What we're reading, following & covering

New IREC Guide for Solar Plan Reviewers, Code Inspectors, Installers

March 21|Central Texas News Now

When an industry grows as fast as solar, and local jurisdictions across the country have different plan review and inspection standards, sharing national best practices and encouraging consistency can help make timelines and expenses easier to anticipate. And when expectations are the same at every stage, on the part of building plan reviewers, inspectors and installers, expenses associated with inefficiencies or delays are less likely to impact consumers. Just released, new updated guidelines created by the independent Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) can help local jurisdictions improve the solar plan review and field inspection process. Read more.

Sprinklers Are Still Illegal in Hawaii

March 20|PHCP Pros

In a re-creation of the popular legend, which tells us Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, on July 14, 2017; the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Hawaii sent out an invitation for a celebratory pau hana to mark a new law that continues to prohibit counties from requiring single-family and duplex homes to have sprinklers. Within hours of the invite, a fire killed three people at the Marco Polo, a 36-story, 568-unit residential complex along Kapiolani Blvd. The building didn't have any sprinklers.1 Fortunately, after becoming aware of the developing tragedy, BIA-Hawaii cancelled the planned celebration. Earlier, in June of 2017, the celebration started at the signing of Senate Bill 611 by Hawaii Governor David Ige. Read more.

Affordable housing in NYC: Shipping Containers eyed for Bronx Development

March 20|AM New York

Shipping containers could become the building blocks for affordable housing in the Bronx. A New York real estate company has partnered with SG Blocks, a container construction company, to propose a mixed-use development in the northeast section of the borough. The development would create about 65 to 75 apartments above a retail store and a church, according to Nyron Chin-Sang, the founder of the company Gold Key Group. Chin-Sang, who is originally from the Bronx, said bringing affordable housing to the borough is important to him. "Most of my projects have been market-rate," he said. "I've noticed an over supply of that type of building." Read more.

Florida Building Codes Thwarted Hurricane Damage, Report Shows

March 20|Insurance News Net

Florida ranked top in the nation for its building codes, according to a new report that cited newer construction better withstanding hurricane damage. The nation's biggest hurricane target unseated the previous top state, which had been Virginia, for the top ranking, according to the building-code survey by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. The only thing coming between Florida and a perfect score this year was the state's lack of continuing education requirements for building officials. "One of our messages is that we shouldn't roll back what we've got," said Julie Rochman, president of the institute, which is based in Tampa. "That's really important." Read more.

Bill Outlawing Restrictions On Wood in Buildings Clear Senate

March 20| Sandy Springs Patch

The Georgia General Assembly has passed legislation that would prohibit local governments from banning the use of wood as construction materials, a bill the city of Sandy Springs and a national organization publicly campaigned against. House Bill 876 on Monday, March 19 passed the Georgia Senate, a month after it sailed through the Georgia House of Representatives. It prohibits striking the use of wood as construction material "so long as such use conforms to all 16 applicable state minimum standard codes and the Georgia State Fire Code." Read more.

Oahu's First Trailer Park Just the Latest in New Wave of Public Housing

March 20|Honolulu Civil Beat

Honolulu's Department of of Land Management on Monday unveiled the Farrington Highway affordable housing project, a 16-unit mobile home community in Waianae. It is in essence Oahu's first trailer park. It's also the latest project built to house the homeless under Gov. David Ige's emergency proclamations that authorize the using of experimental building methods to address Hawaii's high construction and permitting costs and get units up as quickly as possible. Other projects built under the same authorization include Kahauiki Village, prefabricated homes originally intended to be emergency housing for tsunami victims assembled along Nimitz Highway, and the shipping containers-turned-apartments in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island. Read more.

Mitigating Disasters: Invest Now, Spend Less Later

March 20| Building Green

The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) has issued a report that found when federal funds are invested in mitigating hazards, in the long term, far fewer dollars are spent on disaster recovery and other costs. The Natural Hazard Saves: 2017 Interim Report, funded by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is part of a series of studies; the most recent was published in 2005. The 2017 study found for every dollar spent, on average, $6 is saved in avoided recovery and health care costs, and in economic activity that would otherwise have been lost due to a disaster. Read more.

