Question about how to leverage good building practices in development deals
Reese_StryderInc
| Posted in General Questions on
I have a question about how to influence better building practices in affordable housing.
As a volunteer, I serve on a board of directors at the Yampa Valley Housing Authority; this is a quasi-governmental organization that partners with private developers and creates housing in our community of Steamboat Springs, CO. This isn’t necessarily low-income housing, it is housing that is considered affordable and serves our workforce needs of people making $30,000 – $150,000 a year. Our organization delivers roughly 70-100 units a year in this small mountain community, which is in desperate need of housing.
I joined this board because I wanted to have a say in the quality of what we are building. As the old saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished, and I fear that the housing we deliver will suffer from the myriad of issues that poor building practices create because our partners are trying to hit budgets. As part of this board, I am recommending that we integrate into our development deals a list of criteria that our development partners must follow to ensure that their GCs are building quality units that follow the principles of sound building science.
My question is, what high-level criteria would you want a multi-family builder to meet to ensure that it leverages good building practices? Here are a couple that I have been thinking about.
- Show a detailed water management plan in the architectural set of drawings
- Have a blower door score of 1.5ACH50
Thanks,
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Replies
The current International Residential Code is pretty good. Has your area adopted it and do they enforce it?
Yes, we are on 2021 IRC, and we have a decent building department that enforces it. Yeah, I suppose that we could stick with that. We are climate zone 7. I wonder if we should get out in front of anything that might be worth the extra effort for the future resiliency of the buildings.
It is all about 3rd party verification and commissioning by 3rd parties.
Make sure the 3rd party works for and reports to your board, and not the GC.
In many areas it does not matter what the building code says. The verifiers hired by the subs or the GC ask the subs and GC what result they need, and that is what they report. Its a sad state of affairs.
Pardon my bluntness but a high level of “give-a-shit” goes a long way. When we are selecting subs for our projects, I find that the difference between a highly qualified trade partner without buy-in to your goal is less valuable than someone with a little less experience but who shares the goal of the project and is willing to learn.