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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1959-11-01
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•
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA
DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH
'JrE C1HIN ][ CAlL
No.
296
N
1/)']['
IE
ｾ
____
NOT FOR PUBLICATION USE
PREPARED
BY R.S. Ferguson CHECKED BY APPROVED BY RFL
PREPARED FOR RAlC Committee of Inquiry on the
Residential Environment
SUBJECT
BUILDING REGULATIONS IN CANADA
DATE November
1959
The most significant matters to be considered in this report are the variability of building by-laws and their suitability as minimum standards of safety. By-laws can be discussed from a number
of different points of view, but the author thinks that these two aspects are of the greatest interest to the R.A.I.C. Committee. The first part of this report deals with variability in building
regulations, the'second part with their suitability and the mechanios of getting improvement; there are finally some oomments on the work of the Assooiate Committee on the National Building Code.
PART I - VARIABILITY OF BUILDING CODES AND BY-LAWS
BUilding law in Canada derives from the British North Amerioa Aot which set the responsibilities in the Federal-Provinoial
partner-ship, giving to the Federal Government matters of national conoern and leaving to the Provinoial Governments the responsibility for suoh matters as civil and property rights, and of oourse with this the responsibility for building regulation. Eaoh provinoe has
legislated on the basis of this Act and as a result various provincial aots delegating authority, and munioipal by-laws having to do with the cont;rol of building safety, have come ;t.nto foroe over the years.
A desoription follows of the kinds of legislation that have led to variability.
Variability of Enabling Legislation
The power to delegate authority to municipalities is usually administered by the Department of Munioipal Affairs, but sometimes by the Department of Labour, and in Ontario through both the
Departme-nt of Munioipal Affa:lr s and the Department of Planning and De ve10j:mient • The Fire Marshal also has a say and in all provinces the authority to set up a fire department is in the Fire Marshals' Act.
...
2
-Kinds of Munioipalities to whioh Authority oan be Delegated
Munioipal organization is different ｾｮ different provinoes. The different types of ｭｵｮｩｯｩｰ｡ｬｬｴｾ･ｳ being for example, defined differently in eaoh province. Same provinoes oreate villages and
ｾｨ･ｲｳ do not, while a oity in one provinoe may not mean the same
thing as a oity in another. Thus, even if the same authority weregMmbrl by eaoh provinoe to its munioipalities, the result would be
different beoause of these differenoes in munioipal organization.
Variations in the Authority Given to Different 'Kinds of Munioipalities All provinoes do not give the same authority to a city as
to a village. Some provinoes decide what authority it will delegate to eaoh of the various types of municipalities whioh it has oon-stituted.
An
interesting example of the result of this is in Alberta where cities, through the Cities' Act, may adopt theNational Building Code. Rural municipalities, on the other hand, may not adopt the National Building Code, but if a rural munioipality decides to prepare an official plan it may apply under the Town and Rural Planning Act and, by the provisions of this Aot, it is required to enaot a suitable building regulation whioh must be the National Building Code.
Municipal Building Regulations
ｗｩｴｾｩｮ this varied enabling framework ｾｵｮｩｯｩｰ｡ｬｬｴｩ･ｳ may adopt or enaot, but not always both, building regulations. In Ontario, Nova Sootia, and British Columbia some guidance fram
provincial or regional"authorities is given through the publioation of a Model Code. Other than by this kind of persuasion, regulations can vary at will. The variations are not really as great as one might expeetg however, because most of the munioipalities have the
same problems and they tend to share experiences. It is not unoommon to find a regulation passed around from one oity to another leading to a oertain amount of uniformlty,sometimes to a ridioulous degree. For example, the snow load of most munioipalities in Canada was based
on that of the oity of Toronto, until the National Building Code came into wide use.
Provinoial Regulations
The provinoes pass, in addition to enabling legislation. laws that affeot the construotion of building directly. In each of the 10 provinces some departments have prepared regUlations
3
-under various aots. These usually beoome mandatory in all munioi-palities in the provinoes and take preoedenoe over municipal
legislation.
