NYC building violations are classified by city authorities as unsafe building (UB) conditions.  Dealing with them can be both expensive and highly complex.  Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about New York City building problems.

1. How can I know if there’s a UB violation against property I own?

By checking the Department of Building’s website.  There, you’ll find the Buildings Information System (BIS).  Enter the property’s address.  If you see the UB designation in the results, then a citation has been issued against it.

2. How can I have a UB violation dismissed?

This can be done in one of two ways.  If the citation is correct, then you must complete the necessary modifications or repairs to remove the violating conditions and then have the property re-inspected.  On the other hand, if you believe the citation to be in error, then you can contact the Department of Building’s website in the borough that the property is located in to request a re-inspection.  If the citation is found to have been issued in error, it will be removed.

3. I’ve heard the term “survey” used in regards to UB violations.  What does it mean?

A survey is an on-site inspection of the property under investigation to determine if it is in violation of city codes.  The survey is conducted by a Department of Buildings inspector, who is accompanied by an independent engineer or architect.  A report is then prepared describing the unsafe conditions, if any, and outlining recommended methods for correcting them.  The property owner is normally assessed a $100.00 fee to cover the costs of the survey.

4. I am currently doing work on a property I own and have received a Notice of Survey and Summons.  Is there any way I can get this action cancelled so that I can resume construction?

You must first correct the conditions that led to the UB violation being issued in the first place.  Once this is done, you may contact the Department of Buildings office in your borough to arrange a re-inspection.  You must also pay the fee for the survey, if one has been assessed.

5. What is a “Lis Pendens?”

Also known as a Notice of Pendency, this is a public notice of the UB violation and any court actions pending against the property and/or its owner.

6. How can I cancel a Lis Pendens?

You must correct the conditions that led to the UB violation and pay any survey or other applicable fees.  After this is done, you can request that the county clerk of your borough cancel the action.

7. I have received a Notice of Survey and Summons for a property I neither own nor have an interest in.  How do I get it dismissed?

Contact the UB enforcement unit in your borough and advise them of these facts.  You may need to prove that you do not have ownership of, or interest in, the property in question.

8. What is a “precept?”

A precept is an order issued by a court.  It authorizes the City to perform the work needed on your property to remove the UB violation.  If this occurs, you will be liable to the City for the cost of the work.

9. What can I do if I wish to do the work to correct the UB violation myself, instead of allowing the City to perform the work for me?

You must contact the commissioner of the borough in which the property is located to make this request.  Be prepared to prove that you are able to do the work and have applied for the proper permits to do so.  The commissioner’s office will decide whether or not to grant your request.

10. How can I avoid hassles like these in the first place?

By contacting Burnham Nationwide first.  Our staff of experts can advise you on all matters pertaining to NYC building violations, including zoning variances, getting permits approved, and handling disputes.  Get in touch with us today!

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Failing to secure the needed permits for new construction, renovation, or remodeling for projects can prove a costly error, often resulting in municipal fines when such shortcomings are detected by inspectors. Many in the industry see the plethora of building permit requirements as a draconian process, but these compliance guidelines represent safeguards to ensure buildings are safe.

Due to the fact that building permit requirements vary from city to city, builders are strongly urged to contact their city officials to ensure compliance. As our name suggests, Burnham Nationwide prides itself on the breadth of its staff, comprised of professionals knowledgeable in all facets of requirements nationally. Our staff is able to readily assist you in securing needed approvals to meet the most stringent building permit requirements. To that end, we are able to provide insight, not only on various municipalities’ building permit requirements, but also recommend ways of expediting and streamlining the process and adhering to the rigors of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Generally speaking, you can count on having to adhere to building permit requirements for not only new construction, but also demolition and substantive structural alterations to an existing structure. Interior and exterior remodeling also require special permits, as well as electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work. Again, building permit requirements vary widely, but there are a few general points to keep in mind to assess the scope of building permit requirements you might need to secure.

Regardless of conditions particular to a specific city, you will invariably be asked to provide basic information related to your project as a precursor to adherence to building permit requirements. Among these requirements are the exact address of the property in question, along with the name of the owner and contact information. Also, the scope or type of work should be specifically detailed. Names and contact information for all contractors, architects, and engineers working on the project should also be at your disposal in your adherence to building permit requirements.

Additionally, it’s important to compose a short narrative and/or description of the type of work being proposed for the project. You should include in that synopsis the total valuation of the project being described. Some cities require even more information in their building permit requirements. Sometimes, information on the dimensions of specific rooms or spaces is required. Other times, you might expect to submit drawn plans that illustrate the type of construction or renovation being proposed.

But wait, there’s more. You should expect to adhere to all manner of permits beyond the scope of actual construction to include mechanical, plumbing, and electrical permits. Some cities even require concrete and sign permits covering the peripheral sidewalks and rights-of-ways.

