WestCon Tribune

May MEETING

Common Building Errors

Compromising Quality in Today's Construction

Presented By:  John Schneider, All About Homes, Inc.

One of the biggest issues facing home builders and contractors today is the ability to ensure that quality is maintained in the construction in homes being built today.

Over the past few years, the East Bay Chapter of the International Code Council (ICC) has been discussing ways to improve the quality of residential construction. The East Bay Chapter represents the building departments of the East Bay, and members of construction related industries. In particular, the Chapter wanted to assist contractors and trade personnel in better understanding the code requirements for wood framed construction, and to reduce the number of non code conditions being called by inspectors during the inspection process. The Chapter believed that this would improve the quality of construction, save time and money for builders, and help provide a better product for the consumer.

Three years ago the Chapter began working on a specific means of addressing this issue. They wanted to create a document that could be used by inspectors, builders, and contractors that would illustrate commonly misunderstood requirements of the various buildings codes. The Chapter surveyed building departments in the East Bay to determine the most commonly missed items found during the inspection of residential homes. The survey results included all aspects of constructing a house from grading and drainage, to the items checked on final inspection.

As a result of considerable documentation and hours of work, a manual has been born, "Quality in Construction Manual" Guidelines for the Building and Inspection Industries. 

Westcon member, John Schneider who assisted in this project and with the manual, will be speaking about the first edition of this manual and how it will directly benefit builders, contractors, inspectors and anyone else involved in the construction of wood framed, single-family homes. Mr. Schneider will discuss the first-time, cooperative effort that took place between builders and governmental agencies  and how this effort will improve many aspects of the industry, and establish a common ground of understanding when looking for quality standards. (A few copies of the manual will be raffled off and additional orders will be taken for purchase at the dinner meeting.)