BY KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Star-Ledger Staff

IN NEARLY EVERY home-renovation television show, there comes a point when they resort to fast-forward photography, flying through painting, rewiring or spackling in a jerky blur.

If these were car commercials, here's where the warning label would appear, the home-renovation equivalent of: "Professional driver on closed course. Do not try this at home."

What would it say? "Building permits and inspections required. Do not try this at home."

You may want to install that nifty wet bar you saw in a TV makeover basement renovation, but back in the real world of the Home Depot weekend warrior, it isn't quite that simple.

Tackle it on your own, without the proper permits and inspections, and you could run afoul of the Garden State's building regulations.

Skip those steps and as appealing as the final results might be, they may also be unsafe and illegal.

"Everything except paint and wallpaper, consider that it needs a permit and call," advises Michelle Wood, building inspector for Saddle River.

"We just want to make sure your house is safe. We don't want it to fall down," said Rita Sharp, the building inspector in Wharton. Faulty wiring can cause a fire, improper decking can collapse, and plumbing shortcuts can result in costly water damage.

Some of the latest crop of home-improvement TV shows may be filmed in states that don't have stringent building codes, which may explain how work can proceed uninterrupted by inspections, or worse, failed inspections.

Roughly half the states have no building codes whatsoever, and no requirement for permits, said William Connolly, director of the division of codes and standards, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Neighboring Pennsylvania only recently adopted a statewide code.

Wood said she was amazed that a co-worker recently got a permit to build a barn on property in Vermont simply by sauntering into town hall and telling them he was going to build a barn. Contrast that with New Jersey, whose Uniform Construction Code runs about 2,400 pages.

Once a homeowner gets a building permit, he or the contractor must call for a series of so-called "rough" inspections that take place mid-construction, before walls are put up sealing off any plumbing and electrical work.

You wouldn't know this by watching television, however, as the only speed bumps on the way to a happy ending are the squabbles between the do-it-yourselfers on screen.

Sharp, Wharton's inspector, said she noticed that earlier "how-to" shows on the TLC cable network often advised homeowners to call their local building departments. "The shows today do not," she said.

One of the few shows to make any reference to inspections is ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," where an entire home is renovated over seven days. That series has an inspector on site round-the-clock.

"Before we go into any town, it's with the blessing of the building and planning department and of the neighborhood," said "Extreme Makeover" producer Tom Forman. Since the home makeovers are usually awarded to people who have some kind of hard-luck story, often the local community knows the family's tale and is only too willing to help, he said.

A building department has to be willing to commit staff to round-the-clock inspections in order to meet the seven-day deadline. The show pays any overtime required, although some towns are happy to contribute their inspectors' time to a worthy cause.

Such an arrangement is not an option to New Jersey homeowners, who are not permitted to hire their own inspectors.

Some towns approached by the TV show have balked at its production requirements. "We've had to say, 'If this is too scary for you, we should probably go somewhere else,'" Forman said.

Throughout the rehab, inspectors constantly give advice on everything from aesthetics to earthquake protection. "We've said, 'We're going to put a skylight here,' and the inspector has said, 'Not in my town you're not,'" Forman said.

Most shows deal with smaller fix-up projects, and it is in this area where inspectors typically encounter the most misunderstanding. Homeowners usually know they'll need a permit if they're building an addition or adding a second story, Wood said. They fail to realize the same rules hold to kitchen and bathroom renovations.

"They'll say to me, 'But I already have a bathroom -- I'm just putting in new fixtures.' Or 'I already have a kitchen,'" she said.

You could, in theory, spiff up a kitchen without needing a permit, Wood said, but only if you limit your changes to upgrading cabinetry. However, most homeowners can't resist tinkering with the location of plumbing and lighting fixtures -- moving a sink, or adding switches or outlets. Such changes require a permit.

Of course, many homeowners would rather bypass inspections and permits because it's cheaper that way. Not only do they save the cost of permits, but they stand a greater chance of having their improvement go unnoticed -- and hence untaxed -- by the tax assessor.

There can be fines of up to $500 for doing work without a permit, but Connolly said local inspectors usually go easy on a homeowner who may be skirting the law out of ignorance.

Contractors, however, are another story. Inspectors routinely troll the streets looking for contractor trucks parked at job sites. (In fact, contractors are required to paint their name and license number on their vehicles for just this purpose.

"They get tough with contractors, but usually they will give the homeowner a break," Connolly said. With 3,000 inspectors throughout the state overseeing 400,000 permits, not every weekender rec room rehab is going to be noticed.

Any savings reaped by do-it-yourselfers working without permits can come back to haunt a homeowner, however.

Should anything go wrong down the road -- faulty wiring that causes a fire, for example -- the homeowner can put in a claim against the contractor's insurance instead of his own homeowner's insurance, said John D'Agostino, president of the Professional Insurance Agents of New Jersey, and an insurance agent in Hammonton.

When it comes time to sell the house, the buyer's inspector may spot homemade work not done to code. The potential buyer may demand that the work be redone -- and inspected.

Doing any renovation by the book also helps the homeowner set a standard for contractor performance that he might not be knowledgeable enough to enforce on his own.

"Definitely do it for your own protection," said Sharp, the Wharton inspector. "Don't take the contractor's word that everything's fine. They might forget something -- something crucial."

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