In most oases, provinoial regulations are in effect in
areas of regulation where the responsibility has not been delegated to the municipality. At the same time there are many instanoes where the provinoial regulations supersede munioipal law and can
oonfliot with it. Under the Publio Health Aot of Ontario plumbing regulations have been adopted by the province and these are in effect in every munioipality in Ontario. There are some instanoes where several provincial departments, as well as munioipalities, have regulations in the same field. In Ontario, municipalities can regulate building oonstruction and exits. In a building of any appreciable size the plans must be inspeoted by the ｄ･ｰｾｲｴｭ･ｮｴ of Labour whioh has regulations under the Factory Act to protect employees. If the building is a hotel, then it must oomply with the Hotel Safety Aot administered by the Fire Marshal's Office. These provinoial regulations nearly always take preoedenoe over those of the municipality.
This would indicate that there is the possibility for
a
great deal of variability. This certainly does exist but in some fields there is a degree of uniformity as well. For instance, all provinces have Fire Marshals' Acts and these in general are the same. All provinces except Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland have enacted plumbing regUlations under the Public Health Act. Again these plumbing regulations are, except for minor differences, very similar.Federal Regulations
Some municipalities have passed by-laws regUlating the ereotion of television and radio aerials. This is another special case. Such regUlations are really not valid since this subject is gQverned under the Radio Act passed by the federal government. A municipality oan pass such a by-law if it first makes application to Department of Transport for permission to do so. The details of oonstruction of masts are contained in the Radio Act. The reason is that neither television nor radio were thought of at the time of Confederation.
General Comment
All these are merely examples of the pieces of the puzzle which when put together represent the pattern of responsibility for bUilding regulations in this country. The system was admirably
4
-suited to the character of the country when the ｾＮｎＮａＮ Act was
signed. Communication was poor, building was simple, and, relatively speaking, life in the buildings was much more simple. Under these conditions a system designed to give the greatest flexibility from place to place was needed.
The situation now is exactly the reverse. Building design and construc'tion are not based on what experience shows to be good locally. Sinoe
1850
the growth and development of industrialization and the corresponding ,technology has created a condition that makes it more desirable to have flexibility in a technical sense rather than .flexibility in a geographical sense. From the legal point ofｶｩ･ｷｾ the usefulness o.f maintaining responsibility at the local level holds.
This is not hard to understand. It is still ｮ･｣･ｳｾｲｹ to inspeot buildings and solve on-the-job ｰｾｯ｢ｬ･ｭｳ through a looal organization even though the growing complexity of bUilding demands a conoentration of technioal effort if adequate regulations are to be prepared. A parallel may be drawn here to the arohitectural servioe. Arohiteots' offices design over a wide field, but it is necessary to have a man on the spot for supervision.
In answer to ｴｨｾ new demands due to the development of industry, and without changing the legal framework for which the need still remains, some steps bave been taken whioh help to over-come the difficulties which have arisen. These steps are the
formulation of national standards through such bodies as the Canadian Standards Association and the ｰｲ･ｰ｡ｲ｡ｴｩｯｮｾｮ､ ｰｲｯｭｕｬｧ｡ｴｩｯｾ
of the National Building ｾｯ､･ by the National Researoh Council.-These developments have occurred with the strong support of all those groups of people who are concerned with building oonstruction inclUding the architects, engineers, and contraotors. With these as guides, munioipalities can still oarry out their traditional role while the bulk of the technical work of oode and standard writing, which has no need to vary from plaoe to place exoept in rare oases, is done by a oentral group.
To sum up the remarks on variability, it has been shown {". that there :Ls variability and what oauses it. This has beoome an
ｌｾ increasingly serious problem, but the work of the Assooiate
Committee on the National Building Code and the Canadian Standards Association is doing much to create sensible, teohqioal ｵｮｩｦｯｾｩｴｹ
even though the framework for legal responsibility and building by-law administration remains the same.
5
-PART II - THE SUITABILITY OF BUILDING REGULATIONS Criticism
The only criterion upon which a building regulation can be judged is the extent to which it accomplishes its intended purpose. Its suitability can perhaps be jUdged on three counts: first, its fairness or unfa!rness, seconda its relevance or whether time has
passed it by, and third, the competence or otherwise of its writing or oonstructione
Of these three, the last two are where trouble most often oocurso It is very seldom that a by-law is found that is
deliberately unfaire More are irrelevant partly beoause of indifference but partly because of the extreme diffioulty of
preparing a local by-law to suit modern teohnioal oonditions. The largest group of difficulties arise from the attempts to write by-laws to suit present conditions.
Shortly after the wara studies
ｓｴ｡ｴ･ｳｾ the report upon which included inadequaoies in building regulations. enumera ted:
were made in the United a dis cussion of these The following heve been
(1) they fail to protect the public
(2) they stifle new development
(3) they lack agreement on basic requirements.
