The future is here.
Kelowna has rolled out a new pilot project that allows customers at home improvement stores to ask a building inspector questions, through skype.
The system is currently being tried out at the Rona on Springfield Rd.
Doug Patan, the city’s Building & Permitting Branch Manager says after looking at ways to expand the services it offers to residents, it found the virtual kiosk to be the most cost effective.
He says the tool will aid with a whole range of questions that may arise while at a home improvement store.
“Maybe there are new products that come online and someone wants to buy the new product and they could skype and say ‘hey, is this acceptable, can we use this product?’”, he says “instead of buying the product, going on site, installing it, and then the building inspector coming out and saying ‘whoa, no, you can’t use this’”.
The city believes the virtual kiosk is the first of its kind in B.C.
Vice President for the Canadian Home Builders Association of the Central Okanagan, Les Bellamy, says the system will save time for many contractors and builders and hopes it will be offered at more municipalities.
“I actually would utilize this, sometimes we have issues where we use an alternate product or something like that and it would be so much more convenient to stand here and talk to the inspector instead of going downtown”.
The service is available to anyone who has questions, not just those in the home building industry.
If proven successful, it will be offered at more home improvement stores in the city.