Hi Aaron,
aaronm wrote:So then, I assume you are telling me that there is nothing in the ICC literature regarding tags of any color.
No, there may be something(s) about red tags and green tags in the ICC literature and probably has been discussion about their use in various circles, what I am saying is there is nothing about them in the ICC codes.
More specifically, does a "green tag" received on an engineered residential foundation constitute the municipality's approval of an engineer's design and implementation?
Again, no, that is not what I am saying.
You would need to read what the green tag says in order to determine what it means. SOME AHJ use green tags as their way of indicating something has passed inspection, *in addition to* signing the permit off, or may use green tags as their way if indicating staged work as passed to that staged, *but the permit is not yet* signed off as the work is *not yet complete*, only one or more stages of it.
I am saying that it depends on the AHJ's use of green tags, if they even use green tags. I have worked in an area (AHJ) where we issued a green tag for every inspection passed, *and signed the permit off* at that same time. The green tag was left on the work inspected, in the permit box, depended on the project, *but what counted* was the permit was signed off, the green tag was for the convenience of the contractor. They could walk up or drive up and see the green tag, instead of having to go to the permit. In those cases, I could not understand the reason for the green tag - the contractor could walk to the permit as easily as we (the inspectors) could.
In that same AHJ, another use of the green tag, one which I understood the value of, was for high-rise buildings. We would inspect, for example, the electrical in units A, B, and C on the 3rd floor, and issued a green tag specifying same. *The permit*, however, did not get signed off until all units had been inspected, and, if the permit did not get signed off, the developer had all the green tags for the approval of each stage or phase of the inspections, *should have* them, and, if they did, we (the AHJ) could review the green tags and sign the permit off based on the green tags.
Do not, however, try to extrapolate that to mean that a green tag means anything other than what is written on the green tag. If you want to know if it has been signed off, that would be done by looking at the permit - IF signed off, then it passed inspection; IF not signed off, then it either did not pass inspection or the inspector forgot to sign it, could not find the permit, will sign it later. In one AHJ I worked we also indicated on the permit when it failed inspection, then signed it off after corrective work was done.
If you see a red tag, that indicates SOMETHING was "not good enough". You need to read the red tag to see what it says was "not good enough".
If you see a green tag, that indicates SOMETHING was "good enough". You need to read the green tag to see what it says was "good enough".
The answer to your question is: It all depends on the AHJ and their practices.