Inspections are the sequence, not a checklist you add later

New construction means a new dwelling, permitted and inspected, not a remodel that kept an old shell. The code edition is the one in force when the permit’s issued. Let that permit expire and a refile can put you on a newer edition. That is a reason to keep the inspections moving, not a reason to skip one. The usual house is a monolithic slab, concrete block walls, and wood at the roof and the interior partitions. Which office reviews the set follows the parcel, not the ZIP code on the mailbox.

Somebody has to call the inspection, and it should be us

The building department does not drive by to see if you are ready. The permit holder asks for the inspection when the work they need to see is still visible. Cover it early and you uncover it later, on your dime, with the crew standing around. We schedule the look. We do not pour because the truck was already dispatched, and we do not hang drywall because the painter is free on Thursday.

What you should not do while the shell is open

Don’t store household furniture in a building that is not dried in. Don’t let a well-meaning relative run wire “to help” after the rough has been looked at. Don’t move in because the kitchen looks done. A certificate of occupancy is the building department’s paper, after the final inspection. A verbal all-clear from a trade is a conversation. It is not that paper.

What has to be visible before the slab is poured

Before the concrete arrives, the inspector needs to see everything the concrete will hide. Forms, compacted fill, the vapor barrier, the reinforcing, the thickened edges, the plumbing that runs under the slab, and the termite treatment in the soil. Anchor bolts or embedded straps are planned in this pass. They are a misery to invent after the mud is hard. The finished floor has to sit high enough that the yard can drain away from the house instead of back toward it.

Plumbing under the slab gets a pressure test while a leak is still visible. A sleeve you forget becomes a hole you cut later. The concrete work under that slab is beams, steel, and a vapor barrier in sandy soil that softens when it’s soaked. Standing water in the forms after a storm isn’t a reason to pour. Pump it, let the subgrade meet what was approved, and get another look if the storm undid the inspection. The truck waits on that, not the other way around.

Laying block, lintels, and the bond beam

Block goes up level, with steel in the cells the design calls for. Cleanouts at the bottom of cells that will be grouted let the droppings come out so the grout actually fills the cell. Lintels over the openings, and the bond beam at the top of the wall, stay open until that steel has been seen. Grout them the day before the inspection and you’ll open them back up. Window and door bucks are set in this same pass. A crooked buck becomes a crooked window, then a flashing miss, then a leak that gets blamed on the weather.

Dry-in means the shell can take a storm

Dry-in is the moment the roof deck is sheathed, fastened, tied down to the bond beam, and covered with underlayment so a storm stays out of the house. The inspector usually needs to see the deck nailing and the straps before shingles hide them. Shingles follow that look. They don’t come first. Trusses follow the engineered layout, including the bracing drawn on the sheet, even when a brace is inconvenient to walk around. Roof framing once the walls are up is structural work. It isn’t trim.

Windows and exterior doors go in during the same stretch, flashed, so the openings are not under tarps through weeks of afternoon rain. A roof with the doors still missing is a lid on a block box. It isn’t a dried-in house. Interior framing can start once a storm will stay outside. It should not start in a building that fills up every afternoon. Humidity in that open shell gets into the lumber you’ll later ask to hold paint and flooring.

Rough trades, energy compliance, then the final walk

Rough-in while you can still see it

Electrical, plumbing above the slab, and the HVAC rough go in while the framing is open. Nail plates go on studs where a pipe or a wire sits close to the face, because drywall screws don’t care about your plumbing. Panel location, disconnects, and bath fans that duct outside are part of this inspection. Insulation and drywall wait until it passes. Covering the rough so the job looks busy is how you get to uncover it.

Energy is the attic, the ducts, and the glass

The energy calculation has to match the windows that were actually installed. Labels often stay on the glass until that check, because someone compares the U-factor and the solar heat gain to the paperwork. Attic insulation, baffles at the eaves so the soffit can still breathe, sealed ducts, and air sealing at the top plates are the usual misses. Swap the glass after the forms were run, which happens when a finish schedule on a custom house changes late, and this inspection is where it shows up.

