Hacking the Building Code: Part one - What are building codes and where do I find them?
In the wake of the tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland, I got more involved with various planning and building departments by helping artist spaces and maker associations who were looking for advice to get fully legal. In my work at BWC, I’ve also have taken many complex and unusual projects from concept to finished construction in many different cities. From this experience, I’ve realized that a guide to interacting with building officials and codes for people looking to do creative things with space was sorely needed. This series of blog posts hopes to be that guide, with the first post all about what Codes are and where to find them.
Disclaimer
This series is purely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute professional or legal advice. While this information is provided by Because We Can, and while we endeavor to keep this information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. We do not provide any guarantees or warrant and do not accept any liability on your actions from this information. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk, and we highly recommend you hire a building professional (like us) to review your specific case.
The various codes and what they do
If you’re working on something good, you’re going to need space. Usually that’s going to be inside of a building. And when it comes to the rules around buildings things get complex quickly. All the various rules that apply to a building are confusing to even trained professionals in the industry. So it’s incredibly difficult for someone who’s never navigated these waters before to even understand what rules they have to follow, let alone properly follow all of them.
However, there are some easy-to-learn overarching concepts that I’ll explain in this series. My hope is that you’ll learn enough here to be able to complete your own research of what you need to do to ‘Meet Code’, or at least be better informed when you do hire an expert (like me) to help. Because every situation is going to be different and very specific to your needs, location, neighborhood, and city. Empowered with a basic understanding, you’ll be able to ask the right questions, get the right information, and get a better grasp on how the various codes apply to your efforts as a small business owner, creator, artist, or community.
Why do we even need codes?
‘Code’ is a catch-all term for the various laws, rules, statutes, and written codes you’ll need to follow. So you might say to yourself ‘why do we need all these rules? I’m safe and smart and sane!’. It’s because no matter how safe you might be, your neighbor might not be, so we have to have rules. These regulations are really focused on the health and safety of the community and have grown and changed as our understanding of safety has changed. They are a good idea, they save lives, and shouldn’t be broken. And if you’re not a building professional it is very possible that you don’t fully understand the risks you might be taking if you do break them.
The tragic Ghostship fire in Oakland shows that these rules are meant to protect far more than just the few people who may be making the (sometimes terrible) decisions of how to use a building. Yes, there are too many rules, and sometimes they conflict, and they don’t always make sense, and they totally get in the way sometimes, but at their core they are trying to help. Arguing that there should be less of them is pointless to actually getting anything done. So let’s get on with it!
Which codes and where to find them
When it comes to a building, there are four main types of Codes you’ll need to follow, and which rules apply within those codes depend largely upon the Use of the building. Use is something we’ll talk about in more detail in the next part of this series, but in brief it’s the formal on-record use that you will be using the building for.
The codes are A Lot, for they aren’t cross-referenced, easily searched globally, or coordinated between various departments. You’ll need to do a lot of legwork! Services like Upcodes can certainly help but just be forewarned that there can totally be more codes that apply to your situation that you aren’t aware of yet, but that do apply to what you’re doing. A comprehensive study and lots of questions to building officials are required to really get the full picture.
Also this isn’t computer code, it’s legal code, and intent counts a great amount therein. While there can be ‘loopholes’ you can find that sometimes can work to solve a specific minor issue, trying to apply said ‘loopholes’ when you’re honestly trying to cheat is only going to make building officials mad at you and thus make your project much harder to do. Also just because you’ve found a single detail in the codes that you think is a ‘gotcha’ that’s going to let you ‘pull one over’ on the building officials or get around a bunch of rules, in all likelihood you’re either misinterpreting the code and/or the building official is just going to say ‘no’ anyways. In other words, just because you put your tiny house on wheels, and now call it a ‘trailer’ so it’s technically ‘not a house’ anymore, doesn’t mean the Fire Marshal is going to let you get away with anything they think is unsafe.