Some of this stuff sounds fundamental and basic, but it might surprise you how often such data is not kept at the ready. You can save yourself headaches and fines by having all the needed information at the ready when dealing with officials at your municipality.

While it may sound like a hyperbole, Burnham Nationwide is comprised of the most knowledgeable professionals in the industry. Having obtained more than 50,000 permits nationwide since our inception, you can be assured of this: we know building permits and building permit requirements! Adherence to rules and regulations is as much a part of our corporate culture as our passion for design. At Burnham Nationwide, our mantra is “your project is our project,” meaning our professionals are as invested in it as you.

In extending that mantra, you’re invited to drop by our offices and consider us your trusted partners. If you’re in the Chicago area, we’re located at 3111 W. Washington St., and our telephone number is (312) 407-7990. Those outside of Chicago can reach us via our website at burnhamnationwide.com or by calling toll free at (800) 407-7990.

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The most common NYC building violations usually occur in existing buildings. These violations vary, but the most common ones tend to endanger the health and safety of the occupants of these buildings. To help protect the health and safety of their citizens, the city of New York has provisions in place that give tenants the recourse that they need to report these violations.

Tenants can easily contact local officials about any violations that they notice. The officials will then issue the tenants a brochure about common NYC building violations, and they will also speak to the facility’s owner about fixing these issues. Some issues, however, are considered to be emergency issues. If an emergency violation is reported to the city, the city officials will simply fix it. Then, they will issue a bill to the building’s owners. These bills can be substantially larger than those that would have been incurred if the building’s owner was allowed to fix the issue by themselves.

In many cases, these violations are not an egregious attack on the tenants of the building. In most cases, they are actually oversights by the building’s owner, or they are violations that have developed during the course of the building’s life span. Luckily, when an owner has a building that they are concerned about, they can turn to professionals who can guide them. These professionals will work diligently to ensure that their clients’ buildings meet all of the necessary NYC building codes. These services are provided by companies like Burnham Nationwide, and they can also be useful for landlords who have recently acquired a new property.

If you are worried about whether or not your building meets the required codes, you should contact a professional at Burnham. They can help guide you in the correct direction. They have been working closely with landlords, tenants, and city officials for years. They can conduct a third party inspection, which can reveal whether or not your building has any violations. Finally, your Burnham consultant can provide you with the remedy that can help you fix these NYC building violations and avoid their reoccurrence.

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A sweeping set of residential building code changes in Illinois—the home state of Chicago-based Burnham Nationwide—illustrates the importance of having a reliable partner to keep you abreast of current regulations. In building or renovating, it’s important, not only to adhere to current guidelines, but also be on top of building code changes or revisions. The professionals at Burnham Nationwide should be viewed as your trusted partners because we believe your project is our project.

This past February, Illinois regulators proposed that builders of new homes must ensure that they meet high standards related to insulation. To that end, a blower door test and other rigorous standards will more than likely be required by this summer, barring any substantial opposition.

Vocal resistance to these building code compliance changes is coming from homeowners’ associations across the state. The groups have decried these measures as draconian overreaches. However, in the event the building code changes are approved and passed—as is expected—we have ensured our residential clients have been apprised of these new requirements.

The new rules are expected to be finalized this summer and implemented by early next year. With these changes, the state would become the first in the Midwest to require such high environmental standards. Energy efficiency is increasingly a sought-after goal of many regulatory bodies, and you might expect more building code changes in your part of the country—in both the commercial and residential sectors—to reflect this trend.

To give you an idea of the scope of the new Illinois requirements, consider the proposed requirement for a blower door test. A blower door test has proven an effective tool in gauging building efficiency. A powerful fan is mounted into an exterior door’s frame, pulling air out of the house through all unsealed openings or cracks. Auditors sometimes use a smoke pencil to further detect air leaks toward determining the air infiltration of the building being inspected. Blower doors consist of a frame and flexible panel fitted into the doorway, a pressure gauge to measure pressure inside and outside a home, a variable-speed fan, and a manometer and hoses utilized to measure airflow.

Simply stated, this type of test determines the airtightness of a home. Professional energy auditors use blower door tests as a gauge of energy efficiency. Even short of a requirement, building owners should put a premium on such efficiencies—not only as part of one’s civic responsibility toward energy efficiency, but also to realize financial savings as a result.

Achieving the proper building tightness is essential for a number of reasons. Foremost, the measure helps reduce energy consumption due to air leakage—a major source of building inefficiency. A door blower test also helps to determine how best to avoid problems related to moisture or condensation and avoidance of air drafts caused by air leaks that allow wind to enter a building from outdoors. The building code changes in Illinois also are designed to help property owners ensure the air quality in their homes is not too contaminated by indoor air pollution.

