By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
Blower door tests delayed again. A new zero-lot-line rule removed.
The Building Codes bill delivered the biggest wins to homebuilders during Florida’s 2016 legislative session, with tweaks sought by builders passing through the final vote.
The session also handed out challenges, though, with the passage of statewide water policy early in the session.
Springs protection means limits to septic tanks
Contained within the water policy bill, SB 552, were restrictions for septic tanks near major springs.
The water bill protects Florida’s freshwater supply, but makes widespread septic tank regulation more likely, said Doug Buck, director of Governmental Affairs for the Florida Home Builders Association.
“Make no mistake, eventually any place where septic tanks are deemed to be impacting water quality — the process around the springs in going to be the process,” he said.
For now, the law only affects septic tanks near Florida’s largest freshwater springs. The closest ones to Jacksonville are in Alachua County.
Builders had sought science-based, local management for the new water protection program, and Buck said he thinks that was accomplished.
Local water management districts, in partnership with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, will develop management plans for waters directly impacting the springs.
Sewage treatment limits will apply only when sewage is found responsible for more than 20 percent of the water’s nitrate pollution. In those situations, the rules will likely add to building costs. For example, it’s possible a one-acre lot would have to use a 25,000-gallon septic tank rather than a 10,000-gallon tank, he said.
Blower door test rule that makes sense
Blower door tests are definitely coming, but FHBA secured another year for builders to become compliant.
The new energy-efficiency rule — part of the updated building codes — will now go into effect July 1, 2017.
“We’ve been given another year and we hope people understand we’re not going to get any more,” Buck said. Builders should start getting blower door tests now, he said, so they can make sure they are building within standards by the deadline.
Fortunately, compliance has gotten easier.
A blower door test shows how “leaky” a house’s airflow is. A vinyl panel is sealed to the front doorjamb and a built-in fan sucks air out. The amount of air that goes through is measured. Less air means a “tighter” house, which saves energy spent on air-conditioning.
The new code originally said a home’s allowable airflow had to be at or below five air exchanges per hour. One air exchange happens when all of the air in the house is replaced.
During the legislative session, that number was raised to seven.
The change helps because of another rule that says airflow needs to measure five air exchanges per hour or more for proper ventilation and mold protection. Between the two rules, it meant builders would have had to hit five air exchanges exactly.
The ventilation code was also changed in session, now lowered to three.
“It gives us a safe harbor between seven and three,” Buck said.
Testers in the field are generally seeing about 6.5 air exchanges per hour with today’s homes, he said.
Zero-lot-line homes won’t need sprinklers
Large homes built on smaller lots create fire safety worries for neighbors. But a new rule that would have required sprinklers for zero-lot-line homes was deemed unnecessary.
Zero lot line means a house is placed either on or very close to one side of the lot. It gives homeowners with small lots a little more yard on the opposite side.
Under the existing code, homes less than three feet from a lot line need a firewall. The new building codes would have added sprinklers to that.
Fire safety interests wanted the change in order to incentivize sprinklers, Buck said. But the change would have added costs to developments, including those already platted.
Advocates for the new rule had trouble showing examples of where homes without sprinklers had created a problem. They cited mobile homes, which aren’t covered under building codes anyway, Buck said.
In the end, lawmakers reverted back to existing code — no new sprinklers.
Training the workforce
The Building Codes bill also served up a bonus — $50,000 for a task group to assess construction training in Florida and to recommend a unified approach for funding it.
“I think we could be doing better economically in construction if we had more educated workers,” he said. Jobs that should take six months to finish are now taking seven or eight, because of workforce shortages, he said.
The construction workforce task group will be a 22-member panel coordinated by the University of Florida’s M.E. Rinker School of Construction Management.
Its goals will be to identify all training programs statewide, such as apprenticeships, vocational schools and internships, and create a clearinghouse that industry members can use to find trained workers.
It also will make recommendations on how to allocate state money spent on training in a fair and consistent way.