City Codes
These are the laws your town has about buildings, and what you can use them for. It’s things like ‘you can only be open during certain hours if you’re a cafe that serves beer’ or ‘you can’t sell certain items (like beer) in a bookstore’ or ‘community spaces can’t also be industrial spaces’. While they tend to be pretty specific to how a business can operate, they can also get into more specifics when it comes to spaces a creative use might need. For example, in some places, in order to be a legal woodshop you have to have a special permit, and in order to get that permit you have to have a specific kind of fire sprinkler system (that’s been tested and certified to work), regardless of the fact that maybe the other various Codes don’t call for these things or even make mention of them.
City Codes vary by County and City. You can usually find them online from your local City’s website. Sadly they are not standardized at all, and even the way they are organized, the terms they use, and the way they cover things can be wildly different from county to county or city to city. Some places don’t even have all of them online! But it’s best to start here reviewing your specific case before you get any farther. Thankfully, most Cities have a business office of some kind, where you get your business permit for that City, and hopefully that office can answer your questions directly with just a nice visit or two.
Zoning Codes
Planning (sometimes also called Zoning instead) gets to say What sort of building goes Where. These Codes refer to what sort of use a building can have and what sorts of features the building has to have depending on its location. So for example, in some cities you can’t have an industrial space in certain residential neighborhoods, due to Planning Codes stating that only certain areas of the City can have “an industrial use”. Or maybe you can’t have a theater without the building having a certain number of parking spots. Or maybe you can’t add another story onto your building, even an interior mezzanine, for you can only have a certain ‘floor area ratio’ in a specific neighborhood.
Planning / Zoning Codes vary by County and City. You can usually find them online from your local City’s website. They are not standardized at all, and even the way they are organized, the terms they use, and the way they cover things can be wildly different from county to county or city to city. But thankfully most Cities have a Zoning or Planning department where you can visit in person, talk through your project and what you’re trying to do, and they can help point you to the right rules and code sections you’ll need to understand.
Building Codes
Building Code gets to say How a building is supposed to be made, depending on What sort of building it is. They drive standards such as doors having to be a certain width, floors having to support a specific weight, or a limit of how many people can be within a space based upon the number of exits it has and what it’s built out of. Typically it’s broken into different Codes, such as Building, Plumbing, Electrical, Fire, Historic, Energy, etc.
Building Codes vary by State, but are all typically based upon the International Building Code, with special additions made by your State, and sometimes even more additions made by your City. So they tend to follow the same structure and organization, and are much easier to deal with from town-to-town.
Sadly due to copyright issues, they probably aren’t listed on your State’s government website. However, It’s likely that your local Building Codes can be found on Public.Resource.org If so, please send Carl some money to his non-profit, because he’s fighting the good fight, is a great guy, and needs all the help he can get. Or you can pay for a service like UpCodes, which is also a great way to get access to the codes online. And most public libraries and some building departments will have physical copies you can read or even borrow.
Industry Standards
Industry Standards are all the various rules that apply to more specific ways that things need to be done. A great example is OSHA and its numerous standards for specific work activities. But another great example you may not have heard of is United Laboratories standards, which define all sorts of lab-tested standards that things need to meet to be safe.
Sometimes the more open and free Planning or Building codes will call out these more closed, non-public specific industry standards that you have to follow. One such example is the Building and Fire Code saying that Fire Sprinklers have to meet certain standards listed in the NFPA. Which is a copyrighted, closed standard that’s not even a law, but instead produced by a trade association devoted to fire safety.
Industry Standards, such as OSHA, NFPA, UL, and others can be very hard to find for free. Again, Public.Resource.org may have them, but if they don’t, the City may have a copy you can review for free. Some of these standards can cost a lot of money!
Watch out, there’s even more codes!
Lastly, always check what Codes will actually apply to your building. Sometimes Cities don’t adopt certain sections of codes. If you’re on federal land or in a historic building it’s possible you don’t have to follow certain codes. Certain uses can make other codes that aren’t part of this guide apply, such as serving food prompting you to meet health codes. And sometimes there can be additional codes just due to the location of the building because of it being next to a shoreline, national forest, or other existing feature.
The best way to figure all this out is to hire a professional. The next best way is to go to the City and talk to the Planning, Building, Business Development, and Fire departments and ask plainly ‘what other codes could apply to my building?’ and then dig deep into the codes to understand what applies and what might not.
Our next section will be all about how to talk to the various building officials in the most professional and productive ways.