You've booked foundation the job, now what about the permits?
At Quality 1st Basement Systems, all foundation jobs require permits and there are many different ways to go about securing permits. You (the customer), a general contractor or Quality 1st can choose to get the permits.
We have found that the last way, in which Quality 1st obtains the permits, has worked out most efficiently for both the customer and the company.
The following is the process more commonly required to obtain proper permits for work in various townships.
Please note Quality 1st does work in NJ, NY, and PA and is a licensed contractor in all 3 states.
Steps to obtaining a permit:
After the salesperson has secured a signature and a deposit for the work, the following has to happen in order to secure a permit:
1. Salesperson needs to send over paperwork to engineering firm. This includes pictures, dimensions, and sketches.
2. The Engineering firm draws up the exact specifications of the scope of work, giving measurements and details on how the work is to proceed.
3. Engineering firm get these approved and provides a raised seal on (3) sets of drawings which they then mail to Quality 1st.
4. Quality 1st puts 2 copies of the raised seal drawings in the customer permit file and one copy stays at the office in the customer file
All of this can be taking place while the other legwork is being done at the same time See below
5. Quality 1st locates the proper township/municipality in which the address is located.
*This can be a little tricky as there are many towns that do not correspond to the municipality, which is important to note! You must do your due diligence or all of your hard work thus far can get hung up for weeks if the paperwork is at the wrong township. Verify every township and customer address via phone so that this mistake will not happen. Even if you call the wrong township, they are very helpful in assisting you with finding the right township.
6. Get all of the township info; including address, days and hours of operation, any specific contacts and or extensions and anything that can help you secure the permit faster
*Hours are important. You don’t want to send someone up with a permit 40 miles away only to find out that the office is closed on that day, or that they only have am hours. Believe me this is a time saver
7. Get (2) copies of the proposal, (2) copies of the company insurance, (2) copies of all product literature to be installed
*Please note some towns require (3) copies, so be prepared just in case.
8. The State of New Jersey has standard online documentation that you can fill out for the permitting process. Foundation jobs require a construction jacket permit, and the Building sub code permit.
*Tip—When calling the township, ask them if they accept the online forms. (most do, but some do not)
As an example:
We recently dropped off an application for a permit in Princeton, NJ for a CarbonArmor job. We called first, confirmed the address and confirmed that the forms were acceptable. We then drove to the township building (about 35 minutes) and dropped the permits off, asking again if everything was acceptable. The friendly lady said everything was in order. We left the building feeling good about getting the permit in, only to have that feeling turn to despair when we received a call from the Quality 1st office that the permit application was unacceptable and it needed to be handwritten. It turns out the friendly lady that we spoke to, who accepted the permit from us, was a trainee and was not trained in the permitting process. END RESULT: PRINCETON, NJ HAS THEIR OWN CONSTRUCTION APPLICATION JACKET AND FORMS. FILL OUT THE PERMITS AT THE OFFICE!!
Find out if your township has something similar, it will save much time and aggravation!
9. If they do accept the forms, it is easy to fill them out, print them, and then add them to the permit folder.
10. Driving to drop off the permits. As Quality 1st has over a 100 mile working radius, the permits can be near and far, so you must coordinate accordingly. Try to do them all at once so that they get done, as the work schedule is predicated on having them turned around in a timely manner. This can affect the schedule drastically. No permits, no work can start. We have had to move jobs back weeks because of permitting red tape. This directly affects production numbers any where from 5 to 5,000,000 in a given week. Timing is critical.
11. Have a positive attitude with the township people!! Most are nice if you are nice, but if someone is having a bad day, it can turn into a very long day for you. Remember, they control the process once all of the above information leaves your hands, some townships have up to 20 working days, before they will even contact you, so you can see how the schedule and timing is affected by this process.
12. Once permits are approved the township calls Quality 1st and lets them know the cost.
13. Quality 1st then calls the homeowner and lets them know.
14. The homeowner must pick them up and pay for them
15. The homeowner then calls Quality 1st who gets the permit number. This number allows Quality 1st to set all inspections for the job. This is important because many homeowners wait to pay their full balance upon completion of final inspection. This can be a huge money cruncher, if you have 5 jobs that are complete but are waiting for final inspection so Quality 1st works very hard at setting these up in a timely manner.
16. The job gets closed out once all inspections are completed and all work and payments are received.
The process is actually pretty simple, but if you do not follow the steps it becomes very time consuming. At Quality 1st we are striving to become more efficient at this process and as we understand that is a crucial part of our business.
