Common Building Code Violations

As we do facility assessments for school districts, we come across some common violations that we see in schools. The most common is the locking of panic devices with a chain and padlock. This occurs in the older style of panic bars, or crash bars as they sometimes called, as the hardware and exit doors age they become more difficult to keep secure. The chaining of the bars together certainly keeps the doors secure, but does not allow for exiting of the building should someone be inside. As the building code has been updated, this bar type panic device is no longer allowed by code, but there are many that have not been replaced and still exist in many types of buildings, not just schools. We recommend the replacing of the panic bars with the newer style of exit devices that cannot be chained. The next most common building code violation is the blocking of an exit door, or the narrowing of an exit passageway. For educational occupancies the exit corridors must be a minimum of 6 feet wide. Many times I have observed the corridors filled with chairs, desks, band instruments, you name it and at some point in time there has been a corridor with this in it. You must maintain a clear passageway to the exit. Also, many times I have observed an exit door from a corridor, that has been closed by adding a wall and a door making a room out the space for storage or an office for example. This could be a violation of the exiting requirements as well because of taking out an exit door. The number of doors is a direct calculation of the number of occupants in the building. By decreasing the exits, you could be putting people at risk by not being able to exit the building properly. Always check with your architect before closing an exit doorway to make sure that you are not violating the building code. We find this violation more in elementary schools than others, the displaying of too much student artwork and projects on the walls of the exit corridors. While it is noble to display the work of the students, you should not cover more than 25% of the wall surface of the corridor. As you can tell from these examples, most of the violations are in the exiting requirements of the building and keeping those exit passageways safe and open for the emergency evacuation of the building. Keep that in mind as you observe the changes that are made as your building grows older and people work and modify their environments. Contact your architect and ask if the requested changes will be in compliance with the current building codes. Michael King AIA

Rain Gardens

What is a rain garden?
It’s a landscape feature consisting of a planted shallow depression which collects rainwater runoff from roofs, parking lots and other impervious surfaces. Integrating rain gardens, rain barrels and other types of on-site rainwater management techniques on school property can be inexpensive, environmental practical and full of educational opportunities. Many public schools have taken advantage of building a rain garden for their campus such as the Mount Tabor Middle School in Portland, Oregon where they converted an existing parking lot into a rain garden.

Having a rain garden and process of planning it can be a valuable experience for students and teachers. It will provide an awareness of environmental issues, within your neighborhood which can provide many lessons and knowledge that can be passed on from one community to the next. Here are a few of the benefits and downfalls on rain gardens.
Pros:
-Prevents flooding and drainage problems
-Protects streams and lakes from contaminants
-Reduce erosion
-Reduce the load on municipal storm water treatment.
-Hands-on, in-the-field educational opportunities
-Sustainable through drought, flood and the summer break
-Enhance community awareness of stormwater issues
-Create a sense of community ownership of the solution to pollution issues
Cons:
-Most rain gardens need some maintenance
-Traditional ornamental plants will not survive. Must use native plants

There are several existing programs to help each school start up their own rain gardens. Here are several links for your use.

http://uwarboretum.org/eps/research_act_classroom/rain_garden_curriculum.p
http://www.lowimpactdevelopment.org/school/articles/rain_garden.pdf
http://www.schools.indiawaterportal.org/node/9

Understanding Building Codes- A History

Building codes have been in existence for over 4000 years. One of the earliest written codes comes from Babylon and is known as the Code of Hammurabi, written around 1750BC. The part of the code pertaining to buildings is essentially an 'eye for an eye' where if the house fell in and killed the owner, then the builder was put to death. More recent codes have been driven by disasters. For example, the great London fire of 1666 led to the 'London Building Act' of 1668 which led to some of the first appointed building inspectors. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire in 1906 led to the formation of the first building codes in the United States. The system of building regulations in the United States has been based on three regional model code groups. Codes developed by the Building Officials Code Administrators International (BOCA) were used on the east coast and in the midwest known as the BOCA National Building Code. Codes from the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) were used in the south and southeast known as the Standard Building Code. Codes published by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) covered the west coast and into the midwest known as the Uniform Building Code. Local jurisdictions would adopt the particular year the code was published and the particular model code, for example the '1985 Standard Code'. Building codes are updated every three years, so if a city had not updated their ordinance, they might be operating under an outdated code. Each jurisdiction could adopt any model code they saw fit. As you can see, this created some confusion in the building and design industry. From one city to the next, there could be significant differences and keeping up with the modifications was nearly an impossible task. It became obvious in the early 1990's that the country needed a single coordinated set of national building codes. The three model code groups decided to combine their efforts and in 1994 formed the International Code Council (ICC) to develop codes that would have no regional limitations. The first International Building Code was published in 1997 and by 2000, the ICC had completed the International Code series and the other codes (BOCA, Standard, and Uniform) have ceased to be published. As has been the pattern, the IBC (International Building Code) is updated every three years. Most cities have adopted either the 2006 or 2009 code and some are moving to adopt the 2012. What if your school is not in the limits of a city jurisdiction? The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has stated that if this is the case, the School Board must adopt the latest building code for your building project. The building codes are here for all of our protection. As I continue this series I will outline some of the basics of the code so that you can be aware of the what are the most common code violations that we encounter when we assess schools. Michael D. King AIA

My Roof Leaks!

One of the most annoying and potentially damaging things that can happen in a school is roof leaks. The most warranty call backs that we receive as architects is roof leaks. So what can be done to reduce the amount of leaks in your roofing system? You will notice that I said 'reduce the amount of leaks' and not eliminate them completely. I honestly do not believe that you can totally eliminate roof leaks in a large structure over a long period of time. All roofing systems take maintenance and over time the amount invested in maintenance will increase no matter what type of roof you have. So what is the best roofing system to use? Many clients will tell me that they want a pitched metal roof "because they don't leak". Well, even pitched metal roofs will eventually leak. The type of roof system you select will largely depend on the design of the school - or vice versa - if you insist on pitched metal roofs, then that will affect the design of the floor plan. For example, pitched roofs such as you have on your house would not work over a compact school floor plan. The span of the roof is so great that the height of the roof would be excessive, over several stories high. So what designers do is create low sloping roofs that can span great distances, but not create excessive volumes under the roof. Don't get me wrong, I like metal roofs but don't expect them to be perfect. If you can limit the amount of penetrations through the roof, then metal is a good choice. There are several roof systems that are used for these low sloping applications. Four Ply Built-Up roofing is one example. This system uses asphalt impregnated fiberglass sheets with layers of asphalt between them, hence 4 sheets or plys, then a top coat of asphalt and gravel. This is a long time proven system and you can get a warranty up to 20 years on this type of system. There are variations of this type of system that use three plys or two plys with various top coats of gravel or modified bitumen sheets. There is also several manufacturers of single ply roofing that use specially formulated thermoplastic coated membranes (PVC or TPO) products. The single sheets are laid and welded together to form a seamless membrane on the roof. These systems also have the added value of a light reflective surface that reflect the sun's rays to keep the roof from absorbing heat. The single ply's typically have a 10 to 15 year warranty. Before going into your building project, know what type of roofing that the design professional is recommending and why. What type of roof can you afford? What type of roof will give you the best warranty? All of these issues need to be thoroughly discussed. As an added value, you may want to employ a roofing consultant to help you wade through the myriad of choices. This is something that we recommend because this professional can help not only in the design of the roof system, but can also be present when the roof is being installed to insure that a proper job is being done. Michael King AIA