replacement, or change in the design of heating, air-conditioning, or electrical wiring, devices, appliances, or equipment, other than like-kind replacement of electrical devices and lighting fixtures."

So a mechanical change-out, an equipment addition, or any change in system design is carved back out of the exemption and still requires a permit, no matter how small the contract price. The exemption also does not reach load-bearing structural work, plumbing additions or design changes, materials not permitted by the Code, added roofing, or anything to which the Fire Code applies.

One Permit, Not Four

G.S. 160D-1110(d) forbids a local government from requiring more than one building permit for the complete installation or replacement of any natural gas, propane gas or electrical appliance on an existing structure when performed by a person licensed under G.S. 87-21 (this Board) or G.S. 87-43 (the Electrical Board). The permit fee for that work may not exceed the cost of any one individual trade permit issued by that local government, and the jurisdiction may not raise other fees to recover the lost revenue. A local government also may not require more than one building permit for simultaneous projects applied for at the same time at the same address under the Residential Code.

Water Heater Carve-Out

A plumbing permit is not required for the connection of a water heater being replaced in a one- or two-family dwelling if the work is performed by a G.S. 87-21 licensee who personally examines the work at completion and ensures a leak test has been performed on the gas piping, and there is no increase in energy use rate or thermal input and no change in fuel, energy source, location, capacity, or routing or sizing of venting and piping. The Board's own rule, 21 NCAC 50 .0402(c), mirrors this.

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2. Who May Hold the Permit

• G.S. 160D-1110(b): where any statute, ordinance or development regulation requires that work be done by a licensed specialty contractor, no building permit for the work shall be issued unless the work is to be performed by a licensed contractor.
• 21 NCAC 50 .0402(b): a licensee shall not allow a permit to be obtained, or the license number to appear on a permit, except for work the licensee or the licensee's employees perform, over which the licensee or a properly licensed technician provides general supervision to completion, for which the licensee holds an executed contract, and for which the licensee receives all contractual payments.
• 21 NCAC 50 .0406(c): the contractor license number and qualification of the firm shall be displayed on firm contracts, proposals and permit applications.
• Permits must be in writing and contain a provision that the work will comply with the State Building Code and all other applicable State and local laws. No permit is issued unless the plans and specifications are identified by the name and address of their author, and where the General Statutes require sealed design, the documents must bear the North Carolina seal of a licensed architect or engineer.

Together these provisions outlaw the two most common permit abuses: an unlicensed person pulling a mechanical permit, and a licensee "lending" the license number so someone else can pull one.

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3. Permit Expiration

G.S. 160D-1111 is short and frequently examined:

• A building permit expires by limitation six months (or any lesser time fixed by ordinance) after issuance if the work authorized has not been commenced.
• If, after commencement, the work is discontinued for 12 months, the permit expires immediately.
• No work authorized by an expired permit may be performed until a new permit is secured.

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4. Inspections

• Board rule (21 NCAC 50 .0402(a)): the licensed contractor shall ensure a permit is obtained before commencing work, and shall ensure a request for final inspection is made by the contractor, the general contractor or the owner within 10 days of the earlier of the system being made operational or placed in service, absent agreement with the owner and the local Code Enforcement official. The licensee is not relieved of responsibility to arrange inspection until a certificate of compliance or its equivalent is obtained, or the licensee has clear and convincing evidence of the effort to obtain one.
• Typical mechanical inspection sequence: underground/under-slab duct or fuel piping before cover; rough-in with the system exposed and, for fuel piping, under test; final with the equipment operating, condensate terminated, combustion air and venting complete, and the energy-code duct and envelope testing reports available.
• Concealment: covering work before the required inspection is precisely the conduct that 21 NCAC 50 .0402(d) treats as evidence of incompetence or misconduct in the use of the license.
• Periodic inspections (G.S. 160D-1117): the inspection department may make periodic inspections for unsafe, unsanitary or otherwise hazardous and unlawful conditions, entering at reasonable hours on presentation of proper credentials.

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5. Plan Review Timelines

North Carolina imposes statutory clocks on the reviewing jurisdiction — a useful scheduling fact for a mechanical contractor bidding commercial work:

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6. Certificates of Compliance and Occupancy

G.S. 160D-1116:

• At the conclusion of all work done under a building permit, the appropriate inspector makes a final inspection and, if the completed work complies with all applicable State and local laws and the terms of the permit, issues a certificate of compliance.
• No new building or part of one may be occupied, no addition or enlargement occupied, and no altered or moved existing building occupied, until the inspection department has issued a certificate of compliance.
• A temporary certificate of occupancy may be issued for a stated period, for the whole building or specified portions, if the inspector finds the building may safely be occupied before final completion and the Code's conditions are met.
• Occupying, or allowing occupancy of, a building before a certificate of compliance or a temporary certificate of occupancy has been issued is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Contrast the misdemeanor classes — they are all separately tested: unlicensed heating contracting is a Class 2 misdemeanor (G.S. 87-25); unlicensed refrigeration contracting is a Class 3 misdemeanor (G.S. 87-61); premature occupancy is a Class 1 misdemeanor (G.S. 160D-1116(c)).

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7. Appeals, Alternates and Interpretations

• A person aggrieved by a code official's decision may appeal, and the ultimate technical appeal in North Carolina runs to the Building Code Council, which also adopts and amends the Code collection.
• The Administration Code provides the route for approving alternate materials, designs and methods of construction: the code official may approve an alternate where the proposal is satisfactory and the material, method or work is at least the equivalent of the Code's prescriptive requirement in quality, strength, effectiveness, fire resistance, durability and safety.
• The Board separately publishes Interpretations of its own licensing statutes and rules, which resolve scope questions such as whether particular work requires H1, H2, H3 or a fuel piping license — those are Board interpretations, not code-official decisions, and they are not appealable to the Building Code Council.
• Where the Code requires erosion control, no building permit may issue for land-disturbing activity until an erosion and sedimentation control plan has been approved under the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act.