Building Permits

Permit Processing = Building Permits

Rack or Shelving that is less than 5’9” is not required to be permitted.

Rack or shelving that is 5’9” or taller is subject to Tenant Improvement permits from your local Building and Safety Dept.  When your rack or shelving is less than 8’ you do not always need to provide structural engineering.  This rule varies from City to City. In every instance the City plan checker is well within protocol to ask for anchor detail on all racks over 5’9” in height.  If you are asked for anchor detail, your engineer will need to do basic calculations to verify the math of the anchor uplift details.  He will need to stamp the plans and they will need to be submitted with the permit package for review by your local authority.

Rack or shelving   8’ or taller is required to submit structural/seismic calculations with the permit package.

Structural Engineering and Building permits from local agency. A complete submittal package Package includes Structural calculations for  your rack with the variations  by a licensed structural Engineer. Normally the engineer  will supply 3 original sets of wet stamped Structural Calculations with 5 sets of wet stamped detail sheets with all applicable notes. We will make sets of Plans (Site plan and warehouse layout with basic ADA information) on CAD. We have to fill the application at the City, making up to two sets/Copies of plans included . All if the fees need to be paid at time of submittal.  All Fees will be paid on your behalf at time of submitting and will need to be reimbursed upon presentation of invoices. You the Client, will need to provide site plans and layout, preferably in CAD for submission packages. We will include basic ADA information for Parking lot, Restrooms and emergency egress (path of travel) obtain all clearances from the LADBS, Fire, ADA, Building and Safety, HPOZ – Historic Preservation Overlay Zones, Historical Resources, Historic Monument, CRA – Community Redevelopment agency. All of these clearances must be obtained prior to permits being issued.  (In Most Cases)  please see line items below that can be called out by Building plan checker that will be at an additional cost.

Items listed below are called out from time to time depending on the agency and the plan checker assigned to process your permit. At the plan checker’s discretion you may be required to submit the following items at your expense during the correction phase of your submission.

  • Slab observation report: The plan checker at his sole discretion has the right to request the engineer of record to do a site visit to verify the slab is suitable for construction. It is not always called for. (In my experience this is called out for 25% of our submittals.)
  • Structural observation report: The plan checker at his sole discretion has the right to request the engineer of record to do a site visit to verify the structure integrity is suitable for construction. It is not always called for. (In my experience this is called out for 25% of our submittals.)
  • Slab testing: The plan checker can ask for this to verify the psi of the concrete as well as the psf of the soil directly beneath the slab. This is not a common call out unless the city has a preset requirement of soil bearing pressure ratings and your project exceeds that rating. Standard ratings are 1,000 PSF for the soil and can vary from 500PSF to 1,500 PSF . 2,500 psi for the concrete is standard and can range from 1,500 psi to 3,000 psi, please note the LADBS uses 500 PSF as soil bearing pressure and may ask for slab testing if the loads being stored require more than 500 PSF.

There are ways to work around this testing,   we can discuss in further detail by phone or in person.

  • If Slab Testing is called out you may be required to make additional submitting to Grading divisions. You may incur additional submittal fees you other than the fees collected by building and fire to review and approve the project.
  • ADA Compliancy, the basic ADA information is included with our submittal package with notes required based on the current codes. If a more detailed package is required (meaning plan checker is not accepting our plans based on other information that may be on file from previous permitted projects) are accepted as submitted and this package is not required. ADA information must be on the original submittal package or you will be called out in the correction process to provide that information.

Onsite Anchor Inspection (This is a mandatory item when pulling permits and there is not a way around it). You will also be required to post signage stipulating the load capacity per level of the storage racks that were installed. We will supply and install them in a conspicuous location at no additional cost to you if we are the contractor of record doing the installation.

Almost in all cases, a licensed contractor is required to pull permits. In some instances they can be pulled as Owner builder, but more and more Cities are not allowing this in a commercial application.

Make sure you are buying racks from a reputable company and that they are licensed in order to handle the permit process for you. It can be  difficult to have some one  pull your rack permits if they did not install or sell the racks for you.