Renovation hazards

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Renovation hazards

Koroluk, W.; Gallagher, J. F.

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Re nova t ion ha za rds

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K o r o l u k , W . ; G a l l a g h e r , J . F .

J u n e 1 9 9 4

A version of this document is published in / Une version de ce document se trouve dans:

OHS Canada : Occupational Health & Safety Canada, 10, (3), pp. 26-28, June,

1994

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Building and fire codes

RENOVATION HAZARDS

By Will Koroluk and Jim Gallagher

Although small alterations to a lJuilding may not

require a permit, changes in the use or

occupancy ofa space can introduce safety hazards.

A

shipping super-visor's desk was located near the shipping doors of the building he worked in. He com-plained that this area

was very cold in the winter, so a small, facto-ry-built cubicle was purchased and placed beside the doors. Once eleclrical and tele-phone services were connected, the super· visor had a wann office in which to work.

Unfortunately, a fire started in the little office. It burned for quite some time until it finally broke the office windows and tile sprinklers in the ceiling above started working. They poured down water, but the walls and roof of the cubicle prevented most of it from reaching the fire. More sprinklers opened and major water dam-age occurred, altJ10ugh there wasn't major fire loss.

This siUlation came to the attention of Ken Richardson when he worked for a major industrial fire insurance company. "!fyou had a sprinkler inside tJle cubicle, it would probably extinguish the fire in a mat-ter of seconds and all it would cost would be a few dollars to replace the sprinkler," says Richardson, who is now head of the national fire laboratory at the National Research Council's Institute for Research in Construction (IRC) in Ottawa, Ont. "After a bit of clean-up, that would be the end ofiL"

The need for a sprinkler in the cubicle would have been apparent, says Richardson, if someone had referred to building and fire codes that applied to that workplace. Building codes provide minimum stmctural

Will Komluk, a freelrl1lce writer based in Ottawa, Oru., ｨ｡ｾ TlJlilfen on constmctlon arul related topics since J974. jim GallagherisheaLl of the publication service at the National Research Council's Institute for Research in

Conslluctioll,alsoinOUawa.

requirements to ensure occupants' health and safety. Fire codes are intended to pro-vide firt: protection and prevention in the ongoing operation of buildings.

Building regulation is a provincial re-sponsibility but provinces have traditional-ly passed this responsibility on to munici-palities. A multiplicity of regulations developed as each jurisdiction tried to deal with its own needs. In1937,in an effort to harmonize these regulations, the federal government assigned the National Re-search Council ( RC) to developanation· al building code, the first of which was published in 1941.In 1963,the NRC pu». lished a national fire code. The codes were then, and are now, model codes that provinces and municipalities can adopt as

is,

orvaryto suit their needs. Increasingly, the codes are being adopted across the country and they provide a good generic guide to building safety.

The codes should be refened to when-ever a building is being remodeled or ren-ovated.Itis especially impol1.mt to ensure compliance when:

• making renovations that will result in a change in occupancy which will increase the fire hazard for the occupants;

• reconstructing a building that has been damaged by fire or vther incidents; • renovating or restoring a building with historic vdluc;

• upgrading a building;

• changing the wayan area is used; or • mm'ing more people or equipment into an area.

John Haysom, a member of the Cana-dian Codes Cemre, which is a part of the :RC's Institute for Re earch in

Construe-tion that co-ordinates code developmen t, cites an example of how moving more people or equipment into an area can create problems. In a previ· ous job, Haysom and his co-workers were moved from temporary quarters into me company's main building. That meant mo.... ing in a lot of files and reference material.

"Wewere busy with the move," he re-calls, "when someone noticed that the floorwasspongy. So we went downstairs to look at the structure. There were open-web steel joists under me floor. They had Oat steel tension members that were in compression. A few people walking around didn't matter, but when we started to put inall the files, the floor couldn't take the weight; members were in real compression and became badly buckled." The move was stopped until the floor couldbe reinforced.

Converting a space to a library can pose an even greater safety problem be-cause the weight of the books greatly increases the force on the structure. Ma-chinery and computer equipment pose a similar hazard, These sorts of problems

26 OH&S CANADA - MAY/JUNE 1994

like lhe abo\'e examples 113\'e caused him to launch a study to ee whelher the sec-tion of the code that deals wilh HVAC, Part Six, should contain more specific require-ments. Haysom is currently surveying HVAC professionals toget their｜ｾ･ｷｳ on the maneI'.

Oh& professionals might find it useful to have copies of an IRC publication enti-tled, "Guidelines for Application of Part Three of the National Building Code of Canada to Existing Buildings."

Part Three is a large and complex sec-tion of lhe code dealing with building use and occupancy. The code is written pri-marily with new construction in mind, but as more and more buildings are being re-modeled or retrofitted, it has become nec-essary topublish documents to help de-signers, owners and managers apply the code to existing buildings. The guidelines deal with many topics, including fire safe-ty, major occupancies, spatial separation, interior finishes, exits, lighting and emer-gency power, health requirements and barrier-free design. (For more information on barrier-free design, see "Making the workplace accessible to all," page 56.)

If renovations and construction are done in compliance with building and fire codes, companies should avoid such un-pleasant and potentially dangerous surpris-es as weak floors and fIrsurpris-es that can'lbe eay ily extinguished. Why not benefit from the experience of others? eMS sional is not an iron-clad guarantee that

･ｶ･ｾＧｴｨｩｮｧ lIill work out as expected. Design-ers also make mistakes. For example, prob-lems Il'ith indoor air quality have occurred when fresh-air intakes are located near load-ing docks or parkload-ing lots. Vehicle exhaust fumes are then drawn inlO the fresh-air intakes and circulated through the building.

The e are design fiaws, Haysom says, and also a code malter, but only in a gener-al way. 'The code says that heating, ventilat-ing and air-conditionventilat-ing (lNAC) systems shall be designed according to 'good engi-neering practice,'" he says. But episodes

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Hyqrogen Sulfide, ca!bon Monoxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Chlorine,ｾｩｴｲｯｧ･ｮ Dioxide;ｃ｡Ｎｾｮ Dioxide, Aammable gases, •. anyone or a combination of these deadly gases'could be present in a'corlfined space: '. _', Neotronics has arange of portable, multi-gas detectors to suit your needs. Each ' • is small, rugged, certified intrinsically safe, andwillcalculate and alarm for STEL andTWAalarms as well as instantaneous alarms,

Circle number 23 on Reader Service Card underscore the need to ensure code

com-pliance and safety.

Although it is advisable for oCC\lpal.ional health and safct)' professionals to be famil-iar \vith the codes, it should be recognized that the}" are somewhat complex docu-ments. The National Bnilding Code is about 400 pages, di\ided into nine parts, and the ational Fire Code is 180 pages. Because of the scope and complexity of these documents, oh&s professionals will sometimes need toconsult with architects and engineers when planning renovations.

Ofcour e, employing a design