NFPA Journal - July/August 2020 - 45

GUTTER CREDIT

do that via a remote inspection and
actually instruct the homeowner and
get them to a better place than they
might get to on their own. It saves
them from having to take it all apart
and do it again, and it's much easier for
us to advise them along the way than
to make several trips out there where
they're taking things apart and putting
them back correctly."
Perhaps the biggest surprises for
new users of RVI have been some of
the unexpected ancillary benefits that
few, if any, building departments even
considered before they tried it. The
inherent remoteness of RVI has actually
had a positive effect on his inspectors'
work, Mikloiche believes. "What I think
happens to a lot of inspectors, including
me, is we kind of get complacent in our
function. We go out to do an inspection
and we look around at everything but
we're really not seeing it as closely as
maybe we should," he said. "But when
you're looking at it through a phone it
almost forces you to see things closer
and with a lot more detail, because you
want to make sure you're looking at
everything. You can zoom in close and
see the inside of an electrical box. I've
caught boxes missing screws, and other
things that can be easily missed" in an
in-person inspection.
The arrangement has also had the
unintended consequence of compelling
inspectors to work more closely with
their partners, like contractors, who
have become, by necessity, a key part of
the inspection process, rather than just
passive onlookers.
"This is supposition, but if you're
a contractor on a job site, and the
inspector is walking through, you're not
really engaged in that," Comeau said.
"All you're thinking is, 'Did I pass or
not pass?' You're not looking at every
little thing. But, if you are actually in
some way conducting the inspection
yourself, alongside the inspector, and
you're engaged and asking questions, I
do think it's probably going to raise the
level of understanding for the person
on that end of the phone, which could
potentially increase the number of
inspections passed. That makes everybody more efficient and lets everybody
get to the next job faster."

FUTURE GROWTH
For these reasons and others, observers
expect RVI to increase in coming years.
Despite the recent uptick, there is still
plenty of room to grow; a survey of
1,000 building officials across the US
conducted in late March by the International Code Council found that, while
63 percent of inspection agencies had
transitioned at least some employees
to remote work, more than 60 percent
reported that they do not have the
capability to do remote inspections.
Anecdotally, departments that are
using RVI cover a wide spectrum-from
those who have formally adopted a program, like West Hartford, to those that
have used RVI as a temporary stopgap
during the pandemic. "That might be
something like, 'Just send me a picture of
it now and when the shutdown is done, I
will come back and actually see it,'" said
Kevin Carr, a senior specialist at NFPA
and staff liaison to the proposed NFPA
915. "I'd say in a lot of ways it's still a
Wild West type of mentality-people are
taking many different approaches."
As the ICC survey indicates, many
other groups still seem hesitant to dip
their toes in the water. Many are asking
basic question about remote inspection,
and whether it's something they can do
or something they could bring to their
authorities having jurisdiction. "There's
a lot of feeling out going on," Carr said.
"But the interest is there and people
want to learn about it. The question
is, what happens after the pandemic?
What kind of guidance will exist going
forward to make sure nothing falls
through the cracks?"
One answer could be the proposed
NFPA 915, which is being developed
by a technical committee, led by Muir,
whose members represent a range of
inspectional disciplines from around
the world. If accepted by the Standards
Council, the document could provide
guidance about the basics of remote
inspections: how to do it, who should be
involved, the equipment and technology
used, and methods for obtaining and
documenting data. A guiding tenet of
the proposed document would likely
be that all remote inspections must be
equivalent to, or exceed, a traditional
inspection, Carr said.

Guidance from NFPA could pave the
way for many other building departments to adopt RVI as part of their
regular operations, Muir said. "It gives
building officials a starting point as well
as something to bring to their elected
officials, which is much cleaner than the
building department person just saying,
'We'd like to do video inspections, wish
us the best, and hopefully we don't go
out of bounds anywhere,'" he said. "With
a standard, there is a level playing field
so that everyone involved can understand what they're undertaking and
what they're authorizing."
New technologies are expected to
push RVI even further in the near
future, Muir said. These include sophisticated building scanners that can give
remote inspectors detailed schematics;
virtual and augmented reality programs that could allow inspectors to see
enhanced information on screen during
inspections; and even inspection-specific video apps that link with code
documents and checklists and sync with
departmental files to keep a record of
the inspection and the result. Sections of
the proposed NFPA 915 were purposely
left empty for this reason, waiting to
be filled by this envisioned technology
that has yet to take root. "It seems to me
that the landscape is going to change so
quickly that, by the time the 915 technical committee gets around to meeting
again, there could be things in use that
we couldn't have even foreseen just a
year ago," Carr said.
All of it suggests that RVI is on track
to become much more than a curiosity,
and possibly even the industry norm
for a range of inspection types in the
not-too-distant future. It will also
almost certainly outlive the pandemic
that launched its mainstream ascent.
"We've seen many industries and
areas where the pandemic has caused
workers to do things differently in the
moment, but it hasn't really changed
the practice in a lasting way," Comeau
said. "That is not the case here. I think
remote inspection is an example of
something where the future of inspections has completely changed because
of these conditions."
JESSE ROMAN is associate editor for NFPA Journal.

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