This third result should perhaps be deleted since it is more of ,a oharaoteristio, but two other results could be added (4) they
｣ｾｵｳ･ ｾｮｮ･｣･ｳｳ｡ｲｹ expense, and (5) they lead to, unnecessary
res-trictions on design.
At a time when the outstanding charaoteristio of Canadian business is physioal development and when the largest indUBtry in the country is construotion (six times larger than the ｰｵｬｾ and paper industry which is the largest manufaoturingindustry), this country cannot afford seoond rate building regulations. The means of preparing good regUlations have become too specialized and
expensive for each municipality. Some sort of pooling of resources is required.
*
"Nationally Reoognized Standards in State Laws and Looal Ordinanoes" - A ,Report by CommitteeZ56
on Model Laws and Ordinanoes - Amerioan Standards Assooiation Inc.6
-The Problems of Municipalities in Preparing Technical Standards The preparing of regulations has become the job for a specialist and requires a broad range of technical resources for assistance. For example, in this day of specialization the
knowledge and experience regarding particular materials and the problems of by-laws appears to be acquired by a few people. These became the experts. They cannot possibly go from municipality to municipality to advise but are,willing to assist in the preparation
of a single standard which could then be used from coast to coast. The financial aspect is another side of the problem which should not be ignored. Any municipality can write its own code
ｾｲｯｶｩ､･､ it has the funds. The National BUilding Code
(1953)
cost$180,000. allowing the usual charges for professional services (although these were provided without charge), and it is believed that this is the cost which might be expected ｷｨｾｮ any large city develops its own bUilding by-laws.
Reference Standards Must be Good
It must be emphasized that to have national organizations preparing reference standards is not enough in itself. Such
standards must be a real improvement over the local by-laws Which are in effect; otherwise they will not be adopted. Uniformity in itself would be some improvement, but under the present legal
system uniformity will not result unless the national standards are used and this will not occur unless there is general appreciation and respect for these documents.
An Example
It is not possible to elaborate here on the specific ways in which improvement can be effected, but an example can be used to illustrate both the faults and the measures which are required to effect the cure, this being the U.N. building in New York City.
In this building the exterior walls are required to have 4 hours' fire resistance. At the same time window areas are permitted to be Ｙｾ of the wall. The architects followed the
practice of ltdesigning around the regulations". A stub wall having
4
hours' fire resistance and about 10 inches high was introduced at each floor level. This satisfied the requirement for 4-hour exterior walls. It was set back a few inches from the outside7
-face and a glass and metal curtain hung over the entire sur-face. The things to be deplored in this set of circumstanoes are' as follows:
(11) That the architects should feel it necessary to design around the regulationso The architect is the guardian
of safety; the building inspector is there to provide a municipal check and to administer the by-law. The
architect and bUilding inspector should work together, but in this case they were opposed.
(2) At each floor level a bit of cons·truction is added which has no structural purpose. It is not only costly itself but adds to the cost of the whole structure with its weight. It is a menace, since due to the large window areas it is quite incapable of preventing fire spread. In addition, since there is ample open space adjacent to the large windows, there is literally no place where the fire could
spread to.
(3)
Another serious fault is that on the lower floorswhere there is a possibility that such window walls might be adjacent and very close to windows in other buildings, the regulation provides no safeguards whatsoever to ensure that some structural barrier comes in between.
The Seagram Building built a few years later uses glass to the floor with no (fire resistivet) curb. The architeots aohieve the same result by adding an extra 10 or 12 inches below the main reinforcement in the concrete floor beamal
The Science of Fire Proteotion
This illustration represents a state of affairs which is disappearing. The significant development in building and like-wise in building codes in the last 50 years has been the
appli-cation of scienoe or a systematio and objective approaoh to the problems. As a matter of interest, architects in Great Britain were perhaps the originators of fire research and fire testing, the first crude attempts at this being in 1791; but fire research did not really become significant until after 1900. Through fire tests and the examination of the amounts of combustibles in
occupancies and study of the physical and chemical behaviour of fire, specific hazards were identified and precise methods of control developed. New terms such as fire load, fire resistance, and the like became oharacteristics of this new phase of engineering.
8
-When the National BUilding Code
1953
was prepared, the old masonry exterior wall requirements dating from the Fire of London in1666
were replaced by the new objective approachdefining hazards by occupanoy in terms of fire load and requiring protection which may either be fire resistance of a degree
related to the hazard or distance determined through studies of the dissipation of radiated heat.
