FCP: Why are building standards essential to building health?
KM: Building standards are a key component of public health, ensuring that the sites we live, work and play are protected. Experts carefully guard communities from potentially dangerous things like fires, extreme conditions, and architectural failures. The International Codes, or I-Codes, are regularly updated to reflect the most recent developments in creating health and developing knowledge, in keeping with new discoveries, modern technologies, and human behavior. With the ever-changing intricacy of the built environment, it’s important that design projects adhere to building rules and standards to ensure health, conservation and resiliency.
FCP: What is needed to strengthen building health?
KM: Public recognition, popularity from elected officials, and support from elected officials to ensure the necessary training and personnel for building and fire protection departments, the adoption of existing codes and standards, and the ongoing development of national model codes from code officials and all stakeholders. Model codes must continue to evolve, with lessons learned from past events, best practices, and advancements in building sciences and technology. To have the maximum effect, those codes must be regularly adopted and effectively implemented by state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. Our elected officials need to give code departments the necessary resources and prioritization for adoption and implementation. Given the crucial role that building codes play in mitigating the numerous hazards in the built environment, public education and awareness are required. Codes and code enforcement departments are the silent defenders of public safety, when buildings perform, nothing happens. There is little recognition of the significant role construction codes and enforcement agencies played in protecting the public when the codes and enforcement agencies have adequately protected the public.
FCP: Which preconceived notions or errors are most prevalent when it comes to improving and maintaining building safety?
KM: Eight out of ten people in communities that live in areas with outdated codes describe their codes as current. At the same time, survey respondents view public officials ‘ responses to and preparation for disasters as more important than taxes, business, and the environment. A significant obstacle to improved building safety is the dichotomy between actual and perceived protection. Similar to how other pre-disaster preparation is carried out, the priority of code adoption and the resources required to support code enforcement agencies are essential components of disaster preparation. For ensuring the public’s expected prioritization is carried out by local officials, greater public awareness of the protection provided by currently adopted codes is crucial.
FCP: What can construction companies do right now to enhance the safety of their workers on the job sites?
KM: Contractors should take into account the International Building Code’s various safeguards when attempting to protect their workers during construction. These include the placement and storage of construction materials and materials so that they do n’t pose a threat to the public, the construction workers, or the neighbors ‘ properties, the roof framing for the installation of materials and equipment, maintenance of exits, existing structural systems, fire protection devices, and sanitary safeguards during alterations, repairs, and additions to existing buildings, and the removal of waste materials in a way that prevents injury or damage to people or the properties of neighbors, Site safety plans are included in both the building and fire codes, setting up a fire prevention strategy for both new construction projects and existing construction projects. The site safety plan includes a number of factors that need to be taken into account when ensuring safety during construction, as well as some important daily inspection points that the site safety director should take into account. These risks have been brought up in the forefront of the codes as a result of large-scale fires on construction sites. They are an illustration of how the I-codes have evolved to protect both the built environment and those that reside there.
FCP: What are some of the most recent changes to the building code, and why are they significant?
The Code Council emphasizes the value of adopting and effectively implementing modern building codes. Modern codes, when properly implemented and enforced, significantly enhance community resilience and safety in the built environment.
Contractors should be aware of several significant updates in the 2024 International Codes (I-Codes ). For instance, the first-ever tornado resistance provisions were included in the 2024 International Building Code ( IBC ), and updated snow loads were included in both the IBC and IRC, which incorporate the most recent climatic condition and snowfall data. Both the IRC and International Fire Code ( IFC) include new provisions to address hazards associated with rapidly advancing energy storage systems technologies, including protections concerning for storage batteries in garages, research, storage, and manufacturing of Lithium-ion battery technologies, and charging micro mobility devices. The International Energy Conservation Code ( IECC ) increases energy efficiency by about 6.5 % in comparison to previous versions. This not only helps to lower energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions, but it also encourages cost savings.
Additionally, the 2024 International Mechanical Code ( IMC) includes key considerations to facilitate the transition to A2L refrigerants, a more environmentally friendly refrigerant recognized by the EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy ( SNAP ). These updates are particularly crucial because A2L refrigerants will soon be more widely used in applications involving heat pumps and air conditioning systems for both residential and commercial applications. The 2024 International Plumbing Code ( IPC ) increases water conservation by 20 % for showerheads and supports buried piping beneath buildings with a lot of soil.
