IBC 1010.1 “means of egress doors shall not be concealed by curtains, drapes, decorations, or similar materials.” So I can still have a secret passageway for my mansion murder mystery, as long as I don’t count it as a means of egress door, even if the passage brings me to the backyard mausoleum.

Current status

If I become certified for the pool and hot tub alliance, do I get to test out to saunas? 🧖‍♂️ 💅 ♨️ www.phta.org/education-ce...

Certification

Certify your skills. Lead with confidence. PHTA certifications are recognized as the industry benchmark for excellence.

phta.org

If you reduce the barriers to entry for building, more local, small developers would invest in architecture for personal, subjective reasons and there would be fewer mediocre hot takes on design. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

S.F. is rushing to build new housing, but we shouldn’t settle for mediocre design

OPINION: If City Hall wants its residents to get behind the “Family Zoning” plan, it needs to work a lot harder to build architecture that is well-designed, columnist Allison Arieff writes.

sfchronicle.com

“There are many differences in construction costs between the U.S. and other countries, but I’m not sure there’s anywhere else where the difference is as large as the elevator.” @stephenjacobsmith.com

Why doesn’t the U.S. have small elevators like Europe and China?

Advocates for smaller, cheaper elevators say it could spur a housing boom.

washingtonpost.com

I/AI made a thing based on this chart from the ICC: per state # of validated OGCV voters (they call it Governmental Member Voting Representative or GMVR). www.iccsafe.org/wp-content/u... I compared % of GMVRs to % of US population and calculated which states are over-represented.

For the 2024 IBC, the wood people managed to lift the restriction for exposed mass timber ceilings in Type IV-B buildings from 20% to 100% of floor area through an impressive combined arms campaign.

AIs have such a standard way of thinking that's surely infecting everyone who relies on it. There will soon be alpha in people who don't think about everything in terms of "where X sits" and "the seam is where the insight is" etc.

youtu.be/CpawQgS4WzM

Varying types of Construction

YouTube video by Fiebig Architecture

youtu.be

Private equity going after fire trucks makes YOUR neighborhood less safe. Not on my watch. I've got a bipartisan resolution calling on the FTC to investigate. We can't let Wall Street put public safety at risk.

Graphical illustration of elevator algorithms. Very cool: john.fun/elevators

Elevators

How elevators push your buttons

john.fun

Amendments are bad because…

Everything is Calvinism

Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · 7d ago

Hot take: A certain kind of American leftism is deeply culturally Protestant, even if it disbelieves in God, because of its preeminent focus on having the right inner mindset and intention and feeling properly guilty about one's moral failings to live up to a certain standard.

The tiny homes people really hate the ICC: www.regulations.gov/comment/EERE...

On the death of second floor residences in Main Street USA, or live/work units. dirtamericana.com/2023/02/uppe...

Upper floors in old buildings: why are they so hard to put to use?

It's enough to revive the street level of a historic commercial corridor with new businesses. But what about those upper floors?

dirtamericana.com

TIL this is the model law developed in the 20s which created the framework for states to enable zoning by delegating certain police powers to local governments. Euclid was fought over this model law! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standar...

I wonder what the methodology is for calculating these… www.iccsafe.org/wp-content/u...

A 12-year run of building code updates raised apartment construction costs by nearly 10%, adding $222 to the break-even rent developers need in LA. www.huduser.gov/portal/pdred...

IBC 1208.3: "Dwelling units shall have a minimum of 190 square feet (17.7 m2) of habitable space." Why does this exist? A person can easily visit a dwelling and decide it isn't big enough for them. I can't imagine how this protects anyone (life safety or consumer protection).

Here's another way to see that rent is probably the most important long-term affordability constraint: In a world where rent (shelter) prices increased only as fast as the rest of the economy, purchasing power today would be about 13% higher (measured by wages)

Joe Fish@sadbusdriver.bsky.social · last wk.

Anyway, the chart you should be posting is how rent prices look like compared to wages. Note: This has been going on for a long time! The housing crisis is a long standing issue.

Anyway, the chart you should be posting is how rent prices look like compared to wages. Note: This has been going on for a long time! The housing crisis is a long standing issue.

Has Karen Bass been fighting for transit for all her career? Cuz, um, LA… Also we know she hasn’t because free fares ain’t it.

Mayor Karen Bass@mayor.lacity.gov · 2w ago

As Chair, I’ll build a long-term financial plan to make Metro fare-free. I’ve fought for a world-class transit system my entire career because public transit should create opportunity for everyone.

I feel like this article from 1995 by Law and Beever perfectly sums up what I've been circling around the last few months: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Magic numbers and golden rules - Fire Technology

The application of fire safety research using engineering methods is frustrated by conventional attitudes. The desire of researchers to always achieve a greater level of understanding means that they ...

link.springer.com

Fire resistance is a cultural convention as much as a scientific measurement. This paper from folks at U of Edinburgh traces the history and consequences of (over?)reliance on this metric. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Vive La Résistance? Standard fire testing, regulation, and the performance of safety

Because fire safety cannot be measured directly, building regulation uses test ratings to determine whether materials and products meet societal expectations. Fire resistance constitutes the most e...

tandfonline.com

IBC Chapter 2 (Definitions) is fun because you get an overview of what the codes contemplate. Conveniently, specifics are in Chapter 4 (Special Requirements for Certain Uses). Remember, multifamily urban infill is lumped in with these! Here are some of the most illustrative ones I encountered...

I have a new piece out for @searchlightinst.bsky.social! Want to make housing cheaper? Stop taxing construction so heavily for being a volatile industry Our unemployment insurance system quietly makes it more expensive to build. Here’s how: (1/12) www.searchlightinstitute.org/research/the...

The Hidden Tax on Blue-Collar Workers and Building in America

The unemployment insurance system has a design flaw that penalizes the construction industry, leading to fewer workers and lower productivity. Over time, that means less – and more expensive – housing...

searchlightinstitute.org

For alternative materials approvals, the 2024 IBC added a new peer review section, which the BO can request on top of ESRs.

Luckily, the IZC is not widely adopted.

One code reform identified here is reducing wiring requirements which assume power hungry incandescent lights. www.cablinginstall.com/cable/articl...

Fault-managed power makes its way into the Code and buildings

A safer, more-efficient way to deliver greater than 100 Watts will be defined as Class 4, and promises to disrupt the market … eventually.

cablinginstall.com

Construction Physics@const-physics.blogsky.venki.dev · 2w ago

Can We Lower Construction Costs with Cheaper Labor or Materials?