Building Codes and the changing Construction industry

Origins of prescriptive building codes

Building loan organizations.

1. The development of building loan organizations who held property as security heightened the need for insurance.

2. General Assembly passage of “an act to provide for the incorporation of Building Fund Associations” in May, 1852. (see Building Fund Association of Fredericksburg, charter

Deed Book Q

, pp. 287-290.) Cooperating to reducing risk of fire.

Building Associations in the Burg

Fredericksburg Building Association 1851 Mechanics Building Fund Association 1854 Fredericksburg German Building Association 1871 Mutual Building Association 1881 Home Building Association 1885 Home Personal Building Association 1891 Merchants & Mechanics Personal Bldg & Loan 1893 Farmers & Merchants State Bank of Fredericksburg 1910 Farmers Loan & Trust Company 1911

Development of the permit process

Permit process develops to cover private property activities that intersect with public property. The goal is not restricting private property rights, but limiting adverse impact on public property.

1. Permission to connect to water supply, create an outflow from private property into a public sewer or stream, to open a public business were all regulated in the nineteenth century.

2. Fredericksburg regulated the placement of new buildings on the property line and required the owner have approval from the Street committee to assure that the building did not encroach on the public right-of-way.

Cities develop permit process to insure that improvements to property are entered on the tax rolls.

Fredericksburg required in 1883 that owners and contractors making improvements on property worth over $100 make report in writing to the commissioner of revenue within ten days after they had been completed or face a $25.00 fine. Cities initially adopted report standards, but made little demands on owners and builders.

Fredericksburg Ordinances, 1899.

Section XXV

If any person intending to erect a new building or place any old one on the line of any street, or enclose any unimproved lot or square in the city of Fredericksburg, and shall give reasonable notice thereof to the Surveyor of the Corporation, specifying the time and place, when and where such building is about to be erected or placed, or enclosure put up, it shall be the duty of the Surveyor to attend at such time and place, and ascertain and distinctly mark the line or lines of the lot or lots, and the range of the street or streets where such building is to be erected or old one placed, or enclosure to be put up.

For such services he shall be entitled to demand and have from the person calling on him for them the following fees: For ascertaining the range of one street and marking the line thereof, two dollars; for two streets, three dollars; for three streets, four dollars; and for four streets, four dollars and fifty cents, provided, such services are required to be done at the same time and for the same person and at the same square; otherwise two dollars for every line surveyed and marked by him shall be charged. 3. It shall be unlawful for any person to erect within the corporate limits of Fredericksburg any building or to remove any building from its place to another, or to enlarge or add to the height of any building, until the owner thereof, or the contractor or builder or some person for them shall have first made application therefor to the City Commissioner of Fredericksburg, stating the name of the owner and filing the said application with plans and specifications of said building so proposed to be erected or removed or enlarged or added to, and the location and probable cost thereof; or the building to be removed and the place at which the same is to be located; and obtained from the City Commissioner a permit in writing authorizing the same. The City Commissioner, in conjunction with the Street Committee of the Common Council shall promptly Consider all such applications, and shall grant or withhold said permit as to him may seem just and proper, and in the event any person desiring to do so may deem himself aggrieved by any action of the City Commissioner acting in conjunction with the Street Committee in reference hereto, the said party shall indicate to the City Commissioner his desire to appeal from said decision, and action thereon shall be suspended and the whole matter shall be certified by the City Commissioner to the next meeting of the Council for action thereon. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall, on conviction thereof, be liable to a fine not exceeding $100.00, and the City Commissioner may order such building removed or torn down and may recover the costs thereof from the party offending.

Fire insurance recognizes the contagion effect of hazardous building practices

The distance to adjacent buildings and flammability of materials are central concerns in determining risk.

Cities allow property owners to self-regulate within blocks to improve insurability.

Changing nature of building environment

With new technologies of heightened fire potential (gas and electrical installations), insurers require proof of the correct installation through a certification by recognized, or licensed member of the trade.

Insurance trade organizations, or organizations that promoted trade developed standards for installations that could be certified for safety.

a. The South-Eastern Tariff Association is not an insurance group, but a regional industrial practice association that set prices for competitive products. In the 1890s they promulgated pricing structures for phosphates. But by the end of the nineteenth century they were providing a standard for electrical light installations. Source. South eastern Tariff Association, Atlanta, Ga.

Standards for construction and equipment; rates, rules and forms

. [Atlanta, South-eastern Tariff Association], 1903.

insurance policy permit for acetylene (C2H2) generator in 1898.

insurance policy permit for electric lights in Richmond, Virginia 1900. Note the language of “privilege.”

Fire insurers develop Model Code

In 1905 the National Board of Fire Underwriters, a New York organization, and joined by a number of regional associations created a model building code for adaptation of municipalities.

1. Although some interest in a national building code had existed from the last decade of the nineteenth century, there was no judicial case history that would support such a deep federal intrusion into state and local government domains, and insurers instead went with a model code strongly based upon the New York City codes which had the greatest experience with tall buildings, just beginning to have impact in many regional capitals.

Richmond, Va

In 1908 Richmond, Virginia adopted the model code and replaced the haphazard language of the earlier city charters with an edited version of the code.

Municipal adoption of building codes is strengthened by the changing forms of local city government.

From the volunteer or elected city council committee, cities are increasingly hiring professional city managers to handle the services that cities offer. These changes are sometimes termed the “City Professional” Movement in distinction to the volunteer clean up efforts of the City Beautiful Movement.

Placing planning and operations in the hands of men trained as engineers in the connection of private property with public services created a culture change from accommodation (social services) to written standards.

New Products

Rapidly evolving new products and the perceived need for standards of comparison created manufacturing organizations that provided guidance of the proper installation of new products. Trade organizations worked with fire insurers to upgrade model codes so they reflected currently available materials and techniques appropriate to their installation.

A. Unresearched, but important to the building trades in the mid-twentieth century is the development of licensing.

1. The professional quality of the work had until the 20th century been an issue for guilds and trade unions.

2. The 20th century sees the rapid development of state administered license requirements, that give cities greater control over the building process, because they can limit what work can be done, and by whom.

building trades now encompass four different but interrelated sources of standards

A.

trade

–Unwritten trade practice B.

energy

– Energy conservation measures modeled on California Title 24 or the Model Energy Code C.

local

– An area of code enforcement often open to local interpretation D. Difference in CABO from UPC E.

Manufacturing installation instructions

. Follow manufacturer’s installation instructions F. Material that does not appear in current edition of Code Check book.

Organizations that create and change codes.

International Code Council (ICC) is the consolidation of three separate code creating organizations.

1. Building Officials Code of Administrators. This is referred to as BOCA code.

2. Council of American Building Officials. This is the CABO One and Two Family Dwelling Code and was a compilation of BOCA, SBCCI, and NFPA.

3. Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc., abbreviated SBCCI.