Special Inspections

Updated 8/5/21

General

• “Controlled Inspections” is the old term for Special Inspections and is still used sometimes.

• It’s not legal for a contractor to perform their own special inspections (or pay for someone to perform them directly). This would be a conflict of interest. Inspections are supposed to be by the owner, even for contractor-filed applications like a superseding SOE filing. (The latter is often omitted or excluded in proposals to ownership for the inspections.)

• DOB formwork for Special Inspections is called a “Technical Report: Statement of Responsibility” or a “TR”.

• After they are filed, TRs can be found on the DOB Building Information System (BIS) in the “Virtual Job Folder” which has scans of all formwork that has been filed recently.

• Typically, the owner’s expeditor fills out and files the forms for the applications while our expeditor fills out and files the forms for the permits.

• We do NOT rely on engineers performing special inspections for quality control. The inspectors are not reliable for that. They are simply there for technical engineering responsibility with DOB.

• In general, they are looking for compliance with the designs of the Engineer of Record (EOR). They are not necessarily responsible for compliance with code or reviewing the EOR’s design.

TR1

• The TR1 is the basic form for most of the building systems/categories.

TR1s

• Completing TR formwork typically comes in three phases:

• Identifying the inspection types/categories that are applicable to the project.

• Identifying the party responsible for inspecting each category.

• Certifying that the inspections are complete.

• Completing TR formwork typically comes in three phases:

  • Identifying the inspection types/categories that are applicable to the project.

  • Identifying the party responsible for inspecting each category.

  • Certifying that the inspections are complete.

TR2

• The TR2 is the form that certifies the testing of the concrete strength.

Note that we may want to buy more testing than is code-required. This might be for early warning or additional late analysis. (Or additional certainty.)

TR3

• The TR3 is the form that establishes which concrete design mixes will be used on the project.

TR4

• The TR4 certifies the soil investigation/soil borings that are done as part of predevelopment/design. This work is typically done in advance of our involvement.

TR5

• The TR5 certifies data on all the driven piles for a foundation (where applicable). It is a record based on full time inspection of the pile driving operation by the special inspector. Piles generate a lot of special inspections cost because of the requirement for full time inspection.

TR8s

• Like TR1s but for energy inspections.

Scoping and Buying Special Inspections

• These inspections can be bought completely through one company or through all different companies.

• At the time of this writing, it is typical to buy the majority of them from one company, with certain key inspections coming from specialists in that field. Piles and exterior wall are two common examples of this.

• Some inspections require fabricator shop visits by the inspector (or by a local affiliate in the area where the shop is). These are waived when the shop has DOB-approved fabricator status. The number of shop visits is partially dictated by the inspectors’ comfort level and experience with the fabricator. In some cases they can add substantially to the overall cos of inspections and for this reason we should notify the owner in advance if we expect substantial off-site inspections to be required.

• One of the big questions that comes up during buyout is whether it will be a lump sum or a rate-based contract. If it’s rate based, the inspector may have an inceptive to perform too many inspections or to not use the same inspector for multiple inspection types (thereby generating higher fees).

• However, when it’s a lump sum contract, disputes may arise about whether the job took longer than was expected or caused more engineer site time than could have been anticipated.

• It is also important o check and review the list of inspection categories that are identified at the outset. Expeditors and architects often miss required inspections or add ones that shouldn’t be required to the list.

• Sometimes clients ask us to help them solicit, level, or simply review special inspections proposals. For this we have a master estimating scope checklist similar to subcontractor trades.

Inspection Costs

We don’t have great data on inspection costs but here is what is available at the time of this writing: