K.C. Crow and Bill Walden

K.C. Crow and Bill Walden

Wednesday, 07 November 2007

K.C. Crow, Senior building inspector for the City of Cedar Park

As an Austin native, K.C. Crow has spent most of his life in Central Texas. Crow has been with the City of Cedar Park for eight years and was just recently named head building inspector on Oct. 1. He calls the growth in Cedar Park “amazing” and is looking forward to the challenges and demands the inspection department will face.

• Family: Married with two step-children, one biological son and five step-grandchildren
• Contact Information: crow@cedarparktx.us

Q. What led you into this field of work?

A. I’ve always been involved in the construction field ever since I joined the work force. After 12 or 14 years of hard labor and the Texas summers, I decided to move on to something a little less physically demanding, yet remain in the industry I felt I had good knowledge of.

Q. What type of training do inspectors receive?

A. We go to continuing education classes as required by the State of Texas to maintain our inspection licenses. International Code Council provides some seminars in neighboring cities like San Antonio and Dallas that occasionally we’ll attend. Anytime there is a new addition to the code, we try to attend some seminars to get educated as to what the major code changes are for the new inspections. It’s an ongoing process of becoming educated.

Q. What conditions exist in other parts of the country that require building features not necessary in Central Texas?

A. A big one is seismic design criteria. We’re starting to see pretty significant commercial growth here in Cedar Park, and a lot of these projects are from out of state that have to design earthquake provisions. Here in Central Texas, we’re about as low down on the seismic requirements as you can get. We also don’t have high wind requirements like coastal regions.

Q. What are the most common code violations in homes and businesses?

A. Nothing too major, usually just air tests for plumbing inspections, gas tests, that type of thing. As far as structural, there are so many different issues we encounter, it’s hard to say there is one that is consistent.

Q. What can the city do for a citizen who has concerns about a workplace, home or neighboring structure?

A. They can always feel free to contact our office, and if we are not the appropriate personnel to handle their concern, we’re always more than happy to direct them to the appropriate agency or other department within the city.

Q. Have you seen any strange violations or conditions during an inspection?

A. Im sure I have. After a while nothing really surprises you.

Bill Walden, Senior building inspector for the City of Leander

Bill Walden has been in the Austin area for nearly seven years and a member of the Leander building inspection office for four.

Originally from Arlington, Walden has enjoyed watching the local growth and is excited about all the new projects coming into Leander and getting the town “on the map.”

• Family: Two sons, William, 11 and Barrett, 3
• Contact: bwalden@ci.leander.tx.us

Q. What led you into this field of work?

A. I’m the son of a tradesman in the plumbing industry and chose to take the path as an electrician. I spent several years doing that and picking up on the other trades when I found that I enjoyed knowing a little bit about all the trades as opposed to one specified trade. This was the ideal position to be able to have a hand in all the trades and all the construction that is going on.

Q. What type of training do inspectors receive?

A. We receive training through the ICC, which is the International Code Council. There are multiple certifications and continuing education courses.

Q. What conditions exist in Central Texas that require building features not necessary in other parts of the country?

A. Primarily in this area some of our main obstacles would be the geographical terrain and the differences in soils, as far as what builders can build on and where they can’t build. We also have the aquifers that we have to pay special attention to.

Q. What are the most common code violations in homes and businesses?

A. In businesses, we are seeing a lot of fire safety code violations, primarily in older businesses that were established prior to an inspection agency being brought to the City of Leander.

Q. What can the city do for a citizen who has concerns about a workplace, home or neighboring structure?

A. First thing we do is we evaluate what the complaint or concern is and we provide as much information to that citizen as possible, whether it be on the state level, county level or municipal level. On the municipal level, we definitely direct our attention to that problem. Sometimes we do call in other agencies to assist us.

Q. Have you seen any strange violations or conditions during an inspection?

A. Primarily the violations we see are not out of the ordinary. We do run into some circumstances where a tradesman has performed something which they thought would work with some strange configuration of piping or electrical. A lot of the times it’s not a tradesman, just someone who has taken it upon themselves to do their own work.

0 Comments