If you have been following my blog posts for over 2 years, you may remember the “little” energy efficient home renovation project I blogged about whilst it was happening. My intention was to share my renovation lessons, and to perhaps save others the same pain. Well, I have a new lesson to share about permitting for demo and build of an outbuilding.
My husband and I completed the renovation on the house in Plaza Shamrock/Shamrock Gardens last July and moved in a year ago. We have been planning the landscaping and hardscaping of the lot and yard ever since. The house came with a cute but not very functional garage/shed, aka garsh. We waffled on whether to spend money on making it more water- and critter-proof (i.e. new roof, new gutters, new siding) or tearing it down and building anew. It became very clear it was best to build new.
We contacted our favorite (and only) general contractor in early spring, around April of this year. It’s now the middle of August, and we are starting demo tomorrow. Why did it take so long? The steps for doing a proper build of any sort and acquiring proper permitting are: survey, architectural plans via architect and structural engineer, submitting plans to county for building permit…ah, but don’t forget the demo permit. We acquired our building permit in a couple of weeks. Our demo permit for a 8 x 15 building shell has taken 4 months.
Moral of the story: Be prepared for a long wait for any demo permit from the city/county of Mecklenburg for any size project. On the record, I advocate following the rules and permitting everything. However, the original building wasn’t permitted. In hindsight, my garsh probably could have disappeared 4 months ago without anyone being the wiser 😉
