Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Is anyone familiar with building codes in Alabama or know of a resource that might be somewhat easy to understand? I may need to add a garage apartment behind my house (it is one of a few options that I have). I have been told that it will be nearly impossible but I need to know for sure.

Courthouse maybe? I know when we bought our house - well before we bought it, we went to the courthouse and looked at the covenants for our neighborhood and it basically gave you all the info you needed to know about what you could/could not do. Jason would know - he just put up his shop and had to get permits, etc.

http://www.bc.state.al.us/buildingcode.htm


Plan submittal info is also on this page:

http://www.bc.state.al.us/Chapter3.htm

You can view the international building code stuff here:

http://www.sbcc.wa.gov/pages/code.html

It looks like maybe you have to have an 'expert' do the plans for submittal... at least according to this:

. Full Professional Team Required: Typical projects require specialty engineering by the structural, civil, mechanical, and electrical disciplines. When "In House" engineering services are approved by the Director as "purely incidental to the architecture", the name of the person by whom the plans are prepared must be shown. Both architects and engineers frequently claim to be doing work in the other’s field which is only "incidental to the work". While state registration laws generally permit such practices, the use of a full professional team on projects under the jurisdiction of the State Building Code is required and any question as to whether or not an element of design is "purely incidental " will be resolved by decision of the Director.

I wonder if a garage apartment could be considered "purely incidental to the architecture"?

Hey check this out: This has the info you need:


http://www.mobilecounty.org/publicworks/permitframe.htm

Thanks, I will read through those. I am hoping to just get some land now. Nikki wants a couple of horses for her an the kids.

i say screw permits and build away.... hurry and finish before they catch you..... and when they show up, just say "It's always been there." Its your land! and you should be free to do whatever you want to it.