I just bought a large, rural piece of property in Beaton. I haven’t built anything before but I intend to learn as I go along when I construct a small house on the property this spring. I’ve heard there are codes that tell you how you have to build, but I bought this piece of land so I could do my own thing without a lot of rules and regulations. People have been building for thousands of years without codes. Do you have any concerns about just following common sense while building my home?

It’s certainly true that building construction is an ancient technology. Lots of the basic strategies and technical details are so entrenched in our culture that just about everyone knows something about some of them. Things like footings, bracing, frame walls and rafters are so familiar that almost every homeowner has dusted off his hammer and saw and built a shed, a fence or a deck. You certainly can experiment and learn as you go along. However, there are inherent problems and frustrations that you can avoid if you rely on and use some basic principles.

For better or worse most of these principles are contained in a document called the Building Code. Essentially the Code is a comprehensive collection of all the principles that ensure a building will withstand the ravages of time. Hopefully, the home you build will provide shelter for you and many more people long after you have moved on. With this in mind and the enormous effort and expense you will invest in this project, following basic Building Code recipes makes sense. Using Code principles helps ensure that your building will be reasonably safe from fire and flood, structurally sound, and it will not rot or leak.  It also ensures a level of comfort and energy efficiency for you and your family by specifying minimum insulation requirements and window and door quality. If you ever intend to sell your country home, buyers usually appreciate knowing that the “product” they are considering is not just an experiment but has also been constructed to a minimum set of standards. Also, a building permit and inspections for Code standards is required throughout most of the province. There are a number of bureaucratic problems that you may encounter if caught without this permit and the required inspections. The purpose of these inspections is to ensure that your work meets a minimum construction standard and this documentation will also help to maintain your re-sale value to future purchasers.

One of the drawbacks to the Building Code is that it can stifle creativity and experimentation because it is a set of prescriptive formulas for tried and true successful construction. However, within this framework there is still a lot of room for creativity, For instance, straw bale houses, yurts, quansit huts, rammed earth and tire houses are all built with a combination of Building Code and engineered design principles. What you will avoid by using these prescriptions are all the “classic” construction mistakes that have been made by legions of experimenters over the centuries. And you don’t need to learn the codes. The basic principles of the Code are incorporated into most books on house construction. If you are looking for a good hands-on book that covers everything from footings to finishing I recommend “Modern Carpentry” by Willis H. Wagner. It will see you through a lifetime of construction projects.        

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This article was written by Steven Cannon, a Registered Building Official and partner in Lynch Building Inspection Services Ltd. of Nelson, British Columbia. It originally appeared in The Nelson Express.

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