On the Fence

March 20|Coeur d'Alene/Post Falls Press

Warren Campbell of Athol used scripture to make his point. Building codes and regulations imposed by Kootenai County are a burden on rural residents, Campbell said. "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees," Campbell quoted from the book of Isaiah. "And that write grievousness to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people." Kootenai County building codes, an animated Campbell told the board of county commissioners Monday at an evening meeting at the Kroc Center, are egregious and injurious to residents and should be abolished. Read more.

3 Tips on Guard Rails for Your Timber Home

March 20|Timber Home Living

One of the best things about a timber home is its openness, as the weight-bearing posts and beams largely eliminate the need for intrusive bearing walls. But when it comes to stairways, catwalks, decks or any spot with an abrupt drop-off, you (and your local code inspector) will want a barrier in place for safety. Fortunately, you can customize your railings to nearly any specification you like. Here are a few factors to consider. Read more.

Burn Basics

March 20|PHCPS Pros

When designing a hot water return system, there are a number of things you need to be aware of if the system has a mixing valve and is recirculated. This article will cover three basic system designs for hot water systems using mixing valves and recirculation pumps. Systems that do not follow this piping arrangement have been known to cause scald injuries and deaths to unsuspecting users. Although there are many hot water system design options, when systems have a thermostatic mixing valve, they must be piped as shown in Figure 1 to prevent scald injuries or deaths. Read more.

As Storms Get Stronger, Building Codes Are Getting Weaker

March 19|Bloomberg Politics

The showdown in the Florida statehouse last year had all the drama of a knock-down political brawl: Powerful industries clashing. Warnings of death and destruction. And a surprise last-minute vote, delivering a sweeping reform bill to the governor's desk. The battle wasn't about gun control, immigration or healthcare, but about making it easier to ignore national guidelines on building codes. To the surprise of the insurers, engineers and safety advocates who opposed the change, the home builders won, in a state that gets hit by more hurricanes than any other. Read more.

Florida's building codes deemed strongest, Delaware weakest

March 19|Business Insurance

Florida tops the list of hurricane-prone states with the strongest residential building codes while Delaware ranks at the bottom, according to a new report. The 2017 hurricanes demonstrated the value of building codes, according to the 2018 edition of the Rating the States report published by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety on Monday. For example, the damage caused by Category 5 storm Hurricane Irma last September was limited due to the implementation of new building codes following the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Andrew in the state in 1992. Read more.

The Labor Shortage: How Military Veterans can help fill the gap

March 19|Construction Dive

Approximately 250,000 people leave military service each year and begin the often bumpy process of re-entering civilian life, a large part of which is finding a suitable career. As construction continues to grapple with a chronic workforce shortage, the numbers of new veterans alone represent enormous potential for the construction industry. Transitioning military members and veterans are a natural fit for construction, which demands problem-solving, loyalty and onsite decision making, all of which are skills the military instills in its service members. Veteran-specific organizations and construction companies alike recognize the opportunity for this demographic in the industry. Read more.

NH homes spiked 5.7% in first two months of 2018, may be harbinger of record year ahead

March 19|New Hampshire Union Leader

Home sale prices rose 5.7 percent during the first two months of 2018 compared to the same time last year and could foreshadow a record year for prices. The median price for single-family homes sold in January and February stood at $259,900 versus $245,950 in early 2017, according to the New Hampshire Realtors. Grafton County saw the biggest percentage price gain, 20.4 percent, this year, while Sullivan County has experienced the biggest drop, at minus 17.8 percent. Hillsborough County, which includes Manchester and Nashua, rose 2 percent through February, to $271,000. Read more.

Washington State is embracing mass timber construction

March 19|The Architects Newspaper

With a mix of recently-enacted and forthcoming legislation, Washington State is beginning to embrace mass timber construction. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee recently signed legislation for State Bill 5450, a new law that directs the state's building code council to "adopt rules for the use of mass timber products for residential and commercial building construction." The law will allow state and local jurisdictions to begin to work mass timber construction into local building and zoning codes, a first step toward the wider adoption of the construction technology. Read more.

