With the buzzsaw blade of another major hurricane taking aim at south Florida, the Florida Building Commission, meeting in Fort Lauderdale, focused its attention on proposed changes to the state's building code. The group headed off, by amendment, a provision that would have eliminated engineered wind design provisions for about 25% of the state.

The controversial item at the Aug. 31 meeting was a code update to match a prevailing International Building Code standard, but there was one loophole of the measure that called for an amendment to the updated code, which delayed a passage of the update.

"What we identified was in the changing from the Florida Building Code to adopting the International Building Code for Florida, that the threshold for where you were allowed to use conventional construction techniques was going to change," Rheinhold said. "In the Florida building code that threshold was set at geographic areas where the design wind speed was less than 100 mph. In the International Building Code that threshold was set at 110 mph, so that about a quarter of the state of Florida would suddenly be able to build things without hurricane straps, without reinforcing in the masonry, in areas where it hasn't been allowed for 10 years. It would have been, but the commission unanimously voted to move that transition point back to 100 mph. So it's a modification to the international building code that says you can only use conventional construction in areas where the design wind speed is less than 100 mph.

Hurricane Charley, which recently blasted southwest Florida, served as a wake-up call to the commission to take a hard look at the state's building code. Charley destroyed over 10,000 homes and damaged another 16,000, but upon inspection, few of those destroyed were built under the strengthened construction rules put in place in 2000.

"There's been a general strengthening along the coast for a number of years," said Dr. Timothy Rheinhold of Tampa-based Institute for Business & Home Safety, an insurance industry group. "The ones that we saw that really had a lot of damage, where they lost roof sheathing or they had significant structural damage, were all older homes that were not well strapped together or they're sheathing was attached with staples, something that got banned after Hurricane Andrew. We could see that a lot of the buildings that have been built lately have been strapped together better."

Rheinhold said his group has examined in detail 70 to 80 homes and another 50 mobile homes, while other groups are doing the same. "When we put [all the data] together it will be a pretty good survey," Rheinhold said.

The code adopted in 2000 instituted stronger wind protection in relation to stronger roof shingles-that must be nailed rather than stapled, reinforcing of walls, and straps tying roofs to walls. These changes were implemented to protect homes from hurricane force winds. Mobile homes, which suffered greatly at the hands of Charley, are not covered by the code but must adhere to U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development standards that have more bite than they once had.

Also coming to light in the aftermath of Charley is the fact codes are only as strong as builders adhering to them and inspectors enforcing the standards. Rheinhold says improvement should be expected in this area.

"As you get a code that's in place for a period of time and you start working on the enforcement and the builders get used to what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it," Rheinhold said. "And the inspection guys get used to what they're looking for, things begin to move to a better level.

"Florida has gone through several different changes to the building code. Now we're going to the IBC when that finally takes place in the middle of next year, we'll stay stable for an extended period of time and that will give people the continuity to get familiar with what they're doing."

Rheinhold cited the building of soffits to code as a problem. "The soffit area was not meeting any of the product approvals that are in place," he said. "That's something that will have to be addressed in a serious way, getting the soffits on houses built properly."