If such requirements make you groan over what may seem like mounting government regulation, consider this: roughly 40 percent of all U.S. energy consumption is attributable to cooling and heating. Given this high level, energy efficiency is a worthwhile goal.

In Illinois, the goal of building code changes is to make homes 15 percent more energy efficient than those built under the same code three years ago. Seen in that light, Illinois is emerging as a leader in aggressively calling for energy efficiency. You might expect other states to take Illinois’ lead. Due to this, you need reliable industry partners at your side to keep you abreast of the latest changes—in any part of the country and even globally—as you will find at Burnham Nationwide.

Our professional staff is not only well-versed domestically, but internationally as well—with a full grasp of the International Code Council and its conservation code. Burnham Nationwide prides itself on informing its clients of the most up-to-date building code changes, along with all other aspects of regulation. You are invited to contact us for additional insight through our website at burnhamnationwide.com or by calling toll-free at (800) 407-7990.

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The Chicago building codes are detailed in a two-volume set that is put out yearly by the city. In order to keep up to date with these codes and any relevant changes, Chicago architects and contractors must turn a keen eye toward both of these volumes. In fact, if they want to keep up to date on any recent changes to the codes, they must also regularly check the online editions of these codes. They can subscribe to the online editions to see any changes that the city makes to the codes between each yearly publication of the two-volume set. Every month, the online edition is updated with new information about Chicago’s building regulations as well as their current methods of fire prevention.

If you are doing a project in Chicago, you know how important it is to keep aware of these codes so that your permit applications are filed precisely. A correctly filed permit will, of course, be approved faster and save you time, money, and resources. At Burnham, we understand how difficult it can be to keep up to date with all of this information. To save your project leader time and money, we keep up to date on all of this information for you. Our experience, when combined with the relationships we have with city officials, ensures that your permits are always approved in as little time as possible. In fact, because we have been in Chicago for so many years, we almost always know about changes to the codes even before they occur. We let that insider knowledge work for you.

Most architects, contractors, and project managers are very busy. They have a long list of things that need to be accomplished every day, and they simply do not have the time to waste reading and rereading codes. In addition, they do not have the time or money to waste waiting for delayed permits to get approved. At Burnham, we work to safeguard their time and money. We work to ensure that their projects meet all of the necessary Chicago building codes. We know, just as you do, that when your proposals are up to code, your permits get approved faster, and you can break ground sooner. No one wants an idle crew or parked machinery; we work hard to ensure that your project does not have to face those setbacks.

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In order to keep apprised of changes in the Chicago building codes, contractors and architects must keep a close eye on the two-volume set of codes produced annually by this municipality. In addition, if you want to know the most recent updates, you must subscribe to the online edition. Each month, the online edition posts changes to the city’s plumbing, heating, ventilation, and refrigeration regulations, as well as new codes concerning environmental regulations and fire prevention strategies. Keeping up to date on these codes is essential to ensure that you know exactly what to do so that your Chicago building permits are accepted on the first try. However, keeping so well-informed can be an onerous task that is best done with the help of a trusted industry leader like Burnham.

Burnham’s team of experienced professionals can help you fill out and submit your permits so that they will get approved quickly and with a minimum of hassles. Burnham has been established in Chicago for over a generation, and during that time, we have cultivated close relationships with city officials. Not only do we have a close understanding of the Chicago codes and what needs to be followed in order for an application to get approved, we also have intimate relationships that often make us one of the first to know about code changes.

Keeping track of code changes is practically a full-time job, and is not something that usually appeals to most architects and contractors. In 2003, for the first time in over fifty years, Chicago completed their first major revision to their city building code. Although several years have elapsed since that revision, the code is updated with small changes nearly every month. For instance, recently the city has asserted a new focus on porches. Much of the information on porches involves fairly obvious things, like avoiding the use of rotten wood or unstable handrails. However, the city has written a 101-page guidebook detailing the rest of the regulations. These are the kind of specific and small details that Burnham professionals will help you with to ensure that you do not overlook anything, even the smallest detail, while you are planning your building proposal.

Covering everything from ADA ramps to elevators to circuit breakers, the Chicago building codes are fairly complex. If you want to ensure that your Chicago building permits get approved as quickly as possible, you should have someone look them over to be certain that they follow all of the relevant codes and laws. Here at Burnham, we are happy to help our clients in this capacity and are proud to say that we have been helping them for years.

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It sounds like a great idea- use the top of a building for outdoor living in an urban setting where you can sit outside in the summertime without the benefit of having a patio or balcony. Amidst the glass, steel, and masonry of the metropolitan skyline, these decks form an oasis of outdoor living space in any city, transforming simple roofs to a  backyard-feel country club setting. The perfect solution for urban dwellers- or is it? Anyone who rides the elevated trains in Chicago has seen hundreds of examples of rooftop decks on both residential and commercial buildings. Many decks have been built over the years, some following building code regulations, some not.

