Building Codes

As many of the readers already know, navigating the building code process in Pennsylvania can be a harrowing experience. Additional requirements with regard to permit fees, inspections, engineered plans, and over-building can add tens of thousands of dollars in development costs to a building project for a small business.

Environmental control plans for soil and water, and even sign ordinances that place directional signs and stop signs at the end of the private driveway to direct 2 or 3 customers per day have many people scratching their heads in disbelief.

It is all about liability. When something goes wrong, the courts are bound to find a party "at fault", and that party is then forced to pay the enormous charges associated with an accident. A legal driver who is unaware to look for traffic at the end of a stone driveway before pulling onto the highway can be hit by a vehicle, and is NOT held liable unless the business owner has stop signs properly placed at the end of the drive? What a world.

However, in defense of the building codes, the public relies on governments to "protect us from ourselves" by enforcing construction that is safe and reli5B4able. Legal codes of this type are not a new phenomenon.

The first building code that is recorded was literally written on stone, and enacted by Hammurabi in Babylon in 1758 B.C. The code established the concept that those who designed and constructed buildings for others were held accountable for their work. There were no standard or specific requirements to the law, but rather it simply stated, "If a builder has built a house for a man and his work is not strong, and if the house he has built falls in and kills the householder, that builder shall be slain." This code did not apply to people building homes for themselves or their families.

After the great fires in London in 1666 and Chicago in 1871, agencies began writing codes that took into consideration the buildings of those around them. More densely populated cities led to the design of building codes that minimized risks to others in close proximity. Problems in existing structures resulted in the development of codes for ventilation, fire escapes, water supply, toilets and sanitary drains, stairs and railings.

In 1905, a U.S. Insurance Group, the National Board of Fire Underwriters, created the National Building Code to minimize risks to property and building occupants. The existence of this code led to the formation of organizations of building officials. By 1940, the United States had three regional code organizations, each with its own code.

It5AB wasn't until the year 2000 that these three codes were consolidated into the International Code Council, which then produced the International Building Code (IBC), the International Residential Code (IRC), and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), as well as mechanical, plumbing, fire, and other codes.

Knowing the details of the present code is the responsibility of engineers and construction personnel, and it appears to be a necessary requirement in our present-day world. But the days of stone tablets are long past. Putting today's building code on stone would require an erosion and sedimentation control plan to acquire the stone, a permit to place the stone in its new location, prevailing wages for the chisel man, and a complete safety plan for swinging the hammer. And perhaps the greatest challenge of all, mining the billions of stones that it would require to hold the endless detail of today's script on how to lay a foundation, hammer a nail, and set a rafter.

By Tom Clouser

(Information Source: Mother Earth News, Dec-Jan 2007)