Information Links

Here are some links to sites that have important information for construction and home building. This page does not constitute an endorsement for these organizations by Runkle Consulting, Inc and any work you do with them is strictly a contract between you and them, Runkle Consulting can not warranty their work We have no financial or organizational links to the companies and organizations below, and we are not responsible for the material on their websites. Understand that a wealth of information is required for a home owner or a builder to make adequate decisions and this website and the links provided may not provide you enough information to make the decisions you need to make.

Useful Links:

REFERENCES (CODES, ETC)

International Code Council
The International Code Council is the body that writes the standard building codes used in the US. It also provides a lot of information and educational programs.
American Wood Council
The American Wood Council provides the referenced standards in the Building Codes for wood design. This site has very good educational information as far as wood design and construction.
Georgia Department of Community Affairs
This is a link to the website that provides the GA State Amendments to the State Minimum Standard Codes
Seismic Design Values for Buildings
A site provided by USGS that provides the seismic criteria for buildings based on your location.

Home Inspectors - We don't do home inspection, but we deal with a lot of home inspectors, and in most cases I am not impressed. In Georgia there is no licensing system for home inspectors, so it is a definite case of "Buyer Beware". There is no barrier to entry into the business, and during the housing boom it seemed that everyone that hated his or her day job decided to become a home inspector. All is not lost though. The American Society of Home Inspectors has very strict criteria for membership, and you can find an inspector through their website. Also, there is the Georgia Association of Home Inspectors which has a very helpful website. Below are a few home inspectors I've run into in my work that I have a lot of respect for:

Leban Engineering and Home Inspection
This company is run by a licensed professional engineer, Michael Leban, and I have worked with him on a number of jobs. I first met Michael when we were on opposite sides of a transaction. You can learn a lot about the competency of a person when he or she is in an adversarial role to you -and I was really impressed with Michael.
Parkman Home Inspections LLC
Another home inspection firm that is run by a licensed professional engineer, Michael Parkman. I met Mr. Parkman in a social setting, and he has referred a number of jobs to me. He's also very good in his work, I've seen his reports and we talk in the course of doing business fairly frequently.
Residential Inspectors of America
I've followed up after these guys, and in my opinion they are very good. They aren't engineers, but the founder, Bob Lemoine, was a home builder for many years. I like there reports, they are very thorough.

Architects - We deal with a number of them, mostly that design very high end homes and small commercial projects. Here's a partial list of our clients:

Harrison Design Associates
HDA designs very large high dollar homes. They have numerous offices, but I've done work for their Atlanta offices, primarily on houses in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. We've been doing work for this company for several years now, and as an engineer I can't adequately describe their design work - you need to check out their website.
The Haralson Group
Haralson Design Group started out as Bruce Griffeth, AIA, and I started working with Bruce in 2003. Bruce worked from his house, and in time he brought on different partners. More recently the company name was changed to the name of the street their office is located on. They do a wide range of projects in the residential, educational, light commercial, and institutional sector. I consider their architecture to be very innovative.

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