Construction and Building Inspector Inspect structures using engineering skills to determine structural soundness and compliance with specifications, building codes, and other regulations. Inspections may be general in nature or may be limited to a specific area, such as electrical systems or plumbing.
Construction and Building Inspector is Also Know as
In different settings, Construction and Building Inspector is titled as
- Building Inspection Engineer
- Building Inspector
- Building Official
- Code Enforcement Officer
- Combination Building Inspector
- Construction Inspector
- Elevator Inspector
- Home Inspector
- Plumbing Inspector
- Public Works Inspector
Education and Training of Construction and Building Inspector
Construction and Building Inspector is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Construction and Building Inspector
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Construction and Building Inspector
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Construction and Building Inspector
- Bachelor in Building/Home/Construction Inspection/Inspector
- Associate Degree Courses in Building/Home/Construction Inspection/Inspector
- Masters Degree Courses in Building/Home/Construction Inspection/Inspector
Training Required for Construction and Building Inspector
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Construction and Building Inspector in different industries are
- Transportation Vehicle, Equipment and Systems Inspectors, Except Aviation
- Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Government Property Inspectors and Investigators
- First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers
- Aviation Inspectors
- Solar Energy Installation Managers
- Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
- Electricians
- Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
- Energy Auditors
- Civil Engineers
- Construction Managers
- Transportation Inspectors
- Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
- Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Facilities Managers
- Industrial Engineers
- Fire Inspectors and Investigators
- Architects, Except Landscape and Naval
What Do Construction and Building Inspector do?
- Inspect bridges, dams, highways, buildings, wiring, plumbing, electrical circuits, sewers, heating systems, or foundations during and after construction for structural quality, general safety, or conformance to specifications and codes.
- Maintain daily logs and supplement inspection records with photographs.
- Review and interpret plans, blueprints, site layouts, specifications, or construction methods to ensure compliance to legal requirements and safety regulations.
- Inspect and monitor construction sites to ensure adherence to safety standards, building codes, or specifications.
- Measure dimensions and verify level, alignment, or elevation of structures or fixtures to ensure compliance to building plans and codes.
- Issue permits for construction, relocation, demolition, or occupancy.
- Monitor installation of plumbing, wiring, equipment, or appliances to ensure that installation is performed properly and is in compliance with applicable regulations.
- Train, direct, or supervise other construction inspectors.
- Conduct environmental hazard inspections to identify or quantify problems, such as asbestos, poor air quality, water contamination, or other environmental hazards.
- Evaluate project details to ensure adherence to environmental regulations.
- Inspect facilities or installations to determine their environmental impact.
- Monitor construction activities to ensure that environmental regulations are not violated.
- Sample and test air to identify gasses, such as bromine, ozone, or sulfur dioxide, or particulates, such as mold, dust, or allergens.
- Conduct inspections, using survey instruments, metering devices, tape measures, or test equipment.
- Confer with owners, violators, or authorities to explain regulations or recommend remedial actions.
- Approve building plans that meet required specifications.
- Examine lifting or conveying devices, such as elevators, escalators, moving sidewalks, hoists, inclined railways, ski lifts, or amusement rides to ensure safety and proper functioning.
- Estimate cost of completed work or of needed renovations or upgrades.
- Evaluate premises for cleanliness, such as proper garbage disposal or lack of vermin infestation.
Qualities of Good Construction and Building Inspector
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Construction and Building Inspector
- 10-key calculators
- Adjustable widemouth pliers
- Adjustable wrenches
- Air sampling devices
- Air sampling pumps
- Air velocity and temperature meters
- Airflow meters
- Arc receptacle testers
- Architects' scales
- Asphalt thermometers
- Automatic levels
- Axes
- Borescopes
- Carbon monoxide detectors
- Chlorine meters
- Circuit analyzers
- Clamp-on multimeters
- Combustible gas detectors
- Computerized data collectors
- Concrete strength measurers
- Concrete testers
- Conductivity meters
- Continuity testers
- Cordless drills
- Desktop computers
- Digital cameras
- Digital multimeters
- Dissolved oxygen meters
- Distance measuring wheels
- Drafting tools
- Electrical circuit testers
- Electronic distance measuring equipment
- Electronic levels
- Engineering scales
- Force gauges
- Gas leak detection devices
- Ground fault circuit interrupter GFCI testers
- Ground resistance testers
- Handheld thermometers
- Hydrometers
- Hygrometers
- Infrared thermometer lasers
- Inspection mirrors
- Insulation testers
- Laptop computers
- Laser fiches
- Laser measuring devices
- Laser printers
- Levels
- Light meters
- Lock levels
- Magnetic locators
- Manometers
- Map wheels
- Megohmeters
- Microwave leakage detectors
- Moisture meters
- Multimeters
- Non-contact infrared thermometers
- Notebook computers
- Optical levels
- Optical scanners
- pH meters
- Plumb bobs
- Pocket personal computers PC
- Pounds per square inch PSI test gauges
- Power analyzer dataloggers
- Pressure gauges
- Probe rods
- Programmable calculators
- Radon detection devices
- Refrigerant leak detectors
- Refrigeration thermometers
- Scanners
- Screwdrivers
- Shovels
- Spectrometers
- Stud locators
- Surface thermometers
- Tablet computers
- Tape measures
- Temperature/humidity testers
- Theodolites
- Torque meters
- Transit levels
- Two way radios
- Ultrasonic leak detectors
- Ultrasonic thickness gauges
- Vibration meters
- Video inspection cameras
- Volt-ammeters
- Voltage testers
- Water pressure gauges
- Water quality test kits
- Wearable mobile inspection computers
Technology Skills required for Construction and Building Inspector
- Arc Second PocketCAD
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Automated permit system software
- Calendar and scheduling software
- Database software
- Email software
- ESRI ArcView
- Inspection Depot Home Guide System
- Internet browser software
- Intuit QuickBooks
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Word
- Mobile building inspection software
- Municipal geographic management software
- New construction inspection form software
- NorthWest Builders Network Plan Analyst
- OptaSoft Commercial Building Inspector
- Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management
- Oracle Primavera Systems
- Quicken
- Real estate and tax software
- Residential home inspection form software
- SAP software
- Spreadsheet software
- Trimble Digital Fieldbook
- Vision Software
- Word processing software