New methods of regulating,had to be developed. Concepts suoh as construction and space separations had to be created. New words were added to the language of building and building regulations. The result was to eliminate the anomalies that existed in the old regUlations and to eliminate unneoessary restrictions on design, while at the same time permitting the
greatest economy, together with the knowledge that the regulations really did provide the safety which was intended.
On the other hand, it must be recognized that ｾｨｩｳ entirely new technique was placed before the country1s municipal oouncils and building inspectors, most of whom were entirely unprepared to reoeive it. In many cases it h!ils been misinterpreted and it is possible, and in fact probable, that the adoption of the Building Code has been delayed as a result of some of the innovations. The task of improvement or reform is one of getting the best technioal information, experience, and skills. Beyond this, promotion is needed. The pace of improvement is set by the rate at which t.he munic.ipalities of Canada can adjust to ohange.
ASSOCIATE COMMITTEE ON THE NATIONAL BUJ;LDING CODE Within the National Research Council, the Assooiate Committee on the National BUilding Code was formed in and has operated since
1948,
to guide this special work which has been described above. The Associate Committee, and the teohnioaloommittees which assist it, have membership drawn from aoross the Dominion and all the pertinent fields of interest. The Committee is served by a secretariat within the Division of Building Researoh and can draw upon the services of the Building Standards Seotion where the speoialist task of code drafting is done and where partioular studies relating directly to standards are oonduoted. The other sections of the Division haVing to do with research in materials, structures, and problems of fire, as well as meohanical equipment, are available to assist. Thus a most desirable
organization f9r the preparation of a good teohnical standard exists. The Associate Committee uses available standards of the Canadian Standards Association and maintains the closest liaison
ｾＮ ,
9
-with that body. Liaison with research and code writing activit? throughout the world is also maintained.
Although a major portion of the work of the Associate
Committee ooncerns the development of better building regulations, another equally important a'c,ti vi ty is the promotion of these
throughout the land. Eaoh year the Assooiate Committee sponsors a BUilding Officials's Conferenoe in Canada bringing together
the building officials of the country and others who are interested, in an effort to create greater appreoiation and understanding for uniformity and improvement of ｢ｵｩｾ､ｩｮｧ regUlations. It is
interesting that the inoidence of municipal adoption of the National 'Building Code in the different provinces is proportional to the
aotivity of looal bUilding officials', organizations. British Columbia leads, and Ontario is second, in the number of munici-palities which have adopted the Code.
The Associate Committee is in close touch with more than 900 munioipalities in Canada with respect to buildtng regulations. Of these, nearly
400
are using the National Building Code. The number is steadily +ncreasing. The Code is mentioned in theProvincial Acts in
5
provinces and is used by all federal govern-ment departgovern-ments for construction work. Through the NationalBuilding Code, Canada is perhaps oloser to national uniformity than any other country in the world, with the possible exception of
the U.S.S.R. where building regulations, among other things, are prepared by a central office and automatically become the building standards throughout theland.
Housing Regulations
During the war it became apparent that there was a special need for regulations for single dwellings for use by one or two families, and a short form of the National Building Code was
developed to fill this need. This was similar to, but not exaotly the same as, regUlations developed for lending purposes by C.M.H.C. The differences were explainable by the difference in motives of each. Despite this, the existence of two national standards for housing construction resulted in a most complicated situation but this will end in
1960
when the two are' finally consolidated as one documentg a new Part IX being added to the National Building Codefer this purpose.
Naturally, the same principles which apply to the develop-ment of the ｾ｡ｴｩｯｮ｡ｬ Building Code will also apply to the new
...
10
-must be recognized hereo Whereas the National BUilding Code applies to a large variety of building, the housing standards apply to a very narrow field o The National Building Code deals with highly technical forms of construction whereas the great majority of housing utilizes traditional forms. The design of" the larger buildings to which the National Code applies is
theoretical whereas 'trule of thumb" methods still apply in housingo
Because of this, the best performance in a housing standard can perhaps be obtained by one which more closely resembles the early American building codes than the technical standards which are used todayo In the preparation of this new standard, these matters are being taken into account in addition to the need far flexibility regarding new materials and techniques and a strong desire to eliminate any unnecessary curbs on the freedom of designo This standard will be used as a basis of the lending operations of C.MeH.Co, and it is hoped will be adopted and used by the smal19 as well as the ｾｲｧ･ｲＬ municipalitles across Canada.
