Ask Jon Eakes

Last Updated: Monday, January 15th, 2001, Created: Monday, January 15th, 2001

What are BUILDING CODES and why do I care?

John Hayson from the Canadian Code Centre of the Institute for Research in Construction of the Canadian National Research Council (wow, that's a long title), came in to answer some questions about what the building code is and what it's good for.

The first National Building Code was published in 1941. Essentially, the National Building Code is an advisory document that the provinces use as a reference to create their own building codes. All of the codes across North America are designed as minimum standards to protect the health and safety of occupants in buildings and residences. Most of the Canadian provincial building codes are quite similar to the National Building Code and work is ongoing to achieve more consistency across the country. However some provinces make some requirements more stringent, while others reduce some requirements -- leaving builders more freedom in meeting market demands. If this sounds to you like marketing double speak, you are not alone. Yes this does mean that where most of the country considers that there are minimum standards that are necessary for health and safety there are regions where provincial code bodies have been convinced that these provisions cost too much and people don't want to pay for them so they just lower the standard. Such is the case with ventilation standards in Ontario.

Although any aspect of a house can be built much better than these minimum standards, no aspect of the house should be built below them. These are the minimum standards which the provincial New Home Warranty programs follow to determine whether a builder did the job right or not.

The code itself is a rather complex document, but there is now an Illustrated Guide to the Canadian Building Code (1995), that concentrates only on residential housing requirements and gives a lot of clear illustrations. If you are interested in seeing what the minimum standard is for any particular part of a house, or just want to be more involved in the construction of your house, you can purchase a copy of the codes -- I recommend the Illustrated Guide. It sells for $99 from the National Research Council Publications Library.

The 2005 National Building Code is a radical change from past codes in that it is now a Performance Code -- setting out what needs to be accomplished, not specifically how to do it. The old Prescriptive Code is included as an annex to the code; an illustration of one way to meet the performance demands. This change will hopefully provide for more flexibility and innovation in housing while still assuring safety and security.

Keywords: Codes, Health, Safety

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