Inspections: The City Checks the Work

You've now met inspections one at a time — pre-pour (12.3), framing (12.4), roughs (12.8), insulation (12.9). This lesson assembles the system, because understanding it changes how you read your whole project.

The premise: the city approved a specific set of stamped plans (Module 10.8). Inspections verify, at each stage where work is about to be covered up, that what was built matches what was approved — before the covering happens. Concrete hides steel; drywall hides wiring; each inspection is the last look. That's why they gate the sequence (12.7's second reason) and why skipping one is never a shortcut: uninspected covered work gets uncovered at your expense.

The full circuit for a typical ADU: foundation/pre-pour → underfloor or slab items → framing (with roof nailing) → rough plumbing, electrical, mechanical → insulation → sometimes drywall nailing and shower pans → various specialty items (solar, sprinklers where applicable) → final (12.12). Each sign-off lands on the inspection record card — the permit card's companion, living on-site, collecting signatures like a passport.

How inspections actually go: the GC (not you) schedules each one when the work is ready; the inspector walks the relevant scope against the plans; the outcome is passed, passed with corrections (fix noted items, usually verified at the next visit), or correction notice (fix and re-inspect). Lesson 12.6's project caught a shear-nailing correction at framing and fixed it same-day — that's the system's normal texture, not a crisis. A few practical realities: inspector scheduling adds days (build them in — 12.6 did), different inspectors emphasize different details (experienced local GCs know their inspectors — lesson 11.7's green flag, explained), and inspectors bind to the code and plans, not to opinions (they're 10.2's plan checker, field edition — same ministerial logic).

Your relationship to inspections as the homeowner: you'll rarely meet an inspector — the GC runs this — but the record card is your readable dashboard. Every signature is a third-party expert confirming a milestone (which is exactly why lesson 11.10 tied payments to inspected milestones — the system hands you free verification). A GC who's cheerful about inspections is showing you their work matches the plans. A GC who grumbles about "nitpicking inspectors" on every job is showing you something too (11.6 noted it).