The man who heads building inspection for Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government says the modern building code covers a lot of ground. Bob Carpenter said that includes such things as natural disasters, looking for substandard building practices, and striving for safe sustainable buildings. Carpenter said each newly built house gets a going over.
“We inspect houses and commercial buildings here in Fayette County. And the homes, it’s a pretty all-encompassing. We do footer, foundations, framing inspection, insulation, energy inspections, and then final inspections,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter said the International Code Council redoes the model code on a consistent basis. He said that can result in changes from state to state in different ways.
Carpenter and his employees were recognized last week during a City Council meeting. Carpenter said the International Code Council does update its regulatory focus.
“Now what other states do like Florida, and Kentucky does too, they will take that model code and they will amend it. So, they will strengthen their hurricane part of it whereas our stuff, it just depends. There’s things that we change in our too. So, it’s based on their code but it’s slightly amended to the area that you’re in,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter said both commercial and residential structures are inspected. Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said her city’s building inspection team was the first in Kentucky to earn a specific accreditation.
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