Oregon Building Code Updates

January 2011

    There will come a day when “radon suction pit” does not sound like something from a cheap sci-fi show or comic book [okay, graphic novel]. I’m not sure which is scarier—the radon suction pit, or the idea that in the months and years to come, we’ll know what that means.

I always prefer pictures to words:

These diagrams show 3 methods of ‘draining’ radon from the underside of a building…

Fortunately the EPA suggests passive systems for houses.

A pdf file with more than you ever wanted to know about radon mitigation can be found here:

http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/pubs/625r92016/625r92016.pdf

One alarming [to me] aspect of the new Radon Code is the large number of inspectable specifications for sealing the “Soil-gas-retarder” and the various provisions for penetration protection. In theory, every specification requires someone to inspect the specification for accuracy. Doesn’t happen, but it could…

More Fun

On July 1 of last year [2010], the new 2010 Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code  [OEESC] went into effect. The 90-day grace period ended on October 1 of last year. Since I haven’t yet heard a lot of screaming, my assumption is that Plan Reviewers still haven’t grasped the scope of the new Code requirements. There’s been very little training at the State level, so lack of attention isn’t surprising. When certain Plan Reviewers [and some of you know to whom I refer] grasp the understanding of what they are required to enforce, it’s going to get U-U-U-G-G-G-L-L-L-Y-Y-Y…

         This, of course, is simply my opinion. When I was spending my days reviewing the Pearl District when it was new, Energy Code compliance wasn’t big on my priority list. I checked to see that the form was filled out, and looked reasonable. I was getting phone calls from developers telling me how many thousands of dollars per day they were losing by my not having their plans finished; and Life Safety usually trumped Energy Code. I never developed the ‘I don’t care about your problems’ mentality. My methodology had been developed years earlier when I was told one Monday morning that our 2-week turnaround on house plans had suddenly been mandated at 5 days, by a Commissioner and a rash statement made at a press conference. When I asked which parts of the Code I could ignore, I was told that I still had to pay attention to the entire book. I didn’t.

I have yet to use the new Energy Code; I’ve been to one overview class; I didn’t like what I heard—from a plan review perspective nor from a construction perspective. The other news is that it’s going to get worse—more stringent—in the future.

    One of the biggest changes is that nearly-all commercial buildings are required to have a layer of continuous insulation covering the entire exterior envelope.

    BTW- all of your standard exterior envelope details are probably wrong…

    While there are upgrade requirements for existing buildings in the 2010 OEESC, there are no precedents yet for addressing difficult situations.

“The COMcheck software/program, using the Oregon code selection, is used to demonstrate compliance with the 2010 OEESC. The forms generated by the software can be submitted for demonstration of compliance for both the Prescriptive and Simplified Trade-Off paths.”

http://www.oregonbcd.org/programs/energy.html#work     [“work” seems appropriate…]