Rooftop decks can raise some serious concerns when trying to meet regulatory requirements. For example, you may need to have the rafter system of the roof re-engineered to carry the excess loads of the deck and the anticipated number of people on it. Also, building a deck over a roof never takes into account just how you will replace the roof in 20 years without deconstructing the deck to do it. At that point, will the deck be a like-for-like replacement (like a repair) or a reconfigured alteration to an existing building? What about the deck material itself?

Chicago Building Code Section 15-8-510, Roof Structures, indicates that except for certain other limitations, all roof structures placed above the roof of any building within the Fire Limits (essentially the downtown Central Business District) or above the roof of any building exceeding fifty-five feet in height, must be constructed of non -combustible materials and must be supported by construction of non-combustible materials.

Recent experience has shown that conventional flamespread treatments and intumescent coatings are NOT an acceptable alternative to the requirement that the deck be of non-combustible material. We have tried these both at the Building Board of Appeals and the Committee on Standards and Tests and have not been successful in either case. I do not believe the City will be changing its stance any time soon.

As a substitute product, composite/synthetic decking (manufactured from wood fiber and plastic to form a deck profile) is really no different than wood in terms of its combustibility. In addition, there have been problems with discolorations, de-lamination and mold when used in exterior applications. Many of these products are not chemically designed to withstand exterior exposure for an extended period of time.

However, the Chicago Department of Buildings has in the recent past, recommended and approved at least two substitute materials for high-rise decks the we are aware of: Ipe Wood and wood-glass composites. Although both still qualify as combustible, their physical properties are considered to be an acceptable alternative.

Ipe decking has been used in several large residential and commercial buildings, including LEED certified projects. Examples include the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway, the Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas, and the boardwalks in Ocean City, NJ and Miami, Flordia.

Ipe is a Brazilian Walnut and has a Janka hardness of 3640.

Note: The Janka hardness test measures the hardness of wood. It involves measuring the force required to embed a 0.444 inch steel ball into wood to half its diameter. This method is used so that the result would leave an indentation 100 square millimeters in size. It is one of the best measures of the ability of a wood species to withstand denting and wear.

Ipe is also rated the same as concrete for flammability testing. This hardwood is so dense that it is resistant to mold, fungus even insects. No chemicals are required and no treatments are needed unless you want to to keep the tones of the wood from fading. If no treatment is used it will patina a silverish grey tone, otherwise a UV oil inhibitor can be used. The lifespan for Ipe decking is over 30 years old without treatment and over 100 years with treatment. Ipe is also available FSC certified with select approved companies. This certification guarantees the hardwood is harvested from a responsibly managed forest. Ipe is a renewable, recyclable, durable, biodegradable, energy efficient and versatile product.

Products that infuse glass into wood decking are another alternative. A chemical bonding of sodium silicate (a mixture of sand and soda ash used since the 19th Century in detergents and as an egg preservative) and wood soaked in this solution, then (literally) baked, becomes an insoluble matrix of amorphous glass, which hardens and essentially “shrink-wraps”  the wood fibers throughout. Due to this glass infusion, the wood is inert and will not rot. Because conventional fungicides like copper are not required to pressure-treat the wood, the resulting product is non-corrosive to nails and other fasteners. The fusion of wood and glass creates a product that is approximately twice as hard as conventional wood. As measured by the Janka Scale, the hardness of southern  yellow pine, for example, increases from 690-870 lbs-force (range depends on species) to 1560 lbs-force, approximately double. Since the deck material is many times stronger that composite products due to the glass portion fusing parallel to the grain of the wood, this insures that nails, screws and fasteners hold more firmly.

The best part, however, from a regulatory standpoint, is that the wood-glass matrix is not flammable. Years ago we would laugh when a note would appear on  construction drawings referring to the “noncombustible wood blocking”; since the only noncombustible wood in existence was petrified rock. Now that is no longer the case. Wood-glass composites carry a Class A classification and also for reduced levels of smoke, in accordance with the 30-minute extended ASTM E84 (Steiner Tunnel) flamespread test.

Both of these alternatives offer the look of wood with the added benefit of being safer and more durable than a conventional wood deck. Now if you could just do something about that bothersome requirement for a second exit off the deck (but that’s another story).

About the Author:
Christopher E. Chwedyk, CSI, AIA is a licensed architect, Director and Chief Code Consultant of The Code Group at Burnham Nationwide in Chicago. He was previously the principal of Gage-Babcock and Associates; a firm specialized in fire protection engineering. With more than 32 years of experience in the architectural field, Mr. Chwedyk has performed numerous code compliance plan reviews for the City of Chicago and other municipalities. he has a BArch degree from UIC and a Masters of Project Management (MPM) from the Keller Graduate School of Management. An adjunct faculty member of Harper College since 1998, Chris teaches courses on building codes and construction drawings.

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