Final is life safety, then the paper

Smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms where the house requires them, guards, GFCI and AFCI protection, and grading that falls away from the slab all get looked at together. Termite paperwork has to match what was specified. A verbal all-clear from a trade isn’t a certificate of occupancy. Don’t move a household in because the building looks done. The same standard sits behind how a house in this county goes together: the approved paper has to catch the building, not trail it.

Where this climate actually fails a new house

Two patterns show up more than the rest. The roof deck or the openings sit through a run of storms because the calendar was treated as more real than the afternoon radar and the inspection board. And the finishes go on while the block and the attic lumber are still holding water, so paint blisters and floors move. Humidity is the reason the sequence exists. Marion County isn’t the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone used in Miami-Dade and Broward. Wind ties and a secondary water barrier on the roof are still part of this house. Build them in. Don’t debate them at the final.

The weeks that actually slip in Marion County

Trusses, windows, and the rain in between

The slab can be ready and the block can be halfway up, and the job still sits if the trusses are two weeks out or the windows were ordered to a rough opening nobody measured. Those leads are part of the schedule, written down, not discovered when the wall is done and the opening is empty. A block wall with no roof and no windows is a cup. Afternoon rain fills it. We do not leave that cup open through a week of storms because a delivery date was treated as a suggestion.

Temporary power and a place for the crew to work are part of the same calendar. A house does not inspect itself while the utility pole is still a rumor. If the lot is tight, say where the dumpster sits before the forms go in, not after the neighbor has already complained. Owners sometimes want to “help” by having another trade in the building during rough-in. That is how a passed inspection becomes a mess nobody can explain. One set of hands owns the permit. Extra work goes through a change order, or it waits.

Termite treatment is not a sticker you buy at the end. The soil treatment goes down before the pour, and the paperwork has to match what the plans called for when the final comes. Energy paperwork has the same problem in the other direction. If the windows change after the calculation was run, the calculation gets run again. Labels often stay on the glass until that check, because someone is comparing the U-factor and the solar heat gain to the form, not to the brochure you liked in March. Marion County is not Miami-Dade. The wind ties and the roof underlayment are still built for this address. They are not a debate we save for the last walkthrough. The inspector still has to see the slab steel, the grout cells, the roof deck nailing, and the rough trades. A job that looks busy is not the same thing as a job that is ready to be covered. Cover the work early and you will pay to uncover it, with the crew standing there while the inspector waits on the next opening.

Dry-in is a state of the building, not a mood

Dry-in means the roof deck is fastened, tied to the bond beam, and covered, and the openings are flashed so water stays out. Shingles on a roof with the doors still missing is a lid on a block box. Interior framing can start once a storm will stay outside. It should not start in a building that fills up every afternoon. Lumber that sits wet will move after you ask it to hold paint and flooring. That movement shows up as cracks people blame on the painter.

Rough-in, energy, and the final are three different days

Electrical, plumbing above the slab, and the ductwork get looked at while you can still see them. Nail plates go on before drywall screws find a pipe. Bath fans duct outside. Then the energy check: the glass that was installed, not the glass on the brochure, plus attic insulation, baffles at the eaves, and ducts that are actually sealed. Then the final: alarms, guards, grading away from the slab, and the termite paperwork that matches what was specified. Skip the order and you buy a tear-out. The same order is what we mean on the residential construction hub when we say the inspections are the job.

Who we are when the permit is in our name

Ocala Building Contractor is a disabled veteran-owned business with 27+ years of construction experience. License CBC1263067 is a Florida certified building contractor license. We pull the permit we are going to build. We do not stamp engineering. If the site needs a design professional, that person is named before the slab is priced. The office is at 217 SE 1st Ave Ste 200 – 18, Ocala, FL 34471. Call (352) 820-6068 and have the parcel address. A new house and an addition are not the same permit, even when the block looks the same.