County prepares to take on commercial and industrial permitting

March 19|Muscatine Journal

The county is a week away from terminating its contract with the City of Muscatine. At Monday's Board of Supervisors meeting, county Planning and Zoning Director Eric Furnas discussed the preparation his department is making to take over commercial and industrial permitting. The board approved a new fee schedule for the permitting process and gave Furnas the OK to bring in the expertise the department will need. The county voted on February 26 to terminate its agreement with the city due to what the board's chairman characterized as an "environment that is detrimental" to economic development in unincorporated Muscatine County. A primary concern was that the City's permit fees were based on the project's assessed value. Read more.

The Next Housing Crisis: A Historic Shortage of New Homes

March 18|The Wall Street Journal

America is facing a new housing crisis. A decade after an epic construction binge, fewer homes are being built per household than at almost any time in U.S. history. Home construction per household a decade after the bust remains near the lowest level in 60 years of record-keeping, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. What makes the slump puzzling is that by most other measures, the American economy is booming. Jobs are plentiful, wages are on the rise and the stock market is near record highs. Millennials, the largest generation since the baby boomers, are aging into home ownership. Read more.

Around the House: It's a Mistake to put style over safety

March 17|Daily Commercial

There is not a day that passes in which a senior is not rushed to an emergency room because of a slip and fall accident in their home, and many of these accidents could have been avoided if safety concerns were more important than style in the construction and design of the project. When it comes to construction projects, many owners get obsessed with a visual expectation, which has been created in their mind. Many times, they ignore the practical advice of designers, architects and builders when safety concerns are raised. Read more.

Crush Wood that's Stronger than Steel

March 16|The Journal of Light Construction

It's a veritable hack into the structure of wood to make it stronger: A team of engineers led by professors Liangbing Hu and Teng Li at the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park has developed a wood treatment process that reportedly can make wood 12 times stronger and 10 times tougher than natural, untreated wood. The team's research was published in the journal Nature on February 7. The process involves removing the wood’s lignin, or the component that makes the wood rigid, and compressing it at 150 degrees F. Under this pressure, the wood's cellulose fibers become very tightly packed, creating very strong hydrogen bonds. Read more.

Here Comes the New Commercial Building Code

March 16|Daily Reporter

Whether we're ready or not, the 2015 International Building Code is nearly upon us. All indications are the effective date will be June 1. This has been a long time coming. The Commercial Building Code Council was asked by Gov. Scott Walker to work with the Department of Safety and Professional Service to review the 2015 International Building Code so that it could become Wisconsin's new building code. We are now working under the 2009 IBC. Read more.

Olympia Passes Housing Bills Advancing Cross Laminated Timber, Homeless Funding and WSCC Lodging Tax

March 16|The Urbanist

Housing policy was a big issue during the 2018 legislative session in Olympia. Washington legislators considered dozens of housing-related bills, including bills to end to the state's ban on residential rent regulation, require additional notice time to terminate a tenant's lease agreement, and create a property tax exemption for voluntary preservation of existing affordable housing units. Those bills didn't make it out of the legislature this year. Read more.

The Deadliest bridge collapse in U.S. history

March 16|The Washington Post

A pedestrian bridge touted for its pioneering construction method collapsed Thursday over a congested road near Miami, killing at least six people, crushing eight vehicles and sending survivors to the hospital. The bridge, which weighed more than 950 tons and was still under construction, had been intended to allow Florida International University students to avoid crossing the hectic roadway that divided their campus and the nearby city of Sweetwater. But a different and chaotic scene unfolded about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, when rescue workers raced to free victims from blocks of concrete and fractured metal. A school news release on Saturday hailed the bridge's "first-of-its kind" construction that was supposed to reduce "potential risks to workers, commuters and pedestrians and minimizes traffic interruptions." Read more.