Intermediate training?

[Dai Vernon]

Thanks for the replies. I want to choose wisely what exactly I spend the company's money on. After seeing the results Chief can produce they have no worry when I request additional training, however, I don't want to abuse it.

I am right now taking a AutoCad course (back to college, jeez, I just got out.) I thought it would be great to know AutoCad as well as Chief, now I know Chief does many things faster, imho.

I will be for sure taking an advanced class in Chief, and quite possibly the on-line training......as soon as I pass the new Bill 124 exam on Dec. 6th.

Oh, by the way, any of you Chiefer's that have taken the Bill 124 exam and have any tips for me, I would greatly appreciate it!!!!!

I'm kind of nervous and reading through Part 9 of the OBC everyday.

[George Godwin]

Dai,

I passed the 2 mandatory Bill 124 Code exams in January and March of this year.

It takes a lot of preparation. I read about 1500 pages of material for the Part 9 exam during March and wrote the exam on the 31st as I recall. I think I got every question correct and was finished 12 minutes early. The guy beside me walked out after a half hour because he was not adequately prepared even though he had been designing houses for about 20 years. My only advice is that you should know it inside out. I tabbed every section to speed up finding details in the Code and that helped. You will need your calculator for some of the questions.

[Dai Vernon]

Thanks George. I bought the House Self-Study guide. It's HUGE!!! No way to get through all of it in time. I study about an hour a day for the past 2 months. And every question I find in the study guide I also write down in my OBC book.

This is going to be tough.

Thanks for the tips....by the way, how was the Legal Process test?? I don't even know where to apply for that one. I'm just focusing on the House test.

Thanks!

[George Godwin]

Dai,

You need both Part 9 and Legal Process to be qualified after January 1st. Part 9 is more detailed obviously but many find the legal process exam at least as difficult. I went through the self-study guides thoroughly and broke the huge Part 9 Guide into about 5 bound parts. That sucker is so big, it should be sold by Bowflex as exercise equipment.

It is not easy to deal with all this material, especially if one is not of the student variety to start with. So it will take dedication and lots of time and effort.

The rumour in our area is that a very large number of part-time designers are going to close up shop on January 1 because they don't want go to the trouble to get qualified by the Ministry. This means that there is going to be a serious shortage of designers after January 1. The local large-format printer (24x36) said about 80 percent of his customers will be closing shop. That may not be an accurate percentage but it seems to reflect the general nature of what is going on.

[mcqueenhomes]

Wow. That sounds horrifying. It also sounds like the remaining designers are going to be really busy. Maybe the other part-timers that close up shop could be hired as subcontractors.

This is exactly why I'm leery of putting too much capital investment into my business. I expect in about five years or so it will be regulated out of existence. I realize you guys are in Canada, but if our United States Supreme Court has begun citing foreign precedent(fine for the foreigners but I want to go by our legal tradition) can anything else be far behind?

[canadadesigns]

Yeah, currently (until Jan 1, 2006) ontario doesn't have any regulations on who can submit drawings for permit applications on most residential work. Currently contractors can submit their own plans with no certification. So, after Jan 1 you are required to have passed the appropriate building code tests, be registered with the provincial gov. & carry liability insurance.

The gov. even made architects & engineers do the testing.

So, it's expected that after Jan 1 there will be a lot of work around for certified designers.

There is a loop hole that will probably be used by a lot of people though, customers that submit their own permit applications and act as their own general contractors, don't have to have certified drawings ( but many of the building inspectors still want them to be 'professional quality').

I understand that most American States already have laws like this??


Rich

[mcqueenhomes]

Many cities or states require a stamp by an architect or an engineer, and they impose plan standards, however, the bulk of the drawing may originate from anyone. What happens is the designer or contractor does the bulk of the design and/or drafting work and the architect or engineer finishes up.

Some areas absolutely don't give a rat's petoot who or what designed it as long as it's engineered on the ball.

Other areas require the designer to have certification or license of some kind. They stamp them even if they originally came from contractors or designer subcontractors.

More rural areas simply apply what the state requires plus their local known good building practice, and as long as the plans show it they could be drawn on paper grocery bags and still get permits.

[George Godwin]

Jason,

In Ontario, Canada, "government" is our middle name. They are regulating the fun and crap out of every activity they can get their hands on.

I got a kick out of a story about one municipality in Ontario with a lot of aboriginal residents. That municipality can't get a building inspector to stay on the job because the aboriginals don't recognize them and won't let them on their properties. After a week or two of threats and looking down the barrel of a 12 guage, the inspector looks for a new job. And notwithstanding, their houses are not collapsing on top of them.

I don't know if that approach is the answer but I can tell you everything we do in Ontario has more paperwork, more reviewers, more costs, and more delays than is reasonable. The cost of housing - pardon the pun - can only "go through the roof" or 'roof planes' as the case may be.

[mcqueenhomes]

LOL! That's freaking awesome! Hats off to people who insist on taking care and responsibility for themselves!

[George Godwin]

Jason,

The way the Regulators are going, Teepees may be the housing of the future. Could be the only thing you can afford and if the authorities come after you, you can just fold it up and move down the way. Also, it may help defend against the world-wide network of Jihadis (non-government terrorists). Abu Ali Boom Boom may not figure its worth going after a tent. But I digress.

Put that in your Raytracer